Hi again, If you are interested in some of my seeds, please give me your trade list and your email address so that I can contact you. I am not interested in SASE. I donate most of my extra seeds to my "Seeds for Classrooms" program that I arranged with the local school board and schools (6,000 pkg a couple months ago). Other extra "useful" vegetable and herb seeds get donated to disaster relief organizations. Hope to hear from you about your seeds for zone 3 hardy and interesting perennials and shrubs. Happy Gardening

wonbyherwits, Glad you mentioned Dusty Miller. That would be a great plant. A few weeks ago, I was so lucky to find and so bought some seeds for the lacier variety, 'Silverdust'. No one sells that variety here. That was the kind Mother grew in California. Love it! Haven't got around to sowing them. I have been waiting on the $$ to get the potting soil. I have 8 dozen eggs to sell now. So, I can buy a big bag of soil and finally get all my seeds sown, including the white Zinnias. I think everything will do better in this drought and heat to start them in pots first and then set out when ready. Maybe too, by then, the weather will improve. (well, a girl can dream...) I want some evergreen shrubs and smallish conifers or junipers of some kind in or around the white garden. I have a very tall Holy tree in there just to the side of the white statue. It needs trimming and fed something to help it bush out and thicken the foliage. the Black Japanese Pine provides high-shade over part of the garden. I want foundation of green plants & winter interest. A green backdrop makes a garden so much prettier. It punctuates your flowers and plantings. Those of you who live in forested areas with pines and firs and such, have it for your gardens naturally. So envious. (I wish we could move to NC) The big variegated Maiden Grass at the back really gives it a nice effect. Has that soft yellow with soft green colors. So maybe another shorter grass or two here and there of three different heights. I need to look for images of gardens for ideas on where to place them for that elegant look. Kay, don't you worry sweet cheeks. I don't want to die, so am taking every precaution. The thing about being out in the heat ALL the time, is that you get acclimated to it and it doesn't bother you like it does if you seldom if ever go out, other than to pop into your air conditioned car, and then when summer's heat hits, try to play or work out in it. Those are the people I would guess who are vulnerable. Old folks are too, as they cannot tell when they get too hot for some reason. When my maternal grandmother was a young woman and there was no AC, no sunscreen, no Gatorade ;), and all our other modern things we think we cannot live without, they wore long sleeved blouses and long skirts to protect themselves from the sun. Under that, they had on an under skirt w/ camisole top (called a 'day dress'), (and a corset when they went to town), long stockings, bloomers, 1 or more petticoats, and an apron or pinafore, and worked in all those clothes in the hot sun with uncomfortable, laced-up shoes. (I have my paternal Great-grandmother's Sunday shoes - they are torturous things!!). Jeez! Of course, in summer, they wore lightweight white clothing, and around home, they took off a bunch of those layers, often just wearing their day dresses, bloomers and an apron while working. No AC to cool off with back then, and yet they lived without it just fine. Ice was worth it's weight in gold! Our fore-bearers were TOUGH! I'm telling you! Anyway, Thank you for caring, Hun. ~Annie

bph, Pink Frost is an interspecific hybrid of H. niger and H. lividus. That limits the coloring to either white or pink or some combination thereof :-)) Other ballardiae hybrids will produce very similar coloration - look at Merlin, Maestro, Cinnamon Snow, Mahogany Snow - they will all look very similar with just subtle variations of color. And yes, the very attractive and persistent foliage is one of the major attractions of these hybrids. aluvaboy, Kingston Cardinal is nothing like Pink Frost. It is a so-called oriental hybrid, xhybridus, and comes from completely different parentage than the ballardiaes. It also grows differently, has a different hardiness rating and tolerates different growing conditions. If a range of color in your hellebores is what you are looking for, then the xhybridus varieties are the way to go. They offer the widest color selection, with flowers ranging from green, white, yellow, apricot, all manner of reds, pinks and purples, slate blues to almost a solid black flower. And many with spotting or picotee edges, as well as the doubles like Kingston Cardinal. And just an aside, 'Kingston Cardinal' was "appropriated" by Burpee's when they purchased and subsequently closed Heronswood Nursery in Kingston, WA, just up the road from where I live. Heronswood was owned by world famous plant explorer and nurseryperson, Dan Hinkley, who developed this hellebore selection among others and the credit for bringing this plant to market rightly belongs to him and NOT Burpee's.

I don’t have blooms on my ranunculus either Azusa, just foliage. Looking back on my records, my ranunculus start blooming in late March or early April every year. I live about 12 miles from the famous “Carlsbad Flower Fields”. They grow thousands of ranunculus, and sell the cut flowers and corms, seasonally. The fields are open from March 1 -May 12. Their ranunculus bloom a little earlier in Carlsbad, (slightly warmer nights by the coast) and bloom longer, (cooler Spring days, than at my place, 12 miles inland.) Your ranunculus sound like they’re right on schedule. I’m trying to overwinter my lisianthus this year. I didn’t realize they were actually tender perennials, until this year. The foliage looked very ratty by November, and I recently cut them back to a healthy looking rosette of foliage. Mine get a bit of afternoon shade, and I made sure to amend the little planting holes with perlite and compost. My soil is heavy clay, and I suspect they’d rot without the extra drainage. I really would like to grow some of the really unusual colors available at Johnny’s Seed, but I hear they’re difficult from seed. Stocks are great winter bloomers for us. Isn’t the scent wonderful? I purchased some very pale pink stock seed, from Floret, but I haven’t seen a thing from them. I did save at least half of them, so I’ll try again in the Fall. You picked out some lovely roses! We pale pink lovers don’t lack for choice when it comes to roses, that’s for sure. I’ve never grown Scepter’d Isle, but it’s gorgeous in pictures. My Queen of Sweden wasn’t very happy planted in the hottest, sun-scorched spot I could have possibly given it. It’s no surprise she didn’t perform very well for me. I’ve learned that very few David Austin roses are truly happy in full, blazing sun in MY yard. In my yard the true exception to this has been ‘Evelyn’. Everyone’s got a different microclimate, though. Those growing the exact same rose, in the same zone, can get drastically different results. I need to look up that pink lavender! I didn’t realize there was a pale pink one available. I’ll be looking up your camellias, as well. I’m currently growing one, and it finally has a few buds on it. I can’t remember if it’s a pale pink, or a darker pink. That’s another thing I need to look up. Every year I vow to be more organized in my garden journal. I’m finding it SO helpful to look back on. The problem is remembering to write it down in the first place. There are some gorgeous breadseed poppies out there. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pale pink ones. They do great here if you throw the seed around in mid November. Lisa