My first blooms of my salpiglossis just appeared this week. Glad to hear that yours are doing so well, Marcia. I have tried and tried osteospermum, Claubill, with no luck. But I think it depends on which osteospermum it is. I tried to w/s 'Tradewinds®' this year but I think the seeds might be sterile. I'm going to try some cuttings this year. Marcia and I had very little luck indoors with osteos two years ago - they were 'Giants Mixed', if I recall, and they just went really long and spindly. I ended up chucking mine. Ang, you definitely need to try w/s'ing Livingstone Daisy. I had lots come up this year (be patient) and they were very nice and compact. Much better than inside. I had quite a few annuals do really well this year and it was only my second year. I seemed to do more perennials in my first year and more annuals this year. I did clarkia, kocchia, godetia, nolana, asters, zinnia, stocks, amaranthus, venidium, mimulus, portulaca - wow, there are so many that did well. I was trying many of them for the first time from seed and also tried them both ways - w/s and indoors. My consensus is that most annuals that self seed will do pretty well by w/s'ing. Saves lots of room in the greenhouse. But, as Sharon taught me, they can't be put out too early. Mid March and they should be fine. Shauna

Is the hydrangea really that shade of mixed pink and purple? (Sometimes colors don't photograph well.) If you want something short to puddle at the feet of the taller plants I could see Nierembergia, which might well winter over for you, though for me it's treated as an annual. A short Campanlua like 'Blue Clips' or 'White Clips' would serve the same function. Both have enough flower power in my experience to be seen from a distance if planted en masse but are well behaved and come in blue and white. If you want other spikier plants, there are some Campanulas like persicifolia that might work, though I don't know if seeding is a problem for them or if they have enough flowers for your use. This also is available in blue and in white. There are some shorter summer-blooming "tall" phlox on the market now that would be a bit shorter than the daylilies and would sort of match the shape of the hydrangea flowers, but later in the summer. Don't know what colors those come in. A shorter daylily in front might work also. Some of the yellow hostas seem fairly sun tolerant and might work here if deer aren't a problem for you, depending on how much shade your part shade is and what time of day. I find the yellow foliage stands out against the greens. My Siberian iris can be pretty stunning in mid to late spring and the foliage is neat the rest of the year, but it looks similar to the day-lilies as far as foliage. Some of the shorter rhodies and azaleas might look good here if you don't mind the short season of bloom and have the room. How tall are your daylilies? That's what has occurred to me so far - don't know if any of those meet your requirements and taste.

Cecily - I didn't realize Cleome was one of those plants that can irritate the skin. I am trying to remember the one plant in the yard that does that to me, but it's escaping me. I pulled some today too, and didn't have an issue. I'm sorry you do. I normally wear gloves to do that job anyway, but thank you for sharing. You can't be the only one that reacts to it. I pulled a couple bare handed today, because it was only an isolated few, but this week, I'll be pulling more and make sure I have some gloves on, just in case.

Wouldn't you know they had bellflowers on sale at my local big box, 3 for ten dollars. They were astra blue, which is OK but not exactly my favorite. Also some other dwarf variety which looked weird, IMHO, huge bells but not hanging down, sort of spread out among some foliage that looked stunted to me, not "dwarf." Kind of like it had a genetic abnormality and not a good one. They also had a hot pink agastache that looked appealing and all kinds of phlox, just labeled "phlox." They already had mildew on them. This is an unusually damp humid year but I imagine this is the kind of phlox my mother got since that's where people go in my small home town, there are no local specialty nurseries. They also had hibiscus. I think hibiscus is just a tad too big for this spot. Plus they were red which is not a color I want to add. I think I am going to wait and get pink tiger lilies for the spot in the back where the tall phlox are growing. I think I am going to bite the bullet and get at least one of the bellflowers, the astra blue. I have a spot in a tiny garden in the back for it. I call it the "cursed spot" because everything so far that I have planted in it has died. The rest of the spot seems to not have this problem . . . oh well, I can risk 3 bucks to try a bellflower there. I don't have a spot for the agastache but I'm tempted to get it an try to keep it alive for a year or so in a pot until I can find a spot . . . sigh. I'm an addict.