White snowball flowers - Viburnum macrocephalum (aka Chinese snowball bush) Needled evergreen - I think WxDano's got it with Cedrus deodara (Himalayan cedar) Red-tinged shrub - Ternstroemia gymnanthera (Cleyera)

Don't cut them back now. You won't get any blooms this year and it will really weaken the plant. Some of my other fall aster get bad mildew late in the summer, but still bloom. I don't think Alma ever has though. Why are you afraid to use fungicide? Most chemicals are safe to use if used properly or Google for some alternative remedies using household products. Kevin

Thanks for all your kind comments, looking forward to next year to. Threas - hope you can start them indoors, they're slow growers from seed in the spring, I'll be lucky to get flowers from my babies even next year. I'll be covering the babies soon with dirt for mulch. Not a leaf left in site, some fungus got on the them, so not taking any chances. I have Neem Oil to kill fungus/mold. Has killed the white stuff that grows on the surface of outdoor soil brought in or that grows on unsterile soil. It also kills the bad insects and stops reproduction of them - so they say. honeybunny - I envy that you have the lord baltimore full grown. It grows the tallest of them all, that I'm aware of, and a beautiful red color. It was very good of you to offer plants and I'd be glad to pay you for the plants as well as postage for that price and take a chance that it'll get across the border without dirt. We'll chat come spring. If I've no 'sure thing' canadian option I'll take you up on that and we'll see what you can do. eloise - you have an orange tropical then...I know of no hardy in all my searches (and I have searched) and the oranges are tropicals as are yellow. There are some annuals, like manihot which is a pale yellow, I got one flower from it this year and a seed pod which I had to pluck before it cracked on it's own, an iffy situation. You californians are lucky, you can grow the tropicals all year round. Though they don't grow as big as the hardys we're talking about now. You should check out the japanese lantern hibiscus-schizopetalus, not so large a flower but a most unique flower. It was easy from seed even for me but would of had to be brought in. You'd have to have the room in the garden to, it's a big splayer like the butterfly bushes are. Happytoes - I had seeds for plum crazy, it is up there with my favorites. They have a unique crepe paper like flower and light shines through them like chifon. 5 seeds was just not enough for this lady to successfully grow one. Fireball has the same type of petals. Love your garden karma, especially the style...looks kinda like the japanese rock gardens. Very neat and ideal for specimen show offs. I'd get a kopper king in that garden, it's a good stand alone plant with your personal touches of coarse. Karyn - that is strange, you'd think you would have tons of babies. Maybe they just need that tropical environment the 1st year to get them going. You still have the mom's coming back for you and the only hibiscus I know for sure that'll be invasive with their seeds are the rose of sharon - single blooms - so all be warned. green_go - I gotta have something you want!! I couldn't even find the seeds for that one. I saw the foliage color which you all aught to note the contrast. There's a red veining through 2 others, fireball and plum crazy, but nothing like the foliage on this one. Red shield has a nice foliage as well but doesn't have the bigger sized blooms. The foliage is worth it for those into it. Your flowers are much more prettier than even in the pictures I've seen. They look a lot like the lady baltimore. I'd pay you for a good sized specimen of that plant plus postage. (big hopeful grin). I see you have an anna belle blooming there in the background, I've one of those to. I think I might split the root ball for 2 plants. Granddaughter and I are going to spritz the flowers with food coloring next year. There's a lot more kinds out there, I'd advise starting with an established plant if you want flowers this year. I've no idea how they do their first year started in a greenhouse or indoors. To tell the difference tropicals and hardy when shopping or identifying http://www.trop-hibiscus.com/gindr.html A good link in the hibiscus forum for those in zone 5 and up/colder/lower zone #. http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hibisc/msg0820200032075.html PS. They do die back down to the ground and won't come up until late May early June so don't think they died. You'll just have to wait. Glad you all enjoyed. Happy winter gardening or spring planning. - Sandy

That Orchid Romance does look great, zz! How I wish I hadn’t returned mine when I discovered it wasn’t Sweet Mademoiselle! I have two Princess Charlene de Monaco‘s, and I absolutely love them. I was totally thinking Sweet Mademoiselle was going to be a pinker version of PCDM. All the Romantica roses have done incredibly well for me. I just never expected SM to be so bright and coral looking. I actually felt irrationally annoyed every time I saw her blooms last year. I had no one to help me remove it, and I felt like SM was taunting me with every fluorescent neon bloom. She was SO bright I couldn’t stand it, and not even 100F heat and full sun would fade her. It could be that she’s just that artificial color in my soil and climate. I’ve seen pictures of SM that looked great, and nothing like my gaudy beacon of a thing. If she looks like that again this year, I’ll have to call in some favors and have one of my sons come remove her. I too, prefer the softer colors of DA’s. I did purchase Boscobel last year, and that’s a stretch for me. Boscobel is a little brighter than I prefer, but it changes with the temps. Boscobel‘s color is more like what I thought Sweet Mademoiselle would be. Sweet Mademoiselle likes to grow super tall, too. It looks like Orchid Romance stays shorter. Oh, this thread has me regretting my return all over again! Lisa