If it ain't broke don't fix it. Few people are using spot lights so what we say for lights doesn't necessarily apply to you, and nearness to windows, walls, and even the color of your furniture and carpet make a difference.

It might be the wrong kind of light. Are the leaves turning pink? You might consider changing your bulbs if the bulbs are very old. I do not grow under lights but I have seen one plant do that upward curling. That plant was at the edge of the lights and in sour soil. The plant recovered very quickly under proper lighting. Just a thought from someone who knows absolutely nothing. Maybe some of the people growing under lights will have a better suggestion. This post was edited by lucky123 on Tue, Sep 2, 14 at 12:36

Edna, I remember the last pack of snapdragons was a six pack. I moistened the earth and took them all out. I saw string holding all of them together. I was puzzled by the string as my marigolds and verbena didnt have that. I was hoping I was supposed to remove the string because that is what I did. I then cut the snapdragons into six different sections. I was nervous about that because I was afraid of cutting a root. That was before the first group started to wilt and I had been so impressed with the colors that I had gotten more. Now I see that the first group is wilted. I am not sure that they are even alive. I am waiting to see what happens with this group but now I dont feel as though I did something wrong if you say they are hard to grow. I seem to have had better luck last year. I started in the middle of the summer and that was because I was raising butterflies. Maybe I just lucked out and got hardier plants last year!

Jeera, HD has about the worst plants in town, plus, as kmac mentioned, a lot of them aren't suitable for our climate no matter WHAT you do. However, the only fussy one on the list you gave is Delphiniums. The rest should have made it given a tiny bit of shade during the very hottest part of the afternoon, and a bit of water on every day you are allowed to water. Delphiniums and Columbines are strange to grow here. I finally got it mostly right: they want it drier than you would think, but not arid. They definitely want a gravel or rock mulch around their crowns. They also want more shade than anywhere else in the country. Most Salvias want more water than you would think, but they like the good drainage, too. As for snapdragons, they are surprisingly hardy in this area. Again, perfect drainage, especially in winter, and less water than you might expect, but not arid during the growing season. Mine overwinter reliably, as do snapdragons I've seen over by the university. My recommendation for a local nursery is Dry Creek Gardens. The rest of them carry a higher percentage of plants that won't do well here. If you MUST shop at a box store, I recommend Lowe's once you know what is reasonable here, what *might* make it with some TLC, and what is completely out of the question (e.g. tree ferns). If you have a more alpine climate (e.g. Galena Creek/Montreux), you might want to visit Tahoe Tree Company in Tahoe City and The Villager Nursery in Truckee. Okay, so if you are a plantoholic, you will want to visit anyways :-) It also depends on where in Sparks you live--"old Sparks" is about two climate zones warmer than Spanish Springs. I'm in "old Sparks", so I get away with all sorts of horticultural insanity. Exposure to wind and weather is another issue--if you are up on a hill, subtract a full climate zone from the colder areas in the valley. Lisa