Yes, it's perfectly fine to plant swamp milkweed in pots. I put the plants in 3-gallon pots because I plan to keep them year after year (crossing my fingers that they make it above ground during our winters). The seeds need a period of cold, so you can either put them in the frig for awhile before planting in the spring or do what I did and plant them in pots in the fall and they will sprout in the spring. I'm not sure how cold it gets where you're at though. Maybe you'd have to put yours in the frig first if your winters don't get very cold. I know that ours get plenty cold. I kind of wish swamp milkweed would have another name because for one thing, I think maybe people probably do assume that they need to be in a swampy area to do okay, but that's not true. They do fine in pots or in the garden. We had a drought this year and mine didn't die. Of course, I did water them occasionally just to make sure they pulled through. I'm talking about the 100 plants that I planted in a bed of their own. I just started them this year, so you'd think if they'd have died any year from the dryness, it would have been this year because of both their young age and the drought. Another reason why I wish swamp milkweeds would have a different name is because maybe people who aren't familiar with them hear the name and get a mental picture of some horrible-looking plant. I would recommend not planting them in just one-gallon pots if you're going to let them grow and not cut them back at all. I had bought some in one-gallon pots at the nursery in the late summer of 2005 when I was just starting my butterfly garden and those plants were so tall compared to the pot and not much weight in the pots with just that small amount of soil that the plants/pots kept falling over before I got them planted in the garden. Cathy

Ianna- Thank you, but only two roses actually died...the others just died back a few inches above the ground. They'll be fine, but since some only bloom on old wood, I thought they'd be happier at my mom's house. The good news is that my little Hybrid Musks seem very hardy, as are the other two gallicas (Belle de Crecy) and the John Cabot roses are wonderful! I got four at Lowe's last year (own root/zone 3) and they look wonderful after our long winter. The Celsiana was also surprising. While the Ispahans did not do well, the Celsiana seems more like a rugosa than a damask. It hardly suffered any cane damage and it's leafing out all over the place! Sorry to see that your lavender had a tough time. I don't know if Hidcote is something you want to try (or have already) but they usually sell it at Lowe's around mid-July, in our area. They carry many lavenders, but that's the one that seems to do best in my cold micro-climate. Living in a small valley, with a creek, seems to make for much colder winters and shorter frost-free growing seasons...but very pretty! :)

a-HA! I looked up his nursery and it's in Raleigh NC. Which is inland enough to experience a freeze in winter, but a fairly short winter, compared to us. I bet most of us are already siting our borderline zone plants to take advantage of shrubs for winter protection. For example, I'm growing some antique climbing roses which are supposed to be OK to zone 6. I've planted them on the south side of tall cedar posts (to eventually grow up those posts) and also along the north side of a fenced garden, to benefit from the high hedge-y tangle on the other side of that north fence. For herbaceous perennials (such as hostas, ferns and daylilies) I'm letting them survive facing north, with a high concrete wall to their south; and they seem to do OK there. But those perennials are not borderline for this zone. --change of subject: it's pouring down rain right now and maybe that'll cool off things outside. Pleasant here, with the AC on. Carol

This is very interesting indeed! Of course it is possible that a rogue seed found its way into the pot. Darcyi has hybridised with microphylla and the pleasant result has been Silke's Dream. I took seed from Silke's Dream 2 years ago and got 2 interesting plants. One was like a vivid orange greggii...with small lime-green leaves, yet to be named, as really nothing that special, the other had huge pale pink flowers, and is a vigorous upright plant, it has been named 'Penny's Smile'. This could be a great introduction, but can only be truly propagated from cuttings. There is a photo of this on my site www.robinssalvias.com 3 years ago, I sowed some seeds of S.patens 'Guanajuato'...good germination, but one seedling was particularly vigorous and obviously not a patens. I grew this and it turned out to be a stunning form of S. guaranitica. This flowered all summer long, and grew to 6 ft in a short time. The foliage is different from other guaraniticas, but the large flowers seem to be the same. This has proved to be fairly hardy, and has not set any seeds. Sure, I may have had a guaranitica seed stuck to my finger which fell into the patens pot....but somehow don't think so, as I did not collect any guaranitica seed that year! But, it is a fabulous Salvia. I very much doubt if patens and guaranitica would hybridise....they are from different countries.....but I have heard that the Italian Salvia viscosa has hybridised with a South African species! Also, some marvellous hybrids from South African species have occurred in New Zealand and Australia. There seems to be no end to hybrid possibilities, even though botanists are rightly searching for true species. Recent trips to Mexico have found numerous hybrids of littae/purpurea/iodantha, not to mention many different forms of polystachya, carnea, and myriantha. Only professional botanists can positively identify these plants. Other great hybrids are Salvia 'Waverly' and more so, Salvia 'Phyllis' Fancy'...the latter being superior. Waverly has pink flushes, and Phyllis has blue/lavender flushes. Both are supposed to be children of leucantha and chiapensis. I can see the resemblance to leucantha, but the chiapensis parent confuses me. Is it possible that the two alleged parents could produce hybrids with completely different coloured flowers? I could go on for hours on this theme, but don't want to bore you all, probably already have! Robin.