Hi Everyonewow , am I behind or what ? I was going to cook enchiladas tonight, but its too hot out to consider turning on the oven so its shrimp cocktail (I love, love, love shrimp) and fresh farmers market veggies for me tonight. So, since Im not cooking an opportunity to try to catch up here-such a lot going on with the Idylls ! Ive loved reading of everyones plants purchases this weekend- Ive bought a ridiculous amount of plants in the last month. Glad to see Im not alone Sue, interesting that you cant find a Salvia leucantha; that plant is ubiquitous here . Arent salvias great ? I only have about 6 or 7 different varieties, some of my favorites get so huge, I just dont have room. This week I bought 4 Salvia sinolensis , which is a small (1 ft ) very tender salvia with bronze foliage and bright blue flowers. Im also trying to decide what to do about my S. Argentinean Skies , which is proving to be somewhat invasive. I guess I could dig it up and put it in a pot, which is what I had to do with the damn Cape Fuchsia.. Cant wait to see the pics of your Caribbean shed Deanne, no partying till the wee hours for me either ! That happened when I became a serious gardener- I like to get up early. My climbing Hydrangea has fallen on hard times..not quite the same issue as D had ; mine is water related, because of where it lives its very dependent on my hose-dragging , and I forget about it. This week it got up to 100 degrees plus , and the poor thing got scorched. Its hardly grown 6 inches since I got it last year. Chelone, you are one industrious lady- what a lot you have going on at the compound .I enjoyed your garage pics ! It was interesting to see the foundation and how different it looks from one here- our building codes are very earthquake oriented and there is lots of rebar involved in foundation work. Re: lawn mowing ..I have a miniscule bit of lawn left-I retired the trusty Snapper power mower and bought a Great States reel mower. I love the sound it makes ! It takes me less time to mow than it did to gas up and empty the bag on my Snapper. There is a movement away from lawns out here since we get no rain in summer and they guzzle lots of water. Cynthia, good job-you prevailed over the window box brackets ! I hear you on the 50 is closer to retirement thing ! Im thinking 60 , and then a totally mindless retirement job to pay for the health care premiums. Hope all your canine kids are doing well Nice of you to stop by Phyl.. Saucy, Brenda, Michelle, bug, eden, Wendy, Mary,Martie etc ..hi to all..and T, V, Honey, Babs??? Time to whip up that shrimp cocktail Kathy in Napa

They like average moisture with good drainage, mine just had way too much with that drain keeping the soil too wet but I'd planted it there because it was a moist spot and I'd read they like that. They also do well in partial sun. I sowed mine --warm temps in cups with plastic bags on top to keep moist-- in winter in a sunny window but you can sow in spring, they come up in about 10 days or so. Now that you brought it up, I decided sow some more to plant in some spots that get sun for only a few hours and see how they do. mxk3, first year with no blooms is fairly typical for perennials. By the end of the first year you should have a nice sized plants with good root systems though. I imagine keeping them a bit on the dry side in winter further north would be good so make sure it has good drainage. We had thick ice one year and I lost one to rot on the north side of the house.

The red salvia looks like the "Scarlet Sage" I've got. It's perennial but the little flowers fall off after a day or so. A few Hummingbirds didn't seem to find any nectar in flowers after trying many blooms on 3-5 plants on deck and in butterfly garden. Guess I'll check Hummingbird Forum to see what salvia they've had success with for nectaring. I love portulaca...blooms are beautiful. Parents had them in house where I grew up but they were invasive and they couldn't stop them from spreading no matter how much they pulled them from no-go zones. The Queen Victoria Salvia has turned out to be a great blue annual. Haven't seen anything but honey bees and Cabbage Whites nectaring from them but they're real blooming machines. It's funny because Ageratum h. was listed as a "butterfly attracting" plant also and even the bees aren't interested but, again, the plants are real blooming machines. All these lists of what critter supposedly doesn't eat this or that and all of them DO and what flowers supposedly attract butterflies and/or hummingbirds and DON'T are driving me to drink...more and more coffee...LOL.

The white phlox with the pink eye is Sterling Silver. I don't know the name of the dark pink one. I probably got it unmarked from work. The girls in the back usually save me unmarked plants when they are going through and cutting back stuff. The jar came from a wholesale place in Vass called Imports Exclusives. We get our ceramic pots there. They have a line of mexican pottery. Last year the owner let me tag along with her when she was picking out pottery and let me get stuff wholesale yippee. I picked out two of those jars plus a much larger one, a cute frog pot and two huge palm pots. She doesn't stock much of the mexican pottery though I do think we could move those jars. I think they would retail for about 35-40 dollars if I remember correctly. Adele