bgaviator, WOW. That is steep. I see you have stairs on the side of this hill to access the back yard. Lirope is wonderful for that hill, I don't know who planted the exsisting lirope, but they also planted grasses up by the house, which is also terrific for errosion. I would wait til spring and then buy some more of that lirope. Just so you know, there are 2 kinds. Running lirope, which is also called Monkey Grass, which doesn't get quite as tall as yours, then there is the clumping kind. The clumping kind doesn't spread like the running kind does. It gets fuller and longer, I think that is what you have, I could be wrong, but look for the clumping kind if you don't want anything spreading into the grass below. You really need something on that hill though.

The blooms may change from one period to another, and can be affected by temperature, light, etc. It is true that the first blooms on a plant may not look like subsequent blooms. It is also not unusual for a blooming plant to have variations of a bloom at the same time. I had "Iceberg" which is described as white with blue edge. One blossom was all white, one was all blue, and varying combinations in between. Are you ready to separate those plants? That would give each plant an opportunity to grow the best that it can. And, until you do, or mark them in some way, there is no way to tell which plant had which blossoms. Barbara

What you could do with the leaves is corral them in temporary cages at least three feet high and wide, open on top and left to rot down for a year or so. They turn into leaf mould that can then be used to improve the soil. It is also useful for adding to potting media but only for acid-loving plants. The oak roots are always going to be a challenge for gardening. If oak stands are native to your area, and ferns already grow there, what might you do to increase the fern population in suitable places? One thing that might work is to leave branches on the ground to rot down and trap water/leaves behind them. Fungi will sprout there and break down the wood, which then forms a useful moisture-holding base for ferns, mosses, and woodland plants. If you have a rocky soil you can use partial rock barriers but they're not as useful as branches and small logs.

Bernd, I can imagine how it looked. What I saw one time in a picture here, was a continuous row of golds meandering through a wide border of greens and variegated greens. It was impressive. I think they were all different, but were shades of gold and in the sun. Now, it is my vision to have a "yellow river" like that running through my garden of potted hosta. Much easier to achieve as long as I get the yellow hosta! Move them into place. And that is why I bought both Yellow Emperor and Yellow River this year. I would put Yellow River at the beginning of the stream of gold, a clue for the visitor what the effect I want is, and let the gold flow until at the end, it reaches Yellow Emperor. With Empress Wu close at hand in all her green glory. The two were meant to be together. My problem in achieving this look is getting a long view of the whole river or stream of gold. Not too many long views in such a compact space. Guess I must branch out into the neighbor's garden. La la la la, tsk tsk, such a shame. I wonder if they'd even notice. :) Plus, I'm checking for any existing hosta named Orinoco Flow, an Enya recording, which I think expresses the concept very well. A golden flowing river, with banks of green.