Hi, Tina! E-mailed you but in case you didn't get it I would like to trade you the 8 items that you asked for in return for your: 1.Larkspur Blue & Purple Mix, 2. Lobelia "Great Blue", 3. Lobelia Cardinalis, 4. Moss Rose, 5. Rudbeckia "Autumn Colors" or "Hot Chocolate", 6. Rudbeckia "Sonora", 7. Cosmo [dwarf lavender Sonata], 8. for this final item I am having a hard time picking between the Pink Cockscomb and the false indigo baptisia. If it was labeled false Indigo wouldn't that mean it is blue? Do you know if the pink cockscomb is a true pastel pink or magenta like most? Please let me know when you can. Thanks! Aunt Lou

Flowerfarmer (Patricia), Yes, I did mean growers bunches. I did really also want to try my hand at boquet making this year too. However, I am running into a time crunch here with the wacky weather and no greenhouse or hoophouse yet. I do hope to have both by next year but that isn't helping now. I just thought since I was running short on time and I already purchased the zinnia and sunflower seeds (hubby asked if I knew I had so many sunflower seeds, lol he hasn't even seen them all), I would try to plant complementary flowers instead of so many of this and that like I had originally planned. When do you direct seed the procuts? I thought I recalled one week before the expected last frost. If that is true, I should start planting them out in one week. However, it is so cold here I am wondering if I should wait for it to get warmer yet. I have various plugs I have planted in my basement under grow lights. It isn't the best of conditions so I am holding my breath to see what makes it to the gardens and all the way to being cutflowers. I do have some snaps and cosmos started but not nearly enough. I haven't looked for cosmos but all I find in snaps are dwarf varieties in the nurseries. I am hoping to find the taller ones soon as I think they are very lovely. Liza Lily, Thanks for the suggestions. I am having a time trying to find all of the varieties you guys and gals list here. The last several weeks have been pretty nuts. I really need to travel around to more greenhouses to see if I can find more on my wanted list. I have a couple of kinds of dill but I think both are the kind to use in dill pickles. I will have to check and see what the botanical names are if the packages even say. Well I have two more weeks until the last expected frost. Meanwhile I broke down and ordered The Flower Farmer: An Organic Grower's Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers Lynn Byczynski and Flowers for Sale: Growing and Marketing Cut Flowers : Backyard to Small Acreage by Lee Sturdivant. I have an amazon credit card and was holding out for a rewards certificate. I decided I just couldn't wait any longer. Thanks again for the suggestions. I will add them to the wanted list and continue the search. Shirley

I am exactly where you are in terms of switching from pastels to more vibrant colors. I originally planned the garden of soft yellows, blues, pinks and white. In our summer intense sun it looks washed out. In the Spring I love the pink peonies and delicate Amsonias but as summer comes I find myself more satisfied by richer colors. It came to me by accident -sort of. I started getting in to daylilies and purchased some red ones and bright yellow. I planted them on the border facing the street and outside the fence to the backyard. When everything started to bloom I was overjoyed by the color! It was so pretty IMHO. I have realized that the colors I really like are the magenta pink, bright lemon yellow, purple, red and Orange! I love my orange daylilies. My favorite combination this year was White Liatris, Yellow Helenium, Poppy Mallow and Balloon Flower mixed among the daylilies, including a really screaming red/orange one called Alabama Jubilee. I've decided to start moving these colors into the back yard and moving away from the dreamy soft pastel look. The peonies can stay but for summer I want knock your socks off color! I say plant whatever colors are making you the most happy and release yourself from the burden of any rules you imposed on yourself about what colors you will not allow in a certain part of your garden. Enjoy!

Heather, I plant a little bit of everything to attract bees and other pollinators to the garden. All my garden beds have flowers and herbs mixed in the beds with the vegetables. Many of the herbs flower, and the bees and other small pollinators love the little herb flowers. Here's a list of what I normally have in/around the veggie beds: Rosemary Catnip (bees love it!) Catmint Borage Nasturtiums Hollyhocks Zinnias Veronica Chamomile Lemon Balm Dill Marigolds Parsley Sage Lemon Verbena Mint Yarrow--both the native ones and some hybrids like Summer Pastels and Summer Berries Dahlias Sunflowers Tithonias (aka Mexican sunflowers) Petunias Begonias Dusty Miller Butterfly Weed Pink Evening Primrose Larkspur Poppies Chives Texas Hummingbird Sage Verbena bonariensis (a magnet for butterflies and small pollinators) Dianthus Iris Daffodils Crinum Lilies Sweet Alyssum Salvia farinacea Texas Star hibiscus Disco Belle hibiscus Swamp mallow Malve sylvestris 'Zebrina' Four o'clocks Nicotiana (severl kinds including N. alata and N. landsdorfii) Datura Pineapple sage I also plant lots of flowering vines like American crossvine, Trumpet Creeper (both the yellow-flowered and orange-flowered versions), and Coral Honeysuckle ('Pink Lemonade'). Then I add annual vines like morning glories, moonflower vines, black-eyed susan vine, hyacinth bean vine, cardinal climber, cypress vine and scarlet runner bean. We're in a rural area and we leave our pastures unmowed most of the year, with pathways mowed through them so we can see the snakes before we step on them. Those pastures are chock-full of native wildflowers that attract bees. When we mow, I try to go around the wildflowers as much as possible. You need plants that will attract bees in every month of the year, to the extent that it is possible. I have tried to plant trees and shrubs that bloom so they'll have something for almost the entire year. Except for wildflowers, it is hard to have much in bloom in January though. In our yard, the plums, peaches and pears attract them in huge numbers. Once those trees have finished blooming, other plants like the Burford Holly and native Possumhaw Holly shrubs, 'Jane' magnolia, and redbuds are in bloom. By the time those are finished, the Chinaberry is in bloom, followed by the Chaste Tree (Vitex agnus-castus) and then the Mimosa tree. We always have plenty of bees. One of my gardening neighbors likes to complain to me that "all" the bees are at our house and not his, but I know he has bees too (though maybe not as many). How are you intending to use Marigolds? As a trap crop for what? We'd have to know that in order to suggest how closely to plant them. I like to use the heirloom marigold and not the hybrid varieties. With the sunflowers, I assume you mean Sunforest sunflower mix? I plant that one away from the garden because the plants get huge and can shade out other plants. Also, sunflowers put out volatile root compounds that impede plant growth of other plants, so you have to be careful about how close you plant them to anything else. Regarding your comment "I'm worried I'm gonna infect the stuff we eat".....please explain. What do you think you're going to 'infect' and with what infectious agent? And, by the way, it doesn't matter exactly what you plant to attract bees.....just plant lots of stuff and they'll find it. However, in order to keep the bees around, you have to use absolutely, positively no pesticides that can kill them. Otherwise, you're just attracting them to your yard in order to kill them. That's where most folks fail at attracting bees....they attract them, and then spray with dangerous pesticides and kill them. Dawn