I've never heard of them either. The site I ordered from says... A slightly shorter paperwhite cultivar, Inball is known for blooms that tend to hold a day or two longer than the norm, and stiff stems don't tend to flop under the weight of full flower trusses. Inball is also considered by many to have the sweetest fragrance, noticeably less musky than traditional paperwhites. (Of course, every nose is different.) While Inball takes an additional 6 to 7 days to bloom initially, this makes it ideal for providing a long season of blossoms. Hardiness: Zones 8-10, anywhere for indoor bloom Bloom Time: 4-5 weeksfrom planting date indoors, Feb-March outdoors I guess they just got too hot. It's been so warm.

Most costus do fine in pots. C. Barbatus is a larger costus that would need a 15 gallon pot. C. Speciosus Variegata is not a real large plant and you could grow it in a 7 gallon pot and get it to bloom. It is not as cold hardy as the green variety. Regular speciosus is hardy in zone 9 and reliably comes back each year for me. Regarding sun, morning and afternoon is fine. Noontime sun might burn it. Steve

"and what to my wondering eyes should appear???" Oh Joy! Olive Baily Langdon is one of my favorites, and if I ever lost her would have to replace her in a minute. It looks like there might be a third OBL eye coming up too. -Babka

If you read further on the description on the Plant Delights page, you will see that this is a fairly new ( 10 years!!) hybrid... This PDN introduction came to us around 1990 from former garden curator James Stevenson. Unlike most biennial sweet williams, our original clump is now over 15 years old. With so many folks asking about it, we finally got busy propagating and officially introduced it in 2001. Dianthus 'Heart Attack' starts flowering in early spring and continues for months with brilliant red-black, carnation-like hummingbird acclaimed flowers atop glossy, dark green, strap-like foliage. Unlike other biennial Dianthus barbatus that we have grown, this one keeps returning and getting better each year. >> Dave's garden also supports my statements And if you read about culture on the Kemper site it says it's a short lived perennial best grown as a biennial, Wiki says short lived perennial which blooms in the 2nd year. apparently, though there is one cultivar that is truly perennial. Linda C I tried to link to a garden site who's owner's name is short for David....but the GW won't allow links to that site...but he also supports my information Here is a link that might be useful: fine gardening