Starbucks UCG are mostly expresso pucks. They've been ground exceedingly fine and pressure brewed, to boot. They won't be comparable to coarsely ground, drip brewed home coffee. I certainly hope there's no life in the grounds. :O Our Starbucks also puts out their regular grounds,in regular double garbage bags, with filters included--but now that I think about it, they never apply the nifty garden label on it, the one that states the pH. They just do it by popular demand for us composters. I've never spread a lot of regular grounds straight to my lawn, but I've scattered a few. I've not had any noticable problems, no mold. I've also put a few directly on my rhododendrons, again no obvious problems. I haven't had my soil tested lately from these areas, but I also put on so much of my own compost, any testing now wouldn't show the effect of a steady diet of lots of straight regular grounds with no other amendments. I don't think I'd recommend spreading a half inch of regular grounds, uncomposted, straight on the lawn. Not even a quarter inch. Does anybody do that? More importantly, does anybody buy little bags of compost from GardensAlive? I don't think newpaper ink is toxic, but it's bleached and dioxins are bad. BAN NEWSPAPERS! Yeah..... Seriously, once I have a newsprint, that comes as junk mail I didn't ask for, it either goes to a landfill or my compost pile. I agree leaves, straw, and sawdust beat newsprint as a brown for my compost. But nobody puts sawdust in my mailbox every day for me to deal with.

Shive - I usually try to avoid dormant since I don't know if it will do good here or not. I somehow missed that AUTUMN WOOD was dormant so I guess I'll take that off my list. I don't hybridize, so I would be getting these simply for their beauty. I think all of the ones I picked are supposed to be rebloomers. I wonder if SYMPHONY OF PRAISE was splotchy because it was it's first year? Hopefully someone else has it and will comment. Jessica - I remembered liking SMOKY MOUNTAIN AUTUMN before and couldn't figure out why it wasn't on my list, but then I looked it up and realized it's a dormant. Wow, it sounds like ARCTIC LACE is a definite must have. Laurie

Foliage has always been important to me. Blossoms are nice and are a large part of the garden, but foliage is what carries it through the seasons and makes a landscape garden, instead of just a cutting garden for blossoms. When I see people's gardens on the internet usually I see a collection of close-up flower pictures. That's not a garden, it's a nursery catalog. It has no sense of 'place'. The setting is just as important as the foliage or flower in my mind. Where is it located in the garden? Also, I've noticed there seems to be just pictures of perennial foliage. That limits this Forum quite abit. What about conifers and trees I know there is a separate forum for those, but I think they should be included here too. In fact, anything without blossoms being the main part of the picture qualifies as far as I'm concerned. ""

We live in McIndoe Falls, Vt. 2 years ago I visited Olallie Daylily Nursery right after Labor Day, with camera! I figured the best way to select late bloomers was to see the late bloomers in the display gardens! They couldn't have been nicer and I came home w/ the back seat full:) I alternated late bloomers with summer bloomers along our drive and up the walk to the kitchen door. Goal was to have full season bloom. I had 11 daylilies blossuming still on Oct 27th. Now, the bad news! I can't locate my "map" so can't list them by name. The map will show up.. The late bloomers are late bloomers and if you have an opportunity to visit the nursery around Labor Day, I suggest you do so!