Thank you! They are just what I need out front. I'm thinking of a couple of the sample collections from North Country. Planted with different colored Cone flowers and maybe some of the Walkers Low mint you had pics of earlier in the year. I'm sure I'll find some more stuff to toss in there when I get North Country's catalog. Already planted out front that are doing well is Siberian Iris Ceasar Brothers, Shasta Daisies and about 6 purple Liatris. I yanked out all the Asiatic Lilies so it is pretty bare right now. Now that I know what I want to do it is pretty hard not to just buy it and plant. But with winter approaching it is best to wait til next spring. Andrea

Hi everyone. Thank you for looking and commenting. I love the trees, but they would destroy our house if they were uprooted in a storm...and you know how these storms are here. The house is a decent size, 2000 sq ft, but the trees really dwarf it and the one nearest to the house hangs all over the roof. We just have to find someone who has the courage to tackle these big trees. The Hot Lips salvia is three years old, and the Navajo salvia on the right is about 10 years old. Behind the Hot Lips is a huge clump of Black and Blue Salvia, and I have a couple of others in the butterfly garden. They are all blooming right now. Ellie, weather is always a question in regard to blooms, isn't it? Judy, Leave a few pictures of big trees that have fallen on houses around...that might encourage the removal. Jean, I love the look of Magnolias, but they are messy. Celeste, the daylily blooms actually opened today, and the salvia, Lantana. and zinnias are blooming away, but the roses are what I am enjoying. They are happy because it is cooler. Linda, I am enjoying the retirement. We do have a row of mainly big oaks on the back of the property that we intend to leave. Rita, I had thought you had gotten Hot Lips, but I guess that was last year. Once something gets started here, you have to work to kill it, and that isn't always a good thing as you can imagine. kay

I wish I could remember the names of them. Here we are currently hosting three Anna hummingbirds who are enduring freezing temperatures. My feeders are very busy. And I just realised that these pics were supposed to be in my garden.Well, I wish I lived there and it was my garden! :) This post was edited by janalyn on Thu, Jan 10, 13 at 20:59

Yea Chad-that WILL be an issue but thats why it is next to the porch,so I can add on and secure it to the house(-: The 2 varieties I like are the New Zealand purple and the Ricin "Zanzibar" -the latter is the big leaved one (-; Sometimes the leaves on the Purps do look like cooper but it is difficult to capture on "film" All the other Castors are normal sized,the 4 big boys jumped out quick and with the help of a week of 80s in March they broke out of the seedling stage fast-one of the nice things about having all the protection laying around from the palms is that I was able to use some of it on the Bananas and Castors. At one point my Abyssinian grew like 1' in a few days because it was hitting the 90s in the cover- Also-the 4 biggest Castors were planted (by at least)April 6 and I think that is a month earlier than "normal".