Last year we had an arctic blast here that brought sub-zero temperatures along with high winds. Shame on me, I forgot to cover my Arp rosemary. Never the less it survived with only a moderate amount of damge that I was able to prune out in the spring. It has recovered nicely. In an endeavor to find an even hardier rosemary I went by the cold hardiness reference in the Well Sweep catalog. It lists quite a few cultivars that they have found through their own experience to be hardier than Arp. I tried two of those, 'Blue Spire' and 'Logees Blue'. The 'Logees Blue' is just wonderful, with its lemon-thyme undertone to the rosemary fragrance but, alas, it bit the bullet when we had a zero degree night last week. So much for that one. The 'Blue Spire' survived that frigid night with only a modest amount of tip damage, so I assume that it will make the winter here, I hope. Sadly, it is not nearly as appetizing as the 'Logees Blue' or the 'Arp'. All three plants are in the same area of the garden, and fully exposed. Next year I intend to try the varieties 'Salem' and 'Hill Hardy'. I had been told by one source that 'Hill Hardy' and 'Madeline Hill' are one and the same but, I see in the Well Sweep catalog that they have different flower colors. I would assume that if they are seperate cultivars that they would both be worth growing, having been selected by Madeline, herself. I had been told this some time ago. Now I am confused over their identities, and I do not want to order two plants that go by different names that are essentially the same. At some point I would like to try 'Madeline Hill' if it is a cultivar seperate from 'Hill Hardy'. Does anyone here have any input on that? By the bye; The USDA lists my zone as 6. I list my zone as 7a at the GWF because I have found that some zone 7 plants make the winters for me here, regardless of the stray mid-winter zaps. Blessings to all.

>>> I usually use fake flowers (really el cheapos from walmart) in the fall. Ooooh I'll have to check out Walmart for fall flowers. I purchased the 12 geranium plants for $3.00/ea (with 25% coupon) and got the yellow potted plant for $7.50 after the 50% Michael's coupon. If I could keep live plants ALIVE and colorful then it would be worth it...but if I buy live plants then I'd likely have to replace them at least twice per season, every year. And that would be for summer and fall. That adds up, ya know?

So I went out this morning to do some more investigating as requested. First I discovered that they definitely are the same plant. The pictures I took before just weren't that great. Here are two leaves, one from the plant in the garden and one from the plant outside the garden: Macranthos, here is the one of the tops of the old stems NHBabs, the leaves feel slightly rough and a little hairy. I'm in Central Mass by the way. Also, I looked up Goldenrod and found this picture of Solidago Rugosa: and the dried flower tops, the way they are kind of splayed out looks just like the picture I found on OntarioWildflower.com under Elm-branched Rough-stemmed goldenrod (Solidago rugosa Miller) I'm thinking you nailed it, Thank you so much you guys! I had no idea one plant could have so many different variations, and also growth habits, it's really amazing that you recognized it from my not so great pictures!

For future reference, putting soil on top of a smother defeats the purpose. Also, the newspaper or cardboard needs to remain undisturbed until anything under it is dead. Otherwise, the unwanted plants will come up through the holes you made to add new plants. Many seeds are blown around in the air, and critters move them around in various ways. There will always be unwanted sprouts in any garden situation.