Helen Van Pelt Wilson was certainly famous in her day & obviously loved plants, gardens & gardening. She grew & knew what she wrote. Any & all of her books are solid with info & inspiration. Throughly agree that life-size line drawings are the best for detail. In love with dianthus since first intro in childhood & can barely imagine a garden without them. Current favorite is Rose de Mai for its relatively rare in its clan happiness in Winter wet & acidic soil, along with its cinnamon clove perfume & abundant bloom from early to late. It's not a stand-up pink, but rather a billowy relaxed one, and can easily reach 4' across. There seems a renewed interest in backyard recreation & entertaining that leads to appreciation of nature & plants, if only to the depth of decor at the start. Someone right now is being drawn to a leaf or flower for the first time & may be nudged into exploration of Nature's bounty. All the home arts seem to wax & wane in popularity with the times. Yet there are always those drawn to them whether the pursuit is fashionable or not, and kindred spirits will find a way to gather, as we do here, to keep the knowledge & adventure alive. My son never showed any interest in gardening till he bought a home. His wife's interest was sparked by his, and my granddaughter knows every plant in both our gardens well enough to give tours. Here is a link that might be useful: Bio for Helen Van Pelt Wilson This post was edited by vasue on Sat, Mar 15, 14 at 1:03

I agree with Laceyvail. I wouldn't consider this as an alternataive to astilbe. It does get huge. My white astilbe has a wonderful, sweet scent and the persicaria has an unpleasant bloom odor (to me anyway). It needs lots of room. Have you tried a white astilbe in sun yet? I do have a number of white astilbe in a sunny area and they do fine as long as they're watered fairly regularly. I think in Z5 shade plants can take more sun than if we were further south. Another option for sun might be Aruncus dioicus ÂKneiffiiÂ. I have one in a mostly sunny, dry area and it's doing fine. Here is a link that might be useful: Aruncus

Shades, I sincerely hope I am up to it. I'll be in the way of every subcontractor on the job. I picked up enough of the American Olean 2x4" subway tile squares yesterday for the backsplash at Lowes. I already have the tiles for the exterior wall behind the shower outdoors. I used those tiles in larger format for the master closet floor, and in the mosaic 2x2 sq ft format on mesh for the master bathroom. I like them. They are Italian porcelain not glazed, just total same color all the way through the tile. The hardness on those are rated 5, the very hardest, for public spaces indoors and outdoors, and they don't crack with the cold. Not that I have to worry about that here, I'd be more critical of that rating if I lived in Alaska or some place really cold. I think the most critical parts of the whole remodel will be the roof, the quality of the floor installation, the upgraded electrical system, the quality of the cabinets as well as their installation, and the quality of the windows. Suitability I guess. And I know what I want the windows to do--echo the style and design of the sturdy Lexan window walls of the sun porch. The windows will be something I am super careful about. They must have that open sunny feeling. In my head I have a vision of keeping my cottage style, with a cross between industrial and homey casual. All cleared away, everything with a place to go but relaxed, not all of it visible at one time. That's why I have a galley kitchen with a "L" shape to it. The original kitchen is the galley, left and right. Then the new end with be sort of right angles to it, and thus kept hidden. Sort of fool the eye. The original kitchen footprint is 8deep x 12 wide, with 6' opening when the dining room wall is mostly removed. It T's up to the new portion of the kitchen which is 9deep x 16-17 wide behind that. Part of the long view down the outside wall will be broken, so you don't get the full picture of the washer/dryer (stacked) and the cabs either side of the counter depth fridge. Likewise, you don't see my baking side, and the toaster oven and pegboard where I'll hang stuff a la Julia Child's kitchen. Sigh, I do so adore Julia's kitchen! That hidden part which faces the back deck, sort of has its free end (like a finger) pointed at the fridge, My "work triangle" is according to my own way of preparing and cooking meals. Still a triangle, but it has a twist to it. Eight feet between sink and range, directly across from one another. I guess it is about 8 to the fridge from the range, and then about 6 to the sink from the fridge. The end of the baking peninsula can serve as a countertop to set stuff going into and out of the fridge, which is about 4 feet across to that appliance from the peninsula. Works for me. The cabinet man, James, will be building the window seat as a low cab, heavy duty vertical file drawers two of them beneath. I'll have the right thickness of a cushion/mattress/whatever to complete the dining height bench seating. Just deep enough for sleeping so-so comfortable but not TOO TOO comfy. I haven't ordered the barn door hardware to mount the old heavy cypress louvered door to the master sitting area yet, but it won't be long. I had an estimate 2 years ago, when my plans were just beginning, and as soon as the new/current price is known, I'll order them to be shipped. The real issue right now, is the two exterior back doors I want will take 3-4 weeks for delivery. I want fiberglas, full double pane LoeE high impact with blinds in the middle. I have that now for the front door, and enjoy the amount of light coming into the house. The all-window wall across the back needs to have the two exterior doors onto the deck look the same, so I won't be reusing the old back door. Presently, I am cancelling the part of the remodel which will give me a front entry. It is a matter of slicing off that to stay within budget, or omitting some parts of the job that will give us a really nice kitchen that satisfies my desire to break out of this BOX. If I had gone with IKEA cabs as I originally planned, I could have the new front entry. However, my DH wants good cabs and to keep him happy, that is the option. Oh well, I am big enough to handle great cabs by a good cabinetmaker! The base cabs will be on legs, shaker style doors/drawer fronts. Painted white. Did you ever have any doubt that I'd want a WHITE KITCHEN? With YELLOW OCHRE LIGHT walls? Wish I had the old sign used to be along Highway 90 in Louisiana for THE WHITE KITCHEN.....near Slidell, and where my brother lived until he died in 2013. And beside Honey Island Swamp, where he and I ran swamp tours for a couple of years after I quit working in the oil field offshore. Personal and very nostalgic for me. Perhaps I should paint such a picture myself and hang it near the kitchen. Hmmmm. Why not. More to come. Stay tuned. :^)

I wish. I have no pininana, but I've planted many Echium Wildpretii around. No flowers yet. Here there are- #1- These seeds I planted in the front yard two years ago and the plant wilted in the summer sun. This year it is in a shady area and doing fine, although something finds it delicious and it is always getting eaten despite frequent dousing with neem oil- #2- I bought this one at Armstrong. It is doing good but now is showing signs of dying back (leaf ends turning brown). It does have a couple of flowers. See it there in the second photo? A bit disappointing. on the right you can see echium candicans looking kind of leggy. Not sure what to do with it. I'm getting used to the look. They look like ini palm trees. #3-4 These i started from seeds about a year ago. One is starting to die. Last year I had similar results- after a year they just slowly shrivel up. The second one looks better and is in a little bit shadier area. Maybe my zone is too hot for these?