Both bulbing fennel and herb fennel are selections of, botanically speaking, the same species i.e. Foeniculum vulgare, so both are perennials. Bulbing fennel is not an annual. It is just treated as such because it is harvested before it goes into its second year. So even if you had the bulbing type it would sprout from the base again if left in the ground. I have never grown bulbing fennel but I understand that it is quite tricky to get it to bulb up successfully. So I think you may well have had the correct seeds but they just weren't happy enough to bulb up. Here is a link that might be useful: Growing FLORENCE FENNEL

Wow, this sounds like the problem I had two years ago (last year I didn't do a lot of gardening, you may recall). I was going totally insane (like you) and I swear, my neighbors probably wondered about me and my 'washing the flowers' all the time... ;p and wandering around talking to myself with the Amdro and Safer Ant Spray. Our yard smelled quite minty! The spiders are DEFINITELY a pain. This morning I noticed the webs have started appearing. I don't know how to get rid of the spiders either. We had the most massive spiders ever two years ago and I mean HUGE ones that would spin these webs that would criss-cross the yard. I tell you, it was like they'd spin them in an hour or something. I can't stand them but my husband would FREAK! I know that one thing that I did with the ant situation was put those dryer softener sheets around everywhere. I rubbed down pots (the outsides). It did scare me to think that whatever was IN the sheets repelled ants, though...I bought so much Amdro I think the folks at Ace Hardware thought I was a bit kinky or something. I haven't noticed nearly as many Aphids (uh oh, I am certain to have loads of 'em now!) this year but you know? We haven't had much rain this year! The overall precipitation has been really low in SoCal so this may have something to do with it...I don't rightly know. Spiders are ALWAYS a problem but those gigantic ones haven't been out and about lately. I am afraid now that I've said something, they'll be out in droves... Good luck. The only thing to try that you haven't mentioned would be those dryer sheets. I bought boxes upon boxes of them.

Hi It was another cool day here today but at least it was sunny and I wasn't wearing my winter coat like I was yesterday. Last night it went down to 6c and tonight it is only 7C. I was able to get out and get the new side garden covered in newspapers and landscaping fabric and anchored down. I will start planting it in the next few days depending on the weather. I cut down some of the roses as the leaves are such a mess, they are just awful and I don't know what is causing this. I don't know if it's white fly, black spot, the freezing temps we had after the leaves came out. Some of the roses don't have the papery leaves but most of them do. The new leaves on the roses seem to be ok, but when the first leaves came out on the roses they were ok too then went weird fast! This is what JP Connell looks like now Yuk! I put some white fly traps out around them tonight and I also sprayed them for disease and bugs so hopefully they will start looking better, of course they couldn't look much worse right now. It is the JP Connell, Winnipeg parks and Morden Blush that are the worse right now. I have a flower bud on my water lily so it will be so nice when it blooms. I only have the one now as I donated the other to the plant sale for the Horticultural Society. More of my lilies are also starting to bloom so that is nice. I don't have as many lilies as I did last year. I don't know if the chipmunk has found a new food sourse, or the winter was hard on them, or they still have not recovered from the contractor smashing and burying them. I love these Orange Pixies, they sure do make ya take notice. *S* Some of the lilies I thought I had sprayed with Round up last year are coming up in the new beds, even in the beds that are 20" tall. But they are only a couple of inches tall now by the time they get to the surface. LOL I have also been pulling out baby roses that I also sprayed with round up last year. I guess they are growing up from the roots. Here is a new pic of the beds that were built last year. The hostas still don't hide the wooden beds, but I figure in another year of two they will. Hi there Linda! So nice to hear from u again! Sounds like u are keeping yourself very busy! I have some evening primroses blooming in a pot! They overwintered there with a tulip. *L*I use to have a lot of them in the old rose bed, but since I redid it I pulled a lot of them up. None of my daylilies have started blooming yet, I keep waiting. I hope I will get more blooms from them this year. Marca, I'm sorry to hear your Dad is errr unable to do home repairs. Maybe your mom could help ya....*LOL* A dead snake under your front step? Maybe he was under it when the step cracked? It wasn't a poisonous one was it? Don't know if u have those up there. A wooden deck? LOL Well it would be nice if he did it this year. Seems like it would be a good size deck too. Some of my flowers didn't bloom long either. Like the regular lilacs and peonies. The lilacs hardly had any flowers on them and what they did have were little spindly things. Hi Dannie, 5 bucks is a very good price for a clematis. Hmm maybe I should go and check out our Canadian Tire. I have been wanting to go there and get some more patio chairs to spread around the yard so I'd have more places I can rest so that gives me more incentive to get over there. *S* I have a Nelly Moser that blooms in the backyard, but I never go back there, so I'm thinking I should dig it up and move it to the front yard where I can appreciate it more. That back wall is going to look so pretty with all those clematis growing up it. You will have to take a pic when they are blooming! Some people say that stomping on hostas is good for them. That they develop more eyes so they send out more shoots, the shoots will be smaller though. I haven't tried it yet for my hostas that are slow growers, but the way Tegan is getting around the yard now she might step on some. She almost got one tonight. *LOL* I have heard about cables being put on trees to hold the branches together, I bet u feel better knowing that it can't fall on your house now. How old is the sheltie? I bought one for my mom when I was about 17 and he was the smartest dog I ever owned, I should say mom owned, but he was still my dog. It was the only way I could get a dog,,was buy it for her as a gift, as she never returns presents. LOL What is a pleco? Hi Janet, thanks, my gardens only look good cause I don't take pics of the weeds. LOL I still have to get to the weeding this year. I did the front yard, but the back yard needs help,,,,,,big help.... LOL Thanks for reminding me, I haven't put out the epson salts yet. Yikes! Sorry to hear about your ant troubles, is your hubs killing the hills at night time? He has to kill them at night time as during the day the ants are out gathering food. I have a recipe that worked on my ant problems, but it takes a couple of weeks. it is one part borax laundry powder soap 3 parts white sugar mix it up well and put a few spoonfuls in a covered container with a couple of holes in it, so that no kids or other animals or birds can get at it as it is poisonous. Place the container where u know the ants are and it will kill them as they take the poison back to the queen ant and feed it to the others too. Well time to get to bed here. Take care everyone and happy gardening! Debbie :-)

I probably don't have many "plant" shots. Most of the florist roses don't tend to bloom very profusely. And I have soooo many roses (it's ridiculous) and don't have enough time to stay on top of fertilizing and mulching like I should. Also the weeds and underplantings have gotten way out of hand and their crowding of the roses slows down production. I'm hoping in the coming yr to be able to get out there more to get things done. But I can give you some individual bloom shots of some of my florist roses. Most of mine were purchased from Carlton Roses yrs ago, before they closed up, and from Cliff before he closed up EuroDesert Roses. The only one I ever got to root myself, is VERSILIA. It's taken a good 4-5yrs to become a decent sized plant. And Cliff's roses being own root also are still pretty small. Here's some of mine from this season: VERSILIA - the best bloom ever. Not much of the green edges you see at the florist, but it's still a beautiful rose, now that it's gotten established. FIRE 'N ICE - don't remember where I got this one, probably Carltons. This is one I fell in love with at a florist shop many yrs ago, but the garden version is nothing like it! Still pretty tho. Grows short, about 2-3ft at most. ABRACADABRA - got own-root from Rogue Valley Roses. It's one that crosses over to the garden very well. The blooms are a little small, but they repeat very well and last forever! The plant is still small, but growing nicely. RED INTUITION - one of my favorites! Excellent garden rose. Blooms a lot and often. I probably had a good bush shot last yr, but didn't get one this yr. It grows about 4-5ft x 3ft. LEONIDAS - got from Carltons. Definitely does not cross over well into the average garden. It requires cool weather or being grown in a greenhouse in order to keep the brown tones. In my garden it is fluorescent orange and yellow most of the yr. Occasionally in fall it will throw out a somewhat brownish colored bloom. Very small plant has never gotten taller than about 2ft. Not a good one unfortunately. SIMSALABIM - own-root I got from a guy who breeds interesting striped roses. Love, love, love this one! Blooms are small but so very interesting. It just got put in the ground this yr and has done very well. So far has stayed under 3ft. Blooms a lot and changes color patterns all the time. Mine has stayed very stable, rarely reverting to solid coloring, as some people have experienced. VANITY - got this one from Michael Fischer (Michael's Premier Roses) yrs ago as an own-root. It's been interesting. Grows about 5ft x 4ft. Doesn't repeat as well as I'd like, but not too bad. RED PARIS - got from Cliff. Now, if you like the reds, this one is a good one. It's turning into a nice plant. The blooms are lovely and last forever! I love the form on the bloom. This photo doesn't really do it justice. It's actually a lot darker. So far, it's about 3ft. GYPSY CURIOSA - from Carltons... One that actually does well in the garden, altho doesn't really repeat that great. I love it's weird coloring. It has been consistently about 3ft x 3ft. STRANGER - one of my favorites. Unfortunately, it doesn't repeat all that well, and as you can see, the thrips like it. I just love the color and striping. And the blooms last a long time. Burling now carries this one. I have a lot of others, but some haven't bloomed that great this past season. I lost a couple of them also. If you want to see more, I can add more pics later...