Thanks :))) Karen, Some color combos for yellow: ...with shades of purples and blues, shades of red/orange white, and greens. Mixing the reds and oranges with yellow is going to be more "hot" while sticking with more blues and purples will give a more "cool" or tranquil effect and white ties everything together. A few years ago I wanted to add a punch of red here and there because I had SO much yellow with purple and blue and now this year with all the volunteer red poppies and maltese cross (and even their volunteers) I'm VERY thankful to have all the white LOL! Don't forget anything with big or dark green foliage works too for different texture against fine foliage like yarrow. That is something I'm always lacking here because everything I have is usually fine textured and in the silver or blue/green catagory...like lavender, hyssopus, golden marguerite, yarrow, ect. Usually these are the most tolerant of drought and heat so I tend to go for these the most ((sigh))

OTG- thank you for your input- I already told the DR that I won't have cortisone shots- but I'm looking into Prolotherapy or sclerotherapy. It is an inflammatory therapy which involves the injection of a known irritant, usually glucose or sodium morrhuate, into a ligament, tendon or joint. This will cause irritation of that joint for the purpose of improving the tensile strength of ligaments. Inflammation is produced in order to stimulate the formation of fibrous connective tissue which will bring about healing of that ligament or deficient structure. Prolotherapy was originally evolved by Dr. George Hackett, M.D., in Kenton, Ohio, back in the 1940s and 50s, although you can trace its origins back to the ancient Greeks. You will find references to it in medical literature under various names including sclerotherapy, prolotherapy, or proliferant therapy. More recently, it has been called non-surgical joint reconstruction, coined by Dr. William Faber, D.O., from the Milwaukee Pain Clinic, Milwaukee, Ohio. These terms are used interchangeably. It has been around for a long time and have tested it, and know the results are reliable. I explained this treatment to my Dr who has never heard of it before!

Southern il boy, I've come to learn after my visit with Boca Joe that my bananas may be Saba bananas. Ive cut them down to about 2 1/2 feet tall and dug them up. I'm going to store the psuedostems in perlite and peatmoss in large pots in my unheated storage room. Thats the best chancce they have for survival. They look alot like musa basjoo but Joe and I are just not sure. I'll be doing the same with my Dwarf Cavendish and all the pups from the larger bananas. Cross your fingers. The few palms and other plants; pineapple,succulents, crouton, cordyline(red sensation), ficus, lemon seedlings, will spend their winter in my SE living room. I also might try some shop lights for supplemental lighting. I'm sure pretty much everything will come through ok. Thanks for the comments guys.

Thanks for sharing your pics. We are both in the same zone but a world of difference in climate. You are extremely fortunate to be able to grow the things you do.