Hi all..I have many many Canna compacta,'Robert Kemp'I would like to trade for other named cannas. I haven't dug my rhizomes yet, but after the first frost, I'll be in the garden for hours..days..getting them all out. Let me know if youre interested in trading via this post. I don't have much luck with GW email! :) Here are some pics. See the cannas in the back. This was taken early in the season, now they are 6-10 feet tall.

aimee, as far as pinching the buds goes, there are those who do and those who don't. Experienced rosarians like Jeri do pinch buds on bands, with the idea that the energy that would be put in bloom production will go toward leaves. I have noticed though that on some of my roses where I pinch off the buds they seem to be producing new ones like crazy. The only fertilizer I use is alfalfa meal, which I pour on top of the plant and then water in thoroughly. I don't use the tea because it's too much work, although I think I've read that if you prepare it properly it doesn't have that bad smell. The alfalfa meal is just easier. If your bands have at least doubled in size I would apply about half a cup of alfalfa meal per rose. I'm no expert, though, and others may disagree. It's difficult to get a consensus on anything because we all tend to do things differently. The best thing is to try out what's comfortable for you and see how the roses respond. I personally use nothing chemical, whether it's fertilizer or any disease control method. Basically I just keep the roses that are healthy and bloom well with just water, leaf mulch and alfalfa meal. Ingrid

Here is a picture of my Francois Verhaert taken 7/19/07 after receiving it from Maryotts in June of that year. Will be interested to see what it does this year in my garden. BTW, I plant directly in the garden and do not fertilize or provide any special mulch or conditions. My clay soil is rich enough & holds water well enough for most things to do well. I too have mostly old varieties but have been buying some newer ones in the last couple of years. Other than watering new plants a bit extra their first season I have not done anything special for the new varieties. So far most of the new ones have done well. If Francois can't, something else will. Best of luck with yours.

Dan and Robert, Whatever shall we do? You singlehandedly led me beyond the limited palette of American gardening as I knew it. I suppose it would be accurate to say that the gardens of my past were very much "Burpee" gardens in that I had Wave petunias, geraniums, hybrid tomatoes...but Heronswood and the catalogs opened my eyes to horticultural riches never imagined. I am so grateful for the new relationship I have with my garden and the world of plants and plantsmen and women. My first visit to Heronswood was a birthday present, the best I've ever received, and I remember wandering through the hydrangeas in awe seeing that this was not the ordinary shrub I had thought, recoiling in shock at the size of the hairy gunnera leaves (easily imagining dinosaurs that must have known it), tucking down to find small treasures beneath the leaves of other plants on the paths, and the blue border. There is a tree near the front window of the house whose name I don't even recall, only the feeling that if I could live near it life would be better. If there is anything at all that I can do to help keep the garden intact, please let me know. And please come back to the nursery business after the non-compete clause term ends. Thank you again and again for what you have given to all of us with your travels, writing, lectures, and collecting. It's a joy to feel that because I garden in the Pacific Northwest and know your work, I belong to something most fine. Sue Hopkins