Hi Erasmus: I learn from what you wrote above, thank you. Forget-me-nots like clay soil and cool wet spring. Kim is right that it can be invasive, it spreads to a HUGE patch in my Mom's 5-acres land. She also has a peppermint and spearmint patch the size of a master bedroom. Mint is super-invasive. Below are the invasive plant which I tortured myself with before I discovered fragrant roses: 1) Mint - 5 hours to kill. I gave to my neighbor: they spent the entire Saturday killing those idiots. 2) Zebra Grass, or Ribbon-grass. It took 3 people to dig up the super-deep-root clump, and 1/2 hour per clump. 3) English Ivy ground-cover. This should be banned from the planet earth. They are known to destroy mansions, choke large trees to death.... if you plant too close to the window, they can crawl inside and choke you to death while you are sleeping (just kidding). I spent 40+ hours and 1 year killing them, plus spraying Round-up into my house foundation to get rid of the roots. I was cursed eternally when I bought English Ivy for $10 from HomeDepo. 4) Pink Yarrow - I was shocked when I saw HomeDepo selling this. My Mom gave me 1 branch, it spread even to my lawn. I spent 1 year and 50+ hours killing them. They spread both by roots and by seeds. 5) Gout weed - this makes a stinky ground cover. 10+ hours killing them. Purple and white alyssum are the best ground cover, since they are annuals, and don't spread to one's lawn. 6) Italian Parsley - 1 hour killing them. Now I sink a plastic bucket 6" into the soil, both ends cut off, to keep mint and parsley inside. 7) Dr. Huey's roots - I spent 1/2 hour digging them up when I killed Knock-outs, that's why I like own-root roses. We have cool and rainy weather for the past 2 days, now Lynnie is red like Knock-out, very much like Jeri's picture in HMF. Lynnie is far prettier than Knock-out both bush-shape and flower-appeal. Annie prefers acidic soil and water for best growth. She was stunt from my alkaline soil and water, and NOT from the frost. Ever since I gave her acid-fertilizer high in nitrogen she grows like crazy: She was super-tiny in June, after 1 month with acidifying the water with used lemon rinds, she doubled in size. This pic. is taken this morning:

Here are maps showing the distribution of native and naturalized populations (not including planted or horticultural populations) of some Poplars in GA: White Poplar (Populus alba) in GA - http://plants.usda.gov/java/county?state_name=Georgia&statefips=13&symbol=POAL7 Carolina poplar (Populus à canadensis) - http://plants.usda.gov/java/county?state_name=Georgia&statefips=13&symbol=POCA19 Gray Poplar (Populus à canescens) - http://plants.usda.gov/java/county?state_name=Georgia&statefips=13&symbol=POCA14 Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) - http://plants.usda.gov/java/county?state_name=Georgia&statefips=13&symbol=PODE3 Swamp Cottonwood (Populus heterophylla) - http://plants.usda.gov/java/county?state_name=Georgia&statefips=13&symbol=POHE4 Balm-of-Gilead (Populus à jackii) - http://plants.usda.gov/java/county?state_name=Georgia&statefips=13&symbol=POJA2 Lombardy Poplar (Populus nigra) - http://plants.usda.gov/java/county?state_name=Georgia&statefips=13&symbol=PONI

I'm especially glad to have rain in my garden! :) GaAlan, that is gorgeous! It must be especially welcome in a gray landscape like today's. The foliage on my thunbergias was for a few days a significantly less vibrant (but still very pretty) version. I do have to try some Sparkleberries where they can be seen from the house with sun behind them; I saw a picture yesterday of a well-tended pair that had me hyperventilating. Georgia Rose, I've planted some spring-blooming spireas that show no signs of being invasive--VanHoutte, Reeves, and thunbergia. Our neighbors across the street, however, do have a very upright bridalwreath-type one that does seed about pretty lavishly; I don't know what species. I love the ones I have, though. On strolling about the other day, I found another glad-to-have: a compact form of winter honeysuckle, Lonicera purpusii. It won't be blooming for another few weeks, but I'm glad now because, even thoug deciduous here, it's still green in a gray landscape (surprisingly with our drop to 8 degrees). Actually dots of green--a grader last August mistook my directions and scraped my nice clump away, burying the whole thing under a foot and a half of earth. I dug and dragged it back out (NOT easy!), hurriedly sawed the root ball apart into a number of pieces, and shoved them in shallow holes I scraped in baking soil. Today they're all alive, scrawny tattered relics of their former self, but this time next year the bigger ones should (almost) be handsome arching (green) mounds once again, getting ready to cover themselves with fragrant winter flowers.

IMO the more decorative sages are not winter hardy even in zone 6, but the more basic garden sage was asa I left it to overwinter outside in a pot. Apparently it needs very sharp drainage in winter. Thyme might as well be treated as an annual in my zone; it will come back if in a pot but is so bedraggled it is difficult to get much herb from it for quite some time. (Full sun would help, though: I don't have that to offer.) AARP rosemary will sometimes overwinter in a protected spot in zone 6, too. I purchased a small plant of varigated basil this spring which supposedly is a tender perennial, and I'm wondering if that could be because it might not flower. In any case, I will take it in this fall and see. The annual herbs that "bolt" (ie are determined to produce as much seed as possible as quickly as possible) in a similar manner to lettuce, spinach, and broccoli can be held back a bit by pinching off of the flowers, but this becomes an onerous process as the plant desperately tries to produce flowers from almost every node. The important thing, if you are in a climate with a freezing winter, is to bring in your tender perennial herbs before your first frost date, before they have a chace to be harmed by the cold. Some will die anyway finding insufficient light or humidity (or the reverse) inside. It's always fun to see what makes it, though. As a matter of practicality, I try to plant the tender herbs in pots that can just be carried inside, rather than having to transplant them from in-ground. Also for that reason I try to avoid planting perennial tender herbs in pots which are too large to carry into the house. My bay plants always survive for me until I have to leave them for DH to water. :o(