Thank you pondbucket. um..I havent fertilized, lol. I figured the fish poop, etc..would be enuf? was I wrong? Well, the ones in the lotus pond I suppose get fert. I stick Jobe's tomato fert sticks in all the Thalia Dealbata, Waterlily pots and the lotus pond like every 3-4 weeks, the Lotus pond gets 4-5 sticks. The Iris that are in the lotus pond are not in pots. The iris inground there gets MG runoff from the brug, plus whenever I rinse out the prefilter on the pump, that bucket of water gets dumped on that iris and surrounding plants. The Iris in the bigger pond is in a pot which it totally outgrew this spring, very pot bound..I think the plastic pot is actually cracking. But I didnt want to repot it till after it bloomed, thinking if I messed with it, it wouldnt bloom yet again. That one's crown is at water level, coming up out of the pea rocks. It is visible. That area gets full sun all spring and the first half of the summer. In a couple weeks when its boiling hot and the sun is on a dif path, it will get more shade, uh oh, I hope..I did lotsa tree trimming this year :/ I was worried putting the hostas there thinking it may be too sunny for them, but they made it through last year just fine...if I remember correctly..I dont remember any burning. O wait a minute..I just realized the hosta you mean..the only one you can see, lol..in pic #1. That area gets morning sun till about noon? and late afternoon sun, is only shaded at the hottest part of the day, and not deeply shaded. I am pretty sure that Hosta is, I have no clue, lol. That Hosta is in a new spot now as of this spring so we'll see how it does. I just did the stream addition this spring..last year that was basically a pile of dirt with a couple plants and some mulch. If you wanna see more of my hosta pix, as well as a couple other plants, I have some I just posted the other day in the brug forum..follow the link.. Here is a link that might be useful: recent pix from the other day

Interesting lists - I have some research to do....! :-) Dianthus is another one of those things that I'd love to grow but just has not taken to the conditions here although I've tried many of them in hopes of getting one that will decide it likes it here! I have not tried any saxifrages - for some reason I associated them with being fussy but maybe it's time I tried one or two to see how they do.... Any recommendations for good ones to start with? linum flavum - I'm not keen on yellow for this spot but I do like both the flowers and foliage on the blue ones, so maybe I'll move a seedling one of those in here - I think the color and texture would work well with the other blues in there. It does seed a fair bit and I want to avoid self-seeders as much as possible, but I find the flax not too offensive a seeder, so will think more about that one. That's a very nice looking geranium CMK - does it seed around? The one in the bed now does and is likely to get evicted sometime soon for that reason. The one in your picture would definitely be a possibility - if it is well-behaved. Primulas are another category of things I like but do not like me! :-) Geums (yes, it's me with the weed problem CMK...) are not given entry here because of their pesty relatives! Tulips - species and otherwise - are already present in sufficient quantity. The campanula family have some interesting ones - and ones to steer clear of! Any recommendations for well-behaved ones (no underground spreaders; no vigorous seeders)? E. 'Sea Breeze' looks very appealing and likely to be tried somewhere here, whether this bed or somewhere else.... Germander seems to be a spreader from what I see in i quick search....? I'm still trying to get rid of the dwarf Russian Sage in that bed that turned into a spreading thug. I don't want to put in something else that will confuse my efforts to get rid of the Russian Sage! There are some Cyclamen hederifolium in the driveway border on the other side of the mulch path. They've been there for years and only produce a couple of flowers a year, so I'm not inclined to try more of that tribe :-) Very helpful input...

For plants that require wet or very damp soil, I create a "mini bog", by burying something that retains water, such as a plastic garbage can lid, a shallow plastic storage container, an aluminum roaster pan and where a larger area was required, a child's shallow play pool, made of fiberglass. All were placed so that the top rim was below ground level and slightly tilted for drainage. If more acidity is required, milled sphagnum peat moss can be combined with the backfilled soil. Rb

Bon, I imagine that rumor is true. I heard that Oklahoma County sent a Task Force to help them, at the request of the Logan County emergency management people. County Task Forces usually pull 1 truck each, along with personnel to man that truck, from various departments within a specific county. That allows a county to send some help without stripping them entirely of personnel and trucks they may need to fight fires in their own county. There have been and still are many fires today, but that one just may be the worst one in terms of the struggle to contain it. I hope everyone stays safe and that no further structures are lost. Our wind speed here has really dropped in the last hour and I hope the wind speeds in the rest of the state are dropping as well. Dawn