If you watch the seedheads, they will turn brown and you will know that the seeds are ripening when the Goldfinches cling to the heads and start picking off seeds. They eat them in tidy little rows. I try to harvest some of the seedheads before the finches get them all, and store them in the garage. Then I tape up a bunch of them to one of the bird-feeding poles for the Finches to eat during the winter (they love 'em). Despite the finches eating most of the seed, the Echinacea still self-sows abundantly in the gardens, too much even.

I think I should've used peat moss. I tried just putting the cleaned off canna bulbs in a brown paper bag in my basement and they dried out also. It worked good for elephant ears though. Ceresone - Did you dampen the peat moss or leave it dry? I dug my tuberose (very fragrant) last fall and just left them in their bucket of dirt in the garage all winter. I intended to pot them up and bring them in the house and never got around to it. I planted them out again this spring and they all did just fine and are sending up bloom stalks now. Pam - You should bring as much with you as you can. The new owners will probably concrete over them anyway. At least bring enough so you'll have plants to trade with. I'm sure it won't take long to accumulate things again if you start trading. Sometimes I think it would be nice to start over now that I know more about gardening and which plants I like. I tend to keep things that I don't really care for and I have lots of plants that aren't in a good spot. I need to do some serious rearranging. But - Did I mention it's rocky here? It's a lot of work to move things around. lol I got a little carried away on the cannas this spring. Don't save me very many Pam. I'm sure I'll have something to trade you for them though. Is figleaf hollyhock a neat plant? I'd never heard of that. Maybe you could save a few seeds of it before you move. I've collected seeds from my columbines and will lots of those.

In my admittedly unscientific observations on the fall deadheading, I haven't seen any difference if I deadhead or stop deadheading in the fall as far as winter survival goes. For me, the long cool nights and day length does more to help the rose go dormant than any of my cultivation techniques. The roses that I do or don't deadhead still go on blooming until a couple of hard frosts make them go dormant, since it takes more than a couple of deadheads to make them shut down bloom. As far as I can tell, the growth of basals like Patty mentions seems to be more from pruning than deadheading. I do stop pruning by this time of year so the rose doesn't respond with a burst of growth that's doomed, but I've stopped worrying about not deadheading. I have the potential for a fall flush when it gets cool and for some roses it's the first time they'll bloom all year. I'm not prepared to sacrifice it when it doesn't make any difference that I can see. Cynthia

Thanks. BS was and was not on my radar (new here) . A few roses did lose quite bit of it's leaves as the season progressed last year, right before Sept/Fall time. I have not decided whether I'm going to be spraying or not. I try not to ....survival of the fittest, eh. Since you mentioned it, I guess it t would be worthwhile to spend some time pulling/ID the crossing stems and thinning it out. I would say we're talking maybe 3 sets of crossing canes. I -noticed- how dense it was and saying it needs more air... HA HA. You guys should have seen me last year. I like buying plants physically in person. I get to cherry pick the lot....ya know. With mail order roses, there was a few, I was not crazed how the budded stems were and in what direction they were in. There was more than a few where I actually had put down stakes and had twine pulling/redirecting the budded stems.