Tiffy, that pic doesn't really do the cosmos diablo color justice. This pic was taken a few weeks ago with the sun shinning directly behind it. I wasn't intending to get the pic with light at this angle, just some pics, but this is what I got. A lot of times the cosmos diablo will have more of the lighter orange on it when it first blooms, then darken a few days later. This one is from last year just after it started to bloom I love both the cosmos diablo and sunset. The bloom early in the summer, by July 4th at the latest for me, and keep blooming till the frost gets them. My original seeds came from my grandparents farm just before they sold it, almost 40 years ago, and I've been growing them myself every year since. First in pots on an apartment balcony and finally 30 years ago, in my own beds at my home. They only grow 1--2 feet so they fit in the beds in a variety of locations and if you want to really keep them short, you can prune the plants to stay very short and they will still bloom beautifully. I will have tons and tons of seeds of both the diablo and sunset for trades and BEAP offers in a few weeks. Just getting things all together now. NORTHENER, the dahlia diablo, fireworks, and collarette dandy are dwarf dahlias that are easy to start from seed and bloom the first year. Lots of people just sow them as annuals and toss the entire plant out at the end of the season. the seed packets came in mixed colors, so what I have been growing where just the colors that I got from the seeds I originally WS. I've saved the tubers for the past 2 years because I liked the specific colors and combos of colors that bloomed and wanted to be sure that I had them the next year. I wasn't sure that the seeds would come true to the parent plant because they are open pollinated and I have a lot of the dwarf dahlias. As far as I know, the seeds that I collected last year and the year before did come true to the parent plant, at least for the friends that WS seeds that I collected from them, here in my town and a few towns away. The collarette dandy are new seeds that I WS this year and they where from mixed color seeds. I only sowed 2 seeds and wouldn't you know that both of them bloomed in the same colors but with different color combos, so they do look different. I should have seeds from them, including collarette dandy, diablo, fireworks and stargazer. NAN, My chinese forget me nots where WS in March and up within 3 weeks. I planted them in hunks with a lot of hunks together in big holes because they look so much better when they are clumped together. Yes they have bloomed all summer for me, even when I didn't dead head or collect seeds from them until now. They started blooming around the end of June and are still going strong. They are a real work horse in the garden, blooming even under the worst of conditions. They where some of the only things blooming in my beds last summer, when we had real cool temps and rain for 2 solid months in June, July and into part of August. This summer, they have been blooming without skipping a beat, with horrible heat and humidity, most of June, all of July and August and even into the first week of Sept. Add to the fact that we had no rain to speak of for 2 months, more than 7 inches below normal and I can only water every other day. They still chugged along, blooming their hearts out. Just not a plant I would every be without. Fran

My New England Aster is very hardy, and reseeds like crazy. I have literally hundreds of volunteers--and that's after weeding out thousands of others to allow space for the remaining plants. I'm developing a native, butterfly garden. So, I encourage the plants that survive well without much water, but provide nectar and seed for the wildlife. I'll have tons of seed later, if anyone wants it. I don't usually collect it because I already have so many volunteers. But if someone wants it just say so. Martha

I have some late bloomers scattered in amoung the regular daylilies as I either didn't notice that they were lates or they didn't really bloom late. Seems to have taken them some time to get their acts together. Others just had not yet bloomed like Both North Wind Curly Joe and Up Against The Sun had FFO today. So did GUAVA JELLY, my Melanie Mason late bloomer, and Victoriana, from Brian Culver and Finial Destination from Karol just opened FFO the other day. FFO!!!! On July 28th. That is just fantastic. Anyway. Last year I made a small daylily bed section with some of those late bloomers and the Dale Thomas intros I had then. I finished it this year. It is just really coming into bloom now, in fact not everything in it has had FFO yet. Then I also last fall extended the Snapdragon garden by three rows of Hibbard lates and its ok this year but I can see that its going to pay off big time as sooon as these plants get some more time and size under them. Plus I have some more Hibard lates as a partial row in the front yard so that looks good. Plus I also bought MORE Dale Thomas lates and VL this spring and put in a new daylily section by making that one row in front of the late blooming new Rechamps there in the second row. Again, those two rows barely look like anything but give them some time. And last but not least, I have another garden section that is those extra late blooming Olallie Daylilies I added last August. Some scapes showing there but not yet ready to bloom. I really, really worked on this after bloom season last year because it was just over much too soon. I wanted to change that.

Lovely photos all of them, washed out or not. I had forgotten what Sings The Blues looked like, as mine did not bloom this year, I nearly lost it this spring, so it has struggled all summer. I know just what you mean about the blooms not being the same because of the weather. On Tuesday it was nearly 100 degrees here, and on Wednesday it barely reached 70 degrees. And on top of the cooler temps, we got 2 inches of rain over the last 2 days, courtesy of Gustav. My daylily beds are looking pretty sparce these days. But do have a few reblooming. The boys bought me a new camera so I need to get out there and get a few pictures taken to post. Dianna