I have grown both Wisley Blue and Rolf Fiedler. For a mass planting like this, you would be FAR happier to wait until you can get Rolf Fiedler. The Wisley Blue looks like skim milk: white with just a weak wash of blue. Rolf Fiedler is the vivid color of October skies. Honest. It would be worth waiting for. I agree that these bulbs are under used. I love the fact that once the show is over, they very quickly and neatly go dormant. You really never see any ratty foliage. They aren't prolific reproducers, but I would say they are steady. Keep in mind that they like some shade. Ken is right. Buy as many as you can afford. If you cannot buy hundreds, then plant a few close together in a "clump" and space the clumps evenly around the area. The clumps will be showy from the start and as time goes by, they will gradually grow together to make a mass.

We live in a rural area where ranching and logging are the main industries. Our land is forested altho we've had a lot of trees removed over the years. The natural landscape is Douglas fir, spruce, pine, aspen, poplar, birch, and various wild shrubs and flowers. I've thought about, but not tried to transplant any wild flowers as I doubt it would be successful. For my new garden I am planning to use plants and ground covers that will hopefully survive with limited watering. Some of these are the same, or similar to, the wild plants that survive with no care. Bearberry (kinnickinnick) which I can find on our land and transplant, and red clover as ground covers and yarrow (altho I will use the colored varieties not the wild white that grows naturally) are some plants I'll use. There are limited numbers of plants that like both dry and cold, are not invasive, and that deer dislike but I am researching and *will* find them. I think the typical gardens planted by the early pioneers in this area may have been similar to the cottage/potager gardens in England where many came from. Predominantly food and medicinal plants but also some flowers for 'pretty'. My present garden is more flowers with a few herbs and very few food plants so it isn't typical of a historical garden here. Our house is a modern farmhouse style so cottage flower garden style suits it. I think most people here grow whatever they like that will survive in zone 3. The arrangement of the plants varies according to the gardener's ability and taste. We have, like every other place I've ever seen on 2 continents, the good, the bad, and the ugly! My least favorite style of landscaping is the broad expanse of lawn with the few obligatory coniferous shrubs and there are a few of those around. There are also some very knowledgeable gardeners and it's inspiring to see how they create beauty with the challenges of deer and cold climate. I don't think, at this time in history, there is a typical garden style in this area, possibly because people have moved here from so many different places and that influences their style. I think much of the north west is like that.

The plants are moving poison all throughout the plant. Personally I would pull up all the plants and throw them away off my property. of course this simply spreads the poison all over the world. Stop using poisons and pesticides. Learn to go Organic. Why do you use poisons. Do you want to die early of cancer. Do you want to kill your wife and children. You can not kill life on earth without killing yourself. If you poison your garden then you poison your self and your family. What is there about Organic you do not understand. There is an Organic forum here on garden web. Who wants to eat poisoned tomatoes that will give them cancer later in life. You, your wife, your children ??? Not me that is for sure. I have been growing for over 40 years without a drop of any poison. My garden grows like crazy. big huge no watering no fertilizing all natural huge crops no bug problems no chemical fertilizers.

We purposely moved to our neighbourhood because it has a "high street". That's two blocks away. It's changed over the last 8 years...now we have an antique mall, two funky galleries, some hair salons, loads of restraunts, many bars, a great coffee shop, THREE tatoo parlors, two banks, fire department, public library (these were very important to me), and a few more blocks away several fast food joints (which I do not use). There are also some very dubious corner stores and gas stations, which frequently have people hanging out and drinking or selling drugs or fronting prostitution. 1 mile down the main road in either direction are two different outdoor malls. They clearly cater to different types of clientle. One has a Super Giant Foods, Dollar General, Citi Fashions, Fashion Cents and a strange jumbled beauty supply store and a furniture rental center. The other has a Kroger, Lowes, Linens & Things, Target, Best Buy, Ross and several other small locally owned resteraunts and stores that are sort of funky and fun. Even closer to us is a small development with an upscale hair salon, a gym, pizza, coffee, dance studio...this is a fantastic place for our community and most of the people who work there live in the immediate community. Has this raised the value of our home? Not really. It hasn't raised the value (we bought at $75,000 and it's worth $265,000 and not fully renovated yet...that increase in 8 years!!)...the value has been steadily increasing due to our 3 minute drive to downtown location. It's also just one of the most desirable neighbourhoods in the city to buy into, although not so easy now with the price increases. Frankly, our neighbourhood is weird. We have two familys with drug dealers, one with a gang memeber on our street. There is constantly men sitting around ALL DAY LONG drinking, the mothers of their children coming and screaming for money, their older children running drugs...(I know it sounds like something the police can handle, but they have bigger fish to fry around here). The next street over has none of this nonsense and is beautiful, quiet, friendly. We knew what it was like when we moved here. Why did we move here? Because the afformentioned high street was an indication of the culture that this area also holds. It's the neighbourhood of artists, artizans, indepenant thinkers, street poets, wacky gardeners, musicians, teachers who think outside the box...people who thrive on the strange juxdiposition of our community. That is why the value of our homes has increased. Demand. GGG