I so wish that I coud go get me some of that!!! But I'm in NC so that can't happen. You're a lucky girl!!!

Are they getting more shade from trees nearby growing taller? Do you, or your neighbor, fertilize your lawns(s)? Most lawn fertilizer is high in Nitrogen, and will push leaves instead of flowers. Aside from those two probable causes, I can't think of another right now. You can TRY to fertilize with a fertilizer for flowering plants, with a low N (first) number, but if they are getting too much shade, there's not a whole lot that will do to help. While CMs do OK with little or no water, especially older ones, they do better with water, so maybe getting supplemental water to them might help. Of course, if you are under water restrictions, that's no use....

The purple giant turned bright white on the tips, magenta on the middle, and deep purple in the center. It looks fantastic and is doing wonderfully. Two of them have perked up. Ive noticed a difference in the structure of the... um.. bush? and foliage. The ones that look wilted tend to be less full and bushy. Much more lengthy, Also I felt the leaves, and they are perfectly healthy, firm. Not wilted at all. But their leaves look as though they are in a state of constant wilt. Because of out heat I try and keep them in shade. Dahlias do much better here when shaded for most of the day. They definitely aren't full sun plants down here. I try to plant them where there is full morning light and dappled shaded light during the afternoon. Some of them get hit by the after noon sun for an hour or so unfortunately. During the day it averages around 87. I say this because one day its 80 and the next its 90. We rarely reach 3 digits. and normally dont go above 95. I live nearish to the coast so it helps keep things cooler. At night I would have to say we reach from 60 - 70.

Well, Ken said we can't talk about GE, and I have to say that I've had a couple that just won't grow. On the other hand, I have three that are great growers, probably 3 to 4 feet across and just gorgeous! LOL. By the way, I love Liberty and don't have any problem growing it. I think it's one of my top ten favorites! Anyway, I'll mention three plants that have been a nightmare. The first is petasites. Though despised by some gardeners, in my opinion this is an awesome plant when it's given plenty of room and planted in the right location. It looks best in filtered shade with afternoon shade and plenty of moisture. (Otherwise, it will wilt every afternoon when the sun hits it.) Throw some slug pellets under it a couple times throughout the summer. The leaves will get humungous- I've grown some close to 4 feet in diameter. But BEWARE!!! It send out shoots which travel in every direction and grows fast, even in clay and poor soil! You'll have these things popping up all over before you can say "boo" unless you install a fool-proof root barrier to contain it. The second plant that will run you out of house and home is phragmites australis. You won't normally find this in a garden center and there's a reason why!!! This tall grass is commonly seen growing in ditches along the freeway. There is a native specie which is supposedly okay, but I have an introduced specie which has naturalized throughout the midwest that is...well, I'll say INVASIVE!!! I thought that a clump of this would look interesting in my flower garden, so I dug a hole 4 feet wide and 3 feet deep. I lined the sides of the hole with a root barrier (3 feet deep) but neglected to put a barrier on the bottom of the hole. Then I put a clump of this in the center. Later in the summer, I began seeing sprigs of this stuff popping up 6 feet away from the original clump! Hummm...what's going on here? To make a long story short, with a shovel I hand dug 8 yards of dirt out of the center of my flower bed in the process of tracing all the roots that were growing outward in every direction at a depth of 3 to 4 feet!!! I've NEVER, NEVER, NEVER seen a plant grow like that- a nightmare! (While I was trying to dig this thing up, I swore that it was growing faster than I could dig!)Wow, like playing with fire! The last plant, which I'm still fighting a losing battle with, is crown vetch. The Transportation Dept. uses this ground cover on steep banks along the freeway to hold the dirt in place. It loves poor soil and drought conditions! (The only thing that it doesn't like is full shade.) I have it growing all over because the previous homeowner spread a bag of seed to combat soil erosion on the hillsides along my driveway. The stuff is aggressive, hard to kill, and self-seeds in the fall. It makes a continuous mat 3 to 4 feet tall that's just about impossible to walk through it, and strangles out everything in its path including small trees. I don't recommend planting it! Don