Looking good! Make sure you put a tag or ribbon on the cane. I've been known to accidentally dead head my hips so now I mark them with something bright colored so I can't miss it and mistakenly take off the hip. You won't need to worry about the rodents much until later in the season when it starts to turn color. When that starts to happen I put a little tin foil loosely over them. It seems to have worked to keep them from disappearing over night.

I think the easiest way, but most lilely not a surefire way to tell them apart is the leaf size, but also in general besides the leaves on the sasanquas being much smaller, the flowers in general are smaller. I couldn't give you "general" sizes as that could vary considerably for either type depending on growing conditions I'd suspect!! More than likely there's a fine point in the differences in flowers as that's often the determining factor in classifying what species a particular plant in a genus belongs. But sometimes it could be in the leaves or some other unexpected thing!!

seasidecottage .. i love your name! Its my dream house... lol Anyway, i recently added an arbor to my yard. I bought it for 150 at lowes, and am really pleased with it. But i wish i had waited to build my own,,,so i wonder, are you handy? If you need it to be cheap you could find a woodworking plan to build your own. I found the perfect swing arbor plan for myself on amazon . Im not sure what you want planted on it, or how sturdy you need it, but ive seen an arbor made out of 3 old wooden rung ladders. So charming! Perfect for annuals. When i was searching for an arbor i looked online but decided local would be best..because shipping can get crazy and its nice to see in person the quality. Good luck!! i realize this post may be of no help..lol

Carol, The tree is a: FICUS The pink flowering plant in the back is: IMPATIENT The fern next to the large deer is: RABBITS FOOT FERN The 2 low growing light green plants are: BABY TEARS The hanging plant on the right side is: CREEPING WHITE STAR The pot is 12" round & 5" deep. I was told about a nursery in Norwalk, Ohio that sells all mini plants...lots of them....all kinds of minis. I've been thinking about a fairy garden so I went to check this place out. It's called Mulberry Creek Herb Farm. I found this shade loving fairy garden all ready made up that I liked, but it didn't have any hosta in it. So, I picked out a mini hosta, upgraded to this fairy that sits on the rock that I liked better than the one that the pot originally had, added the turtles on the rock and the gazing ball. I than went to TSC (Tractor Supply Co) for some vole killer and just couldn't resist a few of their miniture animals that I saw there. I bought the cute doe & fawn. Also, if you look closely to he left of the hosta, you'll see 3 little raccoons playing. My idea was to buy the pot, plants and figures, but when I got to the nursery I realized that I had no idea how I wanted to put a fairy garden together.(I'm not too visual, I guess) So, I got this already made one and added to it the way I wanted. These are the instructions that I was given: Bring it in the house this winter and put it a cool room with some light. Keep it moderately moist. Fertilize it every 2 weeks. Don't be shy about keeping the plants trimmed back..they're tough. BTW, the total cost of this was about $95.00 I think the smaller the figurines, the more they cost. lol