I'd expect a mix up like that to be fairly rare, but you should know that it can happen even if you order your seeds on line or from a catalog. Many (most?) of us far prefer to order by mail order from a seed company because the variety is so tremendous and the seeds fresher. Whatever you decide to do next year, you can spare yourself several months of research by looking at and comparing pictures of seeds on line. For example, there's a huge difference between pumpkin and squash seeds. You'll see that when you buy the seeds next year.

I read to snip the spent blooms on the plant, so there was a very large white one, that I thought was "spent." After I cut it and inspected it closely, it had a lot of fragrance to it, and I noticed some of the flowers had a very light pink around the edge. I know I didn't hurt the plant, but did I by chance cut a new bloom that hadn't turned color yet? lol Do they bloom in white and then turn colors? Mine are pink. For now. :)

First of all, thank you all. Now more info...They are under the maple tree, because I have axactly two areas of full shade, one is under a crabapple and the other under a red maple (that, to spite the fact that it has surface roots and is a pain to plant near, I love) I do not think that moisture is an issue, I am well irrigated and the ligularias and astilbes are quite happy (both are well known floppers when deprived of water in the least)... The soil is interesting, we live on a river and I have areas of clay, clay loam and damn near 100% sand, the area that the hostas are in is quite loamy, and I have been adding compost as long as I have gardened that spot. The roots, I know are an issue, I did not have a good time getting the plants in there, but it is super irrigated to compensate...maybe too well irrigated, I will have to check it out. I am pretty sure they are planted properly, I am a HOSTA newbie (because of lack of shade) but not a garden newbie, I have too many perennials and roses to count right now, as well as a well developed prairie along the river. I am well informed on how to install plants. I looked up the variety of hosta in my files, and it is "White Christmas" ...Unfortunate as it seems... I did pull on one of the brown leaves, and it did fall right into my hand. I have been looking up Hosta crown rot on the web, and it has moved into our neck of the woods, it is not common, but it is here. Not surprising with all the travel that plants do now days. The U of M web site has clues as to how to diagnose it, I will dig one up and see what I can find out. Apparently if it is crown rot, I have things to take care of so as not to create more problems for myself. Bottom line, I obviously choose the WRONG kind of hosta. But the tag did not say that it was difficult to grow, it said shade to part shade, well drained moist soil...blah blah blah, as they all do, even on catalogue web sites, you don't get detailed plant info...and it was pretty...and it was on sale, any gardener with a bad plant habit and a somewhat limited budget can understand the draw in that. So there we are, I think I will take the advice of the majority and dig em up and put in easier hostas...anyone with advice on which ones those are? Thank you all again...Helen.

Yes, peppers continue to produce for a couple months in Zone 5. You can usually start getting some green jalapenos or other unripe c. annuum in July, and can harvest peppers right up to first frost. Some varieties have heavy intermittent crops, some are more continuous. I would never deliberately stagger my pepper plantings since our season is so short. I plant all my transplants as soon as nighttime temps are reasonable. However, I always grow a few extra seedlings in case of hail, freak storms, or critters that like tender pepper seedlings, so sometimes I end up staggering my plantings anyway. But that is only for putting in replacement plants over a couple week window in late May and early June. It's pretty much not worth transplanting peppers in Zone 5 after June 15.