The sweet potato vines are ornamental so I don't believe you could start with a regular sweet potato from the store. My mom used these a few years ago and raved about them. I found mine at a local hardware store, but I'm sure the Lowe's-type stores here carry them as they are very popular in this area (Southeast). There are several colors, but the chartreuse and dark purple are the most popular. I hate that you can't see that photo. It was the very first photo by Jenny_in_SE_PA. I think it is exactly what you want. The combination of bright green SP vine and dark purple coleus was stunning! Here is a photo of mine at the beginning of last summer: I *think* that is one vine. It might be two, but I'm almost certain I used one sweet potato and one petunia in each pot. By the end of the summer the sweet potato vine was trailing on the ground. I actually had to give it a few haircuts. When our temps hit 105 in July (and the concrete patio and brick retaining wall held in the heat like an oven!), the sweet potato never flinched. I need something taller in my pots and considered some sort of evergreen, conical shrub like an arborvitae, but I think my heat would kill it. Since you're in zone 6, you might have better luck with a permanent shrub. I may experiment with some tall grasses this year. Here's a link showing some containers that use evergreen shrubs along with some other interesting non-flowering plants. http://www.finegardening.com/plants/articles/10-plants-for-year-round-containers.aspx?nterms=74930 At one time I only wanted flowers. Flowers, flowers, and more flowers. Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE flowers, but I've begun to appreciate foliage and texture as well. I think I'm finally maturing a little. (But did I mention that I still love flowers? The gaudier the better?) I think it is fun to think outside the box a little when it comes to container combinations. Have fun with yours! Nin

I have to trade: Agastache Giant White Hyssop (Not sure if this is: Agastache scrophulariaefolia or if it is: Agastache Nepetoides. 3rd year plant is about 6 feet tall. Bees and butterflies love this plant. Has a wonderful licorice scent) and I also have Gaillardia x grandiflora Burgundy and Gaillardia x grandiflora Yellow Queen. Please send me an email and let me know what you would be interested in. Thanks Here is a link that might be useful: White Hyssop

Tanacetum niveum has distinctively white-gray foliage. Joe

The pyrethrum has to be extracted, and not just from any old daisy. There are specific species used to make the insecticide. There are a number of things that are affecting honeybee populations, and there are flowers that are poisonous to them. I know that the California buckeye, for one, kills larval bees when honey from its nectar is fed to them, but it doesn't affect the adults collecting the nectar. The bees don't know this because they are European natives and have not lived around CA buckeye long enough to figure out the connection yet. Feverfew could have a similar action, I don't know, but it does come from the same part of the world that honeybees come from so you'd think they'd be adapted to it ... Insecticide use is very bad for bees - not just yours, but all your neighbors too. There are various epidemics among bee hives too, varroa mite for one, and a virus from Australia for another. Plus, there are fewer and fewer bee keepers as people migrate indoors more and more and spend less time gardening and farming. Around here, honeybees need beekeepers as the climate is not conducive to wild honeybee colonies surviving for long. Plus fear of bee stings and bee allergies drives people to kill bee colonies for one, and to avoid planting flowers that bees like for another. Bees love clover, but so many people use weed killers on their lawns specifically to kill off the clover so there wont' be any bees on the lawn. What's a poor bee supposed to do?? Bees love the daisy flowers, and I've never noticed a connection between daisy flowers and bee mortality. I used to be married to someone from a family of beekeepers and I would have heard about it if daisies were a problem for bees.