Yes, Poochella, I am having an excellent year over here on the Island! I had both knees replaced last year so I am really enjoying gardening again! Planted 130 tubers this year, and have divisions still sprouting in the pile of excesses that i think I will go throw into the ground just in case one of them is a replacement for something I love that did not come up. I also bought one of those "Dinnerplate" mixes at Costco, and am enjoying seeing what blooms from it. So far I have a very pretty soft lavender, and a bright yellow. I have cut about a dozen dahlias all ready and look forward to the full spread of them! My older son is getting married at the end of August and guess who is doing the flowers? Yup! So I have planted a number in the peach/pink or deep purple range for that. Of course nothing is more beautiful then Hillcrest Kismet, but one needs the color in other sizes and shapes too. What do you do specifically for earwigs? I wish they would leave my Bert Pitt alone! I do garden organically but these little monsters are defeating me because you never see them, only the damage.

Julia, the cannas do not make a good bouquet, but occasionally someone will yank a bloom off (it's done so crudely, like a sudden act of lust). Dahlias are not in hospital bed. People regularly steal iris and peonies. One person commented, "I wonder what these people are thinking when they steal flowers." Well, something along this line, "I was very generous in that I didn't take every flower; I left some for someone else." In a regular winter here, the dahlias will usually come back if left in the ground, but I am no longer gambling in terms of regular winters. Yes, it is a lot of work. But the tubers do come up quite easily. One also has to watch them during storage. Definitely more work than daylilies, but a long blooming period. Your climate is probably ideal. This post was edited by mantis__oh on Mon, Sep 29, 14 at 14:38

"At the risk of offending daylily people, I will show a few more dahlia pics (as requested)." Sure, go ahead and blame it on me. ;) They're all wonderful. But I find myself especially drawn to the purples from light to dark Also really like Bradley Aaron and September Morn. And now I want to create a bed just for dahlias. Your tips should be extremely helpful....I'd heard about pinching for better branching, but the other info is new to me.

Thanks, Luis and Pam--I never got notification of Luis' response so just now saw it. Thanks to both of you for your comments. I chuckle when everyone says hydrangeas do best with 'morning sun'--if you live on a property with little of that commodity, but is shady (bright or less bright) most other places after winter, you're kinda limited. Just got an order of several from Oregon, very nice plants. Have them all situated but for my lone serrata try, a Shirofuji, which of course says 'does best with morning sun'. And I have no morning sun real estate left. Oh well, I'll put it in a container and punt. I'll also have my ancient apple tree, under which I've placed an m. Fuji Waterfall and m. Jogasaki, pruned to make for 'dappled' :)