Here's the response that just came back: "The stocks of Thai Thai are finally coming along well. Having said that, we have not yet decided whether to offer it for 2015 or to wait one extra year for the mid- size bulbs to reach a larger size. We will make this decision next month once we can see how the growth on the bulbs is progressing." So, we won't see it for another 1-2 years. K

I recommend the smothering/lasagne method too. I've done this before on areas of traditional lawn that I wanted to convert to native wildflower patches, and it works well. Then you could either direct-sow native wildflower seeds, or winter-sow the native seeds in containers and transplant them into your wildflower area (see post from Sue/Chemocurl above). Winter-sowing in containers helps prevent the seeds from being eaten or washed away over the fall and winter. I just started winter-sowing native seeds in containers & transplanting this past year and have been amazed how well it's worked so far. Seedlings are all growing nicely. Just keep in mind you may not get much flowering the first year from native perennials grown from seed. Also, if you winter-sow in containers, you will have to dig holes for the transplanted seedlings. Not always easy on the back or the knees... Whether you direct-sow or winter-sow in containers, those "wildflower mixes" from the bigger stores are notorious for containing non-native wildflower and non-native grass seeds. You might want to try purchasing the seeds of the native wildflowers you would like in individual packets. Some native wildflower seeds need a period of cold, moist stratification to germinate, so they are best direct-sown in the fall, or winter-sown in containers. Some will germinate best when sowed in the spring. Most native seed companies will tell you the best time of year to sow each kind of seed. I got my native seeds from Prairie Moon Nursery, and Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve in PA. North Carolina State University has info on growing natives on their website: http://www.ncsu.edu/goingnative/index.html If you're not sure what kind of seeds to get, check out the information sheets (see link below) from N.C. State University that you can download. These sheets list N.C. native plants and wildflowers and what kind of growing conditions they need. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: NC State University: Going Native

No, I don't think I solved anything, but I do think the suggestion of pulling the grass away from the tree is helpful, it was a mat of dead wet grass right up against it and the one side of the trunk base (the north side) had some green algae. I had some copper fungus spray I had just bought and sprayed that on the green and today the green is gone! when I pulled up the grass on the ground I was able to see some of the tree's thick roots so letting it breath a little more will hopefully be good while we head into our rainy season. (it has rained twice today). I I am not going to put any mulch down now since I am trying to see if letting the ground breath and dry more is helpful plus with it being summer I think trying to get rid of the grass by hand would be a losing battle, I'll keep raking the area trying to get a little more dirt away from the base and then in the winter I can put down newspaper and mulch, just hope we don't have a wet winter like last year.

I went to Home Depot in Santa Clarita today and saw RMV on the Iceberg roses they were selling. I asked the manager about it and he said the grower assured him they were treated. I let him know that heat treatment is the only way and the grower is not going to do that for Iceberg roses. He claims that Lowe's uses the same grower, but I don't know if that's true. So, I'll probably see RMV popping up all over my city. Iceberg is the most planted rose in this area.