Hello everyone! Seeds of aquilegia will soon ripen in my garden and I would like to exchange them for other varieties of which I do not have. I live in Russia. Here is a photo of the varieties of aquilegia that I have. And a wonderful mixture of pink and blue aquilegia)) I also have pulsatilla seeds harvested already this year. I'm looking for seeds - Aquilegia viridiflora 'Chocolate Soldier' (Chocolate Columbine), But I will consider any proposals. Write me elenashcherbakova75@gmail.com or PM. Best wishes, Elena.

Sean, Thanks for continuing the discussion. From your answer, it seems that me your previous contractor knew what was what. I am familiar with SoCal soils which are very clayey including underlain with caliche and the crushed rock is good for this soil. How deep was the amendments applied? I am not familiar with the 80/20 mix? Is that Organic/Inorganic ration or Nitrogen/phosphorus. I assume they did a soils test before they applied the amendments anyway. Drip irrigation is the most efficient irrigation method (90%) but like anything else that assumes perfect application rate and timing for the soil type. The brown and black hoses are drip systems. Soaker hoses are not as efficient and tend to over apply water because their rate is not uniform over their length. To help your drip lines with uniform flow, they should be place with a slight down slope. This is not crucial with level ground but not with a moderate up slope. The point of drip is to apply water where the plant can use it and not anywhere else. That is the root zone. Different plants have different root patterns. Some have shallow roots that are dense near the surface so weeding can damage roots and mulch is very a effective way to protect the roots and minimize weeds. Other plants especially trees have deeper roots that search farther from the plant usually to the edge of the tree's canopy drip line. Drip's water plume shape is pear shaped downward. The plume's ability to move out sidewards is dependent upon the fine particle make up of the soil. So clay soils do better than sandy soils. The surface lines are for the shallow rooted plants and the brown should be more for the trees, but they can be used for both. Larger plants and trees should have loops of varying sizes until they are well established and probably do not need to be irrigated anymore. The lines below the ground are to get to the deeper roots and are not susceptible to animals searching for water. All drip tube is susceptible to clogging. The non-visible lines are harder to detect that they are not working. Again frequent probing is what a gardener does. If you want a totally hands off landscape, hire a gardener to periodically check your system out and is working properly. You can work out what your plants need in evapo-transpiration (gal of water/day or week) from info from university research appropriate in your area. You need to research your drip system's flow rate( gal/min) and you can calculate how long each valve needs to stay open to deliver that amount. Then you check the drip plume pattern to see if your water gets to the all the roots. This takes probing the root zone and seeing what is going on. Your new landscaper should understand everything I have mentioned and be able to take you through all the calculation of his design and why he did what he did. JMHO. Aloha

If you are near Sacramento, try Green Acres nursery, one on Jackson highway between Watt and Howe, and one up in Roseville on Galleria. Bushnell Nursery in Granite Bay, on Douglas should have them too. If you're closer to the Davis-Vacaville area, Lemuria Nursery in Dixon usually has a selection of them (and would probably be cheapest). Try the Chocolate variety for a dark, Pink Stripe and Apricot Queen are also very pretty, but lighter. The ones that are mainly yellow tend to burn in full sun in the Valley. For a nice photo collection of Phoriums, the San Marcos wholesale nursery website is the place to go. (They're probably where the ones you buy retail came from). Here is a link that might be useful: san marcos wholesale nursery website

I have quite a few different kinds, the species P. tenax, 'Apricot Queen', 'Maori Princess', 'Maori Queen', 'Pink Stripe', 'Yellow Stripe', 'Guardsman', 'Jester', 'Platt's Black', 'Jack Spratt', 'Tom Thumb', 'Bronze Baby', etc, etc. Here in my neighborhood they are really sensitive to the depth at which you plant them, they tend to rot and die if planted even an inch too deep. Also make sure that mulch is no closer than a couple inches away from the base of the plant. I plant them an inch or two higher than the surrounding soil and that seems to really help. Some landscapers planted a dozen or so at the house down the street and put them all too deep, and I knew they would all die and they did! They have the best color with morning sun/afternoon shade. They grow fine in full sun but the foliage color isn't so good--looks bleached. I have the best results if the rootball is quite large (5 gallon sized) before I put them in the ground. If I buy a small one I grow it up to 5 gallon size before it goes in the ground. They are really pretty happy in pots in morning sun/afternoon shade for a long time if you keep giving them a bigger pot whenever the roots fill up the one they are in. Also here they can get mealybugs, I have to check for those.