Thanks both of you for your replies. Bambi, do you have any pics of your Druid's Chant later on and/or in subsequent years, please? I am having trouble with the concept of keeping this vile thing in the garden for a whole year. If I could see one that has changed from this horrible colour into lavender I would feel better about it! Nikki

Your CONTINENTAL HOLIDAY looks great, much better than mine in fact :-(( GILLIAN is a good one, I had mine in the plateau and just moved it to the trellis garden in the front yard. CREATE YOUR DREAMS is just lovely, in fact its my pick of your blooms today. Not one that I remember seeing before but I can see why it caught your attention at the sales garden. Your garden beds are all looking so nice! I remember the pictures of when you were doing that front yard bed and I remember all those rocks. I thought at the time it was a marvelous idea and I still do! I love the looks of it. Well, I see that grass disapearing in your back yard really quickly. Looks like I am not the only one that has been doing lots of garden work lately. You have been a busy bee on those daylily bed expansions. I just love the looks of your beds and the lake in the backround. What a great place to sit and relax.

I wonder if your house had my plumber -- or at least a cousin. Hope things have calmed down for you, but I understand the feeling of one thing after another and fearing what's next. Had I known ten years ago what I know now, I would have pulled all the sheetrock in my house and run new plumbing. But that still wouldn't have found or fixed the section of main drain line that was under the slab -- neither end of it secured to anything. Just lying there. Leaking. Filling in with dirt. Waiting to back up sewage into our bathtub and shower. Just managed to stop it before it ran onto the floor and into our carpeted closet. Was apparently left that way by the original plumber and took nearly 19 years to create a blockage that couldn't be cleared by more conventional methods and led us to ripping out cabinets and jack hammering the slab to find it. This summer, several years later, I walked into our bedroom and heard water running in the bathroom. But DH was sleeping in the bed. I turned on the light and saw sewage coming from the ceiling. Fortunately, it fell mostly into my tub. My brother was in town, so the next morning, we started ripping out sheetrock and discovered that the plumber had run the water heater overflow into the main drain line by installing a T junction just past the toilet -- where any paper or solids could catch and create clogs -- then backing up into the water heater pan. The toilet had clogged and my DB and SIL had plunged it. The pressure caused the muck to come out through the junctions in the pipe and through my ceiling. We also found a leak at the upstairs tub drain while we had the ceiling open. When we did our kitchen, we knew we had a leak in the wall behind my pantry and had turned off the water at the sink above until we ripped things out to fix it. While we had that wall and the ceiling open, we found 3 or 4 more "minor" leaks waiting to create major problems. I am not considering the expense of installing tankless water heaters so I don't have a tank to flood. Won't eliminate all the issues, but I still like the idea. My water heaters are 10 years old, so the time is coming to replace anyway. Might as well invest in staying here. The sales disclosures will require us to list all these things and I'm afraid no one would ever buy the house.

Troubled Sleep puts down ridiculously strong roots...I recommend it to anyone needing something really strong growing and tall. So does Key Lime Special, but it's a shorter plant (instant rebloom for me too btw)...similar super duper strong roots (almost tap-root-y). Blue-Capped Cordon-Bleu just keeps blooming and blooming and always looks so pretty. Banned in Boston came back from pitiful performances of years past in a new better spot and has sent up tons of pups. Alicia Rose Kissed can take a whollop from a fence panel and stay alive. ~Anika