I love lilies for their stately appearance and scent... but hate the red lily beetle battle. We live along a river and worry about pesticide run off. So there are only two clumps in our yard. However, we do have many varieties of daylily. These are one of my favorite flowers... but my DH is not crazy about them. He thinks the long slender leaves and the same green tones look boring. The compromise was to place them among plants with different leaf textures and colors. And I have to agree with him that this helps to hide the ratty look of day lilies as they mature. (You're so right about that, Kevin.) A favorite new day lily is H. 'Light the Way' which I found at Bloomingfields Farms in Gaylordsville, CT. These are magnificent! The stems are very tall, which means the plant can be tucked behind shorter plants and the whitish blossom will peek out above its neighbors. Here is what LtW looked like the other day in our gardens. The flower color is more like the second shot...green and white tones. One "problem" ..... day lily clumps can get enormous and crowd out other things, even when divided. That happened in our small yard. The 6 tiny Hemerocallis 'Malaysian Monarch' fans that I planted years ago spread like the plague. We gave most of them away to a friend with lots of property. Molie

Apparently someone added some new spam to an OLD thread (which has obviously been removed.) Wow, I mean old. Glad the spam's removed, and how cool to see such an old discussion still kicking around. It's even formatted differently. (Putting a fake email addy so this post doesn't cause me to get MORE spam.) My favorite lilies are Lycoris and the Asiatics, like Stargazer.

Avedon, thanks for explaining about the naming of foxgloves. Your version makes more sense. Also I think we are all guilty of zone-pushing at least once. I have tried to grow roses that are only hardy down to zone 6 and regretted it because just to keep them alive I had to dig them up, tip them over and bury them in the ground like a corpse every winter, then resurrect them in the spring. Too much work and not worth it! Kay, the pretty pink rose in the last picture is an older of David Austins called Pretty Jessica...and she is indeed! mantis....the red rose you like is the same one you liked on my other thread, and one that is one of my most popular with visitors. It is just so RED that it cannot be ignored. It's the hardy Explorer rose 'Champlain' and is an excellent rose in all respects. The dark purple clematis on the arch is 'Perle d'Azur'. Last summer a mother robin made a nest in it and we watched the babies hatch and then fly away. Celeste

According to The Southern Living Garden Book, "Callas need full sun to partial shade, and regular water during growth and bloom. All Callas, except Aethiopica (the old timey white ones) die to the ground each year in fall and reappear in spring. They need slightly acid soil and regular water during growth and bloom, followed by a resting period in which, ideally, water is withheld. They will tolerate moisture if soil is well drained. They should be planted in fall, 2 inches deep and 8 to 12 inches apart. Leave undisturbed until overcrowding causes a decline in vigor and bloom quality. Elsewhere, plant rhizomes in spring and lift them in fall. The book says they are only hardy in the coastal and tropical south." Of course, our recent winters have been so warm, we've been able to get away with leaving them in the ground through winter. Just judging by what you have written, it is possible that your bed is overcrowded. Plants need some space. Your begonias and gerberas shouldn't be much closer than one foot apart. All the plants in your bed like full sun to part shade, but with the heat we've been having, they would probably prefer part shade (morning sun, afternoon shade would be ideal). If I were you, I would wait to see what happens next spring. If they don't return, I recommend that you try the white ones: Zantedeschia Aethiopica. They are more hardy, don't need to be dug in the winter, and are gorgeous and evergreen. Mine are white ones, with white speckled leaves. I planted them last year and they did fine, but the foliage was pretty ratty looking by the end of summer. I moved them into more shade this spring and they are doing much better. They are blooming for a longer period and the foliage is holding well even in this intense heat we've been having. This could be because of the new location, but it may also just be because they've been in the ground for a year now and have gained size and strength. The truth is, gardening is always a guessing game. You learn all you can from books and experienced gardeners, but ultimately, you just have to wait and see.