Hi everyone! and thanks in advance to anyone that replies! Hi, and welcome to the discussions! I'm on a super tight gardening budget this year - and by super tight I mean the only way I'll be getting flowers/plants for my container garden is from taking cuttings/seeds from what I already have and what my friends/family are willing to let me take little "snips" of. Anybody with cash can go buy a truckload of beautiful blooms - even have someone plant and care for them. What you want to do takes love, patience, consistent effort, forethought, determination, and IMO, can be extremely satisfying. I'm fairly new to propagating from cuttings - I have Purslane and Blue Daze (Evolvus) down pat, but I don't know what type of cutting and when to take them from ... pretty much anything else, I don't know if it's even possible to take cuttings from some stuff. Here's a list of the plants I have at my "snipping" disposal - Here's my experiences with some of your list... Clematis ... I had 'the president' but it pooped out the first day it was 100 degrees - boo) Clems like to be in full sun with their roots cool. Next time, try placing a potted plant so that it shades your clem roots during the hottest part of the day. This may help it get going. Remove flowers after the petals fall off so the plant does not waste any energy making seeds. Clems take a few years to establish. They make seeds but it is uncertain if seeds will make the same flowers as the parent plant. Mulch is very helpful for Clems. Balloon flower (platycodon grandiflorus - just the regular one and P.g. 'Mariesii') - makes seeds that are ready when the seed pods develop openings at the top. A long-lived perennial. Hosta (32 jillion varieties) - divisions as soon as the summer heat passes or early spring. Hostas live for a LONG time. Columbine - makes seeds that are ready when the seed pods develop openings at the top. Individual plants are short-lived perennials. Canna (My grandpa is going to mow over them if I don't come dig them up this weekend - can you move them any time or will they just die? Most of his don't have flowers and I don't know if it's because he doesn't water or if it's because he mows over them almost every year - can you grow them in containers?) - makes tubers that can be moved about any time. If grandpa mows them, no big deal. I think the ground (vs. in a pot) is preferable for anything perennial in your zone. Try to put them somewhere where they won't be soggy all winter but will get plenty of water in the summer. Mowing and/or lack of water could both lead to lack of flowers. You can cut large tubers in half to make more, and each year the tubers get bigger and make "pups." They also make seeds but people don't always have an easy time trying to get these seeds to sprout. A long-lived perennial as long as the tubers don't rot in the winter. Jasmine (not sure on variety, it may have...

we are also at a stalemate regarding stone choices, first choice was 3rivers, heard too many stories about it leeching so we got away from it, wife doesn't love it anyways. Right now the front runners are "Sunrise" and "OK multi-brown" - not sure if they are quartzite or not, we relied on the stone shop to tell us which ones leeched and didn't. We liked one called "wolf creek" but were told it's no good for coping either - basically are looking for earth tones, tans-browns-golds etc. It seems consesus is the arizona stuff flakes away, we don't like any of those anyways...any other brown/tan stones that would be a better choice from a density/durability standpoint?? We are doing three small patio areas around the pool, so using two different stones is a possibility, a less hardy stone for the patio and a denser/quartzite like stone for the coping...so two choices may work, although we want one to be irregular to match the coping, and the other two in a diagonal set pattern for a more formal contrast - so may just do travertine tiles, stone guy said better to cut them himself but we want the formal look.

You can find the installation instructions for most, if not all manufacturers online. If you haven't picked a manufacturer out yet, read any install instructions for any manufacturer. Failure to read the instructions, will leave you to ask many questions.

Is the birch a solid? as solid would last a lot longer than laminate. Do you plan on living there a long time? maybe you may want to change color of floor in future, only possible with a resandable floor. Laminate-- $$, essay maintenance, very scratch resistant, Wood-$$$$ solid? lifetime wear, looks better, sounds better, maybe longer boards, more maintenance, Good luck