PNW Judy- I will bring you a Madrone. Thanks in advance for the Astrantia! I made a note to find the "red truck" to get some free pots as well :0) Pixy, I will take you up on both if I can't find any at the swap. Thanks, Rachel

You still need to decide on what you like best (for its uses) to grow and survive in your Z4. Here, I have dill sprouting again, from seeds that fell from this summers dill seed heads. My mature dill is sometimes taller than 5 feet! The new seedling plants will only reach a few inches as we will be getting frosts soon. Last night it was just 40 degrees here. They will soon die and not return. All the dill I have, has been from overwintered seeds that didn't sprout yet. Those that did, will soon die. The last time I actually planted dill was about 4 years ago, when seeds of both fernleaf and mammoth dill were planted. This year it showed up everywhere, and the seeds scattered to areas where there were no dill plants previously. The most important thing is to decide on what herbs you like as to taste and/or other uses. Many people simply plant herbs or seeds in hopes that they will see 'stuff' growing, and never realizing that if they plant something they like, its nice to have, but to just plant something for looks as being pretty, herbs may not be a good choice alone. Here, bees are going crazy over my flowering garlic chives right now. These start to flower in August and have small white clusters at the tops of stalks. The chive parts are thick blades. Last year, I plucked off several of the black seeds and planted small groups nearby the main clumps of garlic chives. This year, the new seedlings grew spindly, but its normal for their first year. Next to them I have wild onions, which die out in summer and form small seed (tiny bulb) clusters at the tops of 1 foot tall stalks. The clusters of tiny onion bulbs are sprinkled in the nearby soil. They start to grow green shoots just about now and these last all through winter and by then, I can cut off many greens and use them as chives, as they look and taste the same as regular chives. The wild onion greens last through about June and then die out until late September. The tiny bulbs they have, only get to a pea size, as they are wild and would never mature to anything larger that that. Both would be great for a shady herb use. The garklc chives can be harvested from about July through September, and give a pleasant mild taste. One more of the onions are walking or multipliers. These produce more bulbs in the soil as well as clusters at the ends of tubular stalks. Planting these, will produce at least 5 times the amount next year, and if left unchecked will grow an acre or more in just a few years.

Good article Bart! I love that clematis, what is it? I have an heirloom morning glory I grow from seed, that grew at my Mom's house for as long as I remember being alive. I love morning glories, and this old fashioned one always speaks of home. I have always found amusing the fact that my Mom hated morning glories, but her lifelong effort to eliminate this one was a total failure, and it still grows at the family home, despite all her efforts to eradicate it. I also keep an extensive plant list of all my plants, including the source from which I obtained the plant. It is fun to have visitors and show them how "their" plants are doing. -Rosalinda

Yep, I gather that a good diversity of flora is an indicator of age. I was about to moan about the lack of diversity in ours - true the trees are poplar, hawthorn, elder and oak...but we seem to have quite a large number of herbaceous flora (weedy though) - a big selection of umbellifers, lots of labiatacae (sp?) silene, hemp agrimony, sweet flag, willowherbs (3 types) bluebells, water avens and herb bennet gallium, stellaria , burdock, artemisia, chamomile...and thousands of felicitous snowdrops thanks to Heyrick Greatorex, who planted his famous doubles all round the hedges and verges. As an inveterate meddler, I have reined myself in considerably but even so, I have been adding quite a few US woodlanders such as mertensia and stylophorum, as well as plundering the whole area for seeds. desperate to grow peucedanum palustre for the swallowtails and have finally managed to source plugs for next Febnuary since seeds, which must be fresh, are impossible to find. I do have an image in my head which, if it comes off, could be really quite iconic with no resemblance to traditional shade/woodland gardens with neat clumps of hosta and the like - I am seeing tiny ground huggers (primulas, celandines, wood anemones, extending in layers through bulbs and aqulegias, lunaria, ranunculous, mertensias, astrantias as the season progresses, ending with moor grass, angelicas, eupatoriums, and wood asters by the end of the summer - along with native grasses and (no doubt) weeds - terribly vain but still, a chance to create a small, temporary, legend. Chalara is running amok in Norfolk - how about Cornwall?