Aster yellows is very widespread, affects a huge number of plants (really- if you look at the list you kind of want to give up gardening), and there is really no such thing as cultivars that are more or less resistant. It is spread by leafhoppers, which there was a huge population of this year. I would guess 80% of all coneflowers I've come into contact with this year were infected. Not a good situation. As far as new varieties, they NEED very well drained soils to perform well and overwinter. (This is inherited from the E. paradoxa parent- it likes rocky alpine conditions) Also keep in mind that E. purpurea (one of the parents of most of these hybrids) is not a very long lived plant and that has been passed on to these varieties. 3-5 years is a common lifespan for E. purpurea and it's hybrids. Hybridizing work continues, and improvements in lifespan are being made through use of other species. I highly recommend E. 'Firebird' as it has E. pallida (a long lived species) in its bloodline. This one has performed very well for me, even in slightly heavier soils. E. 'Phoenix' and E. 'Flamethrower' have performed well also. I'm looking forward to E. 'Sunbird' as it also has E. pallida in the bloodline. The sombrero series is performing well in botanic gardens, I haven't grown them personally but having seen them I can recommend them. Pow Wow are ok, they perform well & I see some color improvement in the strain over what I was seeing in trial gardens, but I'll take Pixie Meadowbrite over it any day. The Plant Geek www.confessionsofaplantgeek.com www.botanophilia.com

Luis, Thanks for your thoughtful reply. Altho I don't know the name of the camellia, it is a very common type, that's been around a long time. A pale pink rosette, remeniscent of a mandala in petal placement, symmetrical, and fairly flat. It has no cluster of stamens or pistil showing, even when fully open. The tree grows fairly quickly, because it has grown from below the eaves to a foot at least, maybe two feet above the eves in the almost 2 years I've been here, and I haven't fed it, and it gets very little water except that which get gets from rain. I don't want them to get any bigger, they have already outgrown their spots! I see your point tho, so if it grew 18 in two years, then if I prune it 9 inches to a foot below the eaves, that should keep it below the eaves for one year! Thanks, Luis! Or, If I were to be more conservative, prune to 4.5 or 6 inches below the eaves, and then, possibly again in 6 months. Since I wrote the first post, earlier today, I found a link to the American Camellia Society, which encourages severe pruning, even of an old bush, saying it will in fact stimulate the bush. It also says that pruning before bloom and cutting away the flower buds, allows the bush to put more energy into other things than flowering, resulting in a healthier plant, more vigorous growth, and a better bloom cycle the following year. They define severe pruning as removing one third to one half of the existing plant, but say that pruning can be even more drastic than that, and suggest doing drastic pruning in February and sparing the plant the stress of blooming, if I understood it correctly. This article reassures me that it would be fine to prune my camellia bushes at this time. Would you mind taking a look at the article and tell me if you agree? It seems to say that I could safely prune away half of the bush, especially if before the bloom-time. Maybe if I prune it now, it would bloom in winter next year. I'd like that, because that's when the roses are dormant. http://www.camellias-acs.org/display.aspx?catid=3,9,109&pageid=7 Yes, I'll be glad to post photos. and...don't worry about my trees, Luis. I make happy plants around me. Just be specific. -Gala

token, are you sure about that echinacea? There is a very new introduction on the market, Echincaea purpurea 'Green Envy', but the only perennial I am familiar with the cultivar name 'Green Wizard' is a selection of Rudbeckia occidentalis. (sometimes echinacea and rudbeckia are used interchangeably - but incorrectly - by a few growers or seed suppliers) I used to grow this plant but it just didn't cut it for me :-) It is virtually all cone with a few tiny green sepals surrounding. While it did OK, it didn't stand out well and it looked just like an ordinary coneflower past its bloom, but from the day it opened! There are so many shades of green.....my favorites are the chartreusey-lime flowers/bracts of many of the euphorbias. And they last so long.

For best blooming, Michelia alba needs full sun, but here in California we have low humidity and the leaves will show burns all over until they are mature and can shade themselves. You can see the length of the internodes (stem between leaves) is much shorter in the second photo, an indication of strong light. Eastern exposure is a good call. M. alba is also a heavy feeder. One fertilization recipe I learned from a professional grower is 4 tablespoon of fish emulsion and one tablespoon of 20-20-20 mixed in 5 gallons of water. Use that almost everytime you water during the warm months. Once a month stop feeding and do a flush with lots of water to get rid of accumulated salts. M. alba can go into a vegetative growth pattern especially when it is young. One way to stop this is to strip off some leaves at strategic times. Early in season (Feb/Mar) you can strip off most of the leaves except a few at branch tips(In some years, light frost will do that for you automatically). In August, you can remove half of the leaves after the first flush of flowers. In early winter before the tree goes dormant, maybe 1/3 of the leaves can be removed. This regime above is practised by Chinese farmers who raise M. alba for tea scenting. It is geared toward maximum flower production but it is labor intensive. Home gardeners usually do not need to bother. As the tree mature, it will bloom steadily and there will be more than enough flowers.