"Hail in Vista? wow!" Just a comment on the above remark - Hail can happen anywhere and is NOT stricly cold winter precipitation like snow. I'm originally from the east, now in CA, and notice many people here think of hail almost in same terms as snow. This is a misconception. In fact, it's very common to hail in the midwest and east coast during intense summer thunderstorms when it's 80 or 90 degrees outside! Hail is formed in very high altitude storm clouds where the temperature is below 32. The moisture in the clouds swirls around turning to ice then eventually falls to earth in the form of small ice balls (hail). So hail can technically fall anytime of the year in places that don't ever get snow such as Vista.

I have a gardening frind here in Calgary who has about 20 varieties of early tulips and daffodils coming up along the south facing border next to her house foundation. We literally stuffed her garden last fall with a couple thousand bulbs. So far some tulips are 4" up and the daffodils a bit shorter. Most, however, are just dots of green poking through the mulch. We're expecting very mild conditions the next few days (19c on Saturday) and I'll have to patrol our garden for a speck of bulb growth.

Woo Hoo! and I hope you had a nice Mother's Day, too! Lisa is absolutely right about winter sowing but we won't get into that right now. What did you start your seeds in? Peat pots, peat pellets?? If you started them in the peat pellets that you soak and they swell up into cute little balls of soil, that would be great for your morning glories since they don't really like to be transplanted. If you started them in soil that you placed in tiny pots, just be careful when you transplant them, not to disturb the roots much. Also morning glories are best grown in lean soil, so unamended, non fertilized soil is best. It's a lil late for snapdragons as they like it cool. Once the weather warms up, they don't like it too much and will get kinda raggedy. But persist, water them well, and they are likely to give you pretty blooms in fall. Salvias love the heat. I don't know which ones you planted and there are tons of them. There are some that are perennial, and some that are annual. A lot of the annuals will reseed for you next year. Many bloom in the fall, and many bloom in summer until fall. But they usually grow quite well from seed. I have lots of seedlings I grew this year that are close to going in the ground. As Dawn mentioned there are seeds you can sow directly in the ground now, too, like Cosmos, Zinnias, Mexican Sunflowers, Purple or White Hyacinth Bean (vine), Cardinal Climber (vine), and Cypress Vine (red, white, or pink), marigolds, and many other annuals. And most of all, have fun! Susan

Sultry, I thought the Oxypetalum would be hard from seed, and I've thought that for years, but they are easy. I used mycorrhizal fungi in the potting soil and everything grew like crazy. I'm freaking out because there's about another month before we can put out tender plants and these Oxypetalum under the lights already have flower buds and are ready to bloom. I here the Monarchs don't lay eggs on them but I just wanted a beautiful turquiose milkweed vine in a pot. I have lots of goodies for the Monarchs too. Oxypetalum coerulea with flower buds.m Calotropis procera Bottom left, Tithonia, bottom right Dregea sinensis. Foreground Gomphocarpus, background Asclepias curassavica. Sultry, lucky you. I've heard of heart shaped leaves, but this Hoya kerri takes the cake! Nice find!