There are very many distinctive Lakesides. Don mentioned one of my favorites. Lakeside Breaking News. I think Lakeside Beach Bum, Cricket, Storm Watch and many others are very unique. Don't believe the epsom salt rumors. The key to the dark green is location. Heat does help the color. No direct sun. Plants like Lakeside Black Satin is a slow grower. I suggest you grow divisions in a lot of sun for a couple of years to get some good root growth and crown mass on them. Then move them to a nice shady spot. If you like the dark green try Lakeside Storm Watch, Black Mama or Ebony Echoes. They are better growers and stay dark for me in the right spot here in Michigan. Rob

I live on a lake in the woods in northern Wisconsin. My property is about 20 acres of mostly natural bog with woodson either side of the bog. The bog surrounds the back of the a house about 150 away. that's where my container garden is. The lake is out front, about 300 ft from the house. Between the lake and the bog, I am surrounded by water. Can be somewhat of a bug problem at times. : ) I planted about 30+ tomato plants in 7 gallon containers using a mixture of lake muck, garden soil, and peat moss this year. This is my first gardening experience at this home, since I just moved in two years ago. I planted Early Girls, Early Goliath, Big Beef, Rutgers, and some Super Marzano's. I had a about 5-10 BER problems show up on the 16 Early Girls plants, something I've never seen before. But EVERY tomato on all my of 4 Super Marzano plants got BER. I kept pulling them off and it would grow more tomatoes full of BER and I'd pull those off and it would grow more. I added lime. I added more peat. They produced lots of green BER ridden tomatoes, but not a single good one. Near the end of July I got so desperate to see them produce a single good fruit that I tore (very carefully) two of them out of their pots and re-potted them in Tapla's soiless mix. Two of them were left in there original containers as a control group, but all their tomatoes were also pulled at that time. These plants were 4-5 feet high during this bare root re-potting operation. Yes, they did survive, and eventually started to fruit again. There was no more BER, but I did this so late that none of them (about 15+ tomatoes on each plant) have had time to ripen yet. I pulled them into a shed when the frost hit and hope still to get some ripe fruit. Meanwhile the control group pair continued to show heavy BER, though not as heavily as before, probably due to a shift in weather toward cooler fall days. None of them are ripe either. The conclusion I reached is that the fast draining soiless mix eliminated the problem. It was probably a combination of high humidity, cool damp lake nights, my mucky soil, and improper watering for those conditions that made my BER problems run rampant on my Super Marzano's. Next year I will use Tapla's mix on all my container plants. I am also thinking of using it for a raised bed or two. I have used it to plant tulip bulbs this fall and I would recommend it for your tomato garden. If your not familiar with Al Tapla's mix do a search for it on the Container Gardening Forum. It is quite popular there. wi-northernlight Bob I would try some form of it in your

Liberty is one heck of a hosta, as shown by your photos! It was the one that blew me away last year. You'd think I had photo edited the color! But I think Tiddisolo and I took our Liberty pictures at about the same time---during the time of the intense yellow border. Then later. What a transformation. From a different angle: Now Lancifolia can't compare with Liberty, but last season I found a new appreciation for it. I decided to divide my very old clump into several divisions. I thought: how can we not appreciate a hosta that does not require much upkeep; I've never had much frost damage and forms a perfectly round neat shape! Here is one of the divisions potted up.

mctav, your blue hostas always get my attention! The Lakeside Blue Jeans is beautiful, and the two blues to the left of Lakeside Sparkle Plenty look nice too. This time I gotta ask about a yellow hosta though. If you don't mind, could you tell me what is to the right of Lakeside Storm Watch? I don't have any Lakesides yet, but your guys' Paisley Print looks tempting (as does that Blue Jeans). I had to stop adding any more names to my wish list since it got way too long with this year's alphabet and I probably won't be able to add many hostas on this year. Anxious (and excited) to see if all of last year's additions come back this Spring, and how they look this year. Pip counting can't get here soon enough!