Yes Janet. Many perennials need vernalization to bloom. That means, once they germinate, they need a period of cold weather to set flower buds. It's a process that keeps them from being invasive, among other things. Most of what I posted in the first post should not bloom the first year, I believe. That's one reason I sowed so many annuals this year, expecting to wait a year. My best shastas were started from seed last spring. They flowered this year. All last year they were just green leaves sitting in the beds. I was so disappointed. But as you can see, it was worth the wait - over 4' tall and still growing. You can get a jump on perennials though. Sow them in the early fall instead of winter. Depending on your zone, whether or not you mulch, or otherwise protect them, they will probably bloom next spring. Neil, I'm disappointed with the castor beans too. I really thought they would be 10-12' in my zone by July. I'm thinking my tallest one might reach 8' this year and that's with lots of water and fertilizer, which I hate to do.

Thank you Christine, these are just the beginning blooms of the season so many more to come! Debra, the deer fence has been a GODSEND! My first year growing daylilies went just fine, second year fine but then I lost over 250 cultivars that were in pots for winter. We had an especially bad winter that year, ice storms, etc. It seemed to be FOREVER recovering from that only to have the deer move in the following season! Kay it was VERY FRUSTRATING! I would be anticipating seeing a first time bloom only to find the scapes cleaned of their bud the next morning! Bluebird Butterfly takes my breath away too! Vickie, Thank you for your kind comments, glad everyone shares their garden pics here so we can all see what they really look like! Glad you enjoyed the show Cindy! I'm glad the deer are not a problem, but I still have nightmares they will tear the fence down....LOL! Ellie, THANK YOU. You know the fence is really meant to keep you out....LOL! I told my Sweetie Guy it needed to be AT LEAST 10 feet tall cuz of that big ol shovel you carry with you at all times! Funnies aside, we haven't had near the rainfall we had this time last year! We haven't really had hard rains, have been more like showers throughout a day, every other day or so. Nancy Billingslea took a good 2-3 years settling before she gave me a spectacular show, so patience my dear Ellie. Rita, It is so WONDERFUL to be able to walk the gardens and see some bloom. Has been a two season battle, finally just had to spend the money for fence when nothing else seemed to work fully. Michelle, The deer only got worse, season after season. I tried everything for two seasons running. Something would work, but not for long. Decided the fence was worth the money! I've hit the deer with rocks, only to have them look at me in disbelief....LOL Hit one with a bottle rocket last year and it jumped a couple times, stopped and stood there looking at me saying What did you do that for? LOL Sharon, I had an armadillo problem one year. I took a bunch of old clothes, lined my garden with them, soaked them with ammonia and the dillo's never retured. That was at least five years ago! Thanks for enjoying the show!

CLKW, you can make your own danged matzah balls! Texas is a big place, so I don't know if this is hundreds of miles away from you, but they had Kenny & Ziggy's in Houston on TV. E-mail me if you need a recipe. I think you really need to research more on the manufacturers' websites. Read through the operating manuals and get to know the appliances before you make a decision. The portable unit Dan linked looks like a a good unit. When I landed here induction wasn't very popular in the U.S. so I wanted to try it and got the cheapest one I could get on Amazon (Mr. Induction). It was enough to convince me. Commercial units like Dan's have different kinds of controllers than home units do. This one has thermostatic control, whereas home units have levels numbered from 1-9 (some with half stops). Cooktek (also commercial) has 1-100. Zoneless, as has been said, is also different, though the controllers are similar. I forgot to answer up topic about the self-import. If you do that, talk to your insurance first about it not being UL listed and get a letter for your file (kept at your agent's office) that says it's okay with the company. Talk to your electrician about wiring. And talk to your local servicemen. I wouldn't go with the De Dietrich. People were self importing these all over the place a couple of years ago, but when things went wrong they had orphan appliances. Instead, if you find an AEG, for instance, that you like, talk to the local Electrolux service and see if they'll take care of you. There likely won't be a warranty, but if you need a fix make sure someone can fix it. And know that the timers won't work right because they use the frequency of the electricity to mark time and they're different here and there. My serviceman said to just make a conversion chart. Re steamers, the in counter is more like a using a bamboo steamer in a wok. The combi-steam oven is an oven which also has steam. Very different. The steam is the same, but the mode of cooking is different. You'd have to ask someone more familiar than I with the in counter steamer, but I'm not sure all leftovers will fit. They'd have to be shaped correctly. Plus, people have said that you can just put a plate of dinner for a straggler in the combi-steam to refresh, which you can't in a counter steamer. It's not a bad appliance--just be aware of what the different ones do and don't do. You can't stack three different brands of ovens three high. I think you're getting a little star struck. Okay, for getting a crisp crust on bread in a normal, electric oven, use a pan of water. For steaming vegetables, use a steamer basket in a pan of water on the stove. I suppose you could use the oven, but getting it right would be hard. You can also use a plastic steamer basket in a microwave, in a corningware pot of water, or a bamboo steamer basket in a wok of water. There are other ways too. In a Gagg combi-steam, put in perforated pan in oven. Oh! You might want to look into the KitchenAid Steam Assist oven. That's a full sized oven with some steam. Not as fancy, not as expensive, but a full sized oven with a trick up its sleeve. I don't understand this sentence: Can I get steam oven results by sticking a pan of water in the combi oven and using microwave and oven to cook my leftovers? Have you tried that? I haven't tried any of it because they're just finishing my kitchen now. The combi- doesn't need a pan of water, so I think there's a typo somewhere. I haven't used the pan of water with leftovers. If it's just for myself, I'm more likely to zap it if I want it hot (and often would rather have cold). If it's for more, I'll redecorate it and put it in the oven. If you want more info on reheating and refreshing with the combi-steam, search on Gizmonike. Re prices, I don't think the Gaggenau convection oven is all that much different from the Miele, especially since you're already at the top of the scale. The Gaggenau combi-steam is more double the currently available Miele steam oven because the latter is steam only. For the same price as the latter, you could get the KA. I don't know much about the KA, but it's an oven with some steam, not a steam appliance. You'd have to find out more, but I don't think you can just put stuff like veg or rice in to steam only. But I don't think you can probably stack it with the Miele either. A lot of it depends on what you want to do and how you want to do it. It's very hard to know when you're not all that used to cooking well. It'll be more fun and easier in your new kitchen, but maybe you should start trying these things now. Put a custard cup or ramkin or whatever you have with water in your oven and see what happens. Steam some stuff on the stove. Etc. Fancy tools make life easier, but everything you do is much easier when you know the basics behind them. In school we had to calculate cube roots and natural logs even though we had calculators and there were tables in the back of the math book. Same with kitchen tools, before you use a food processor, learn to use a knife. Before you use a dough hook, learn to knead. Before you use a steamer, learn to steam on the stove. That way you'll learn what things are supposed to look and feel and taste and sound like, and won't be relying on machines to tell you what to eat.

Nice purple seedling Debra. Pistil length looks short, so it should be nice and fertile. My yellow is in a pot here, so scape height was not as good as it was in Texas. There it was around 28". Expect they will be higher here when I get it in the ground. Colors were much brighter up here with the cooler temps, which was nice. Bloom is over 6". Thanks Signet, glad you like it.