What great ideas. That croton is fantastic, tsugajunkie, Such fullness and health in the center. Most houseplants seems to lose leaves in the center. That one clearly loves whatever you're doing with it! I think I'll get two or three bougainvilleas and try them out in different spots both in and out to see what they like. I would love to get some kind of bloom on them beyond their first greenhouse blooms. If it can happen in Alaska (VERY impressive, Lindain) then surely it can happen here...eventually! Your tree planter idea is super. I have PLENTY of trees where that would work. It will be a great solution for keeping plants from cluttering the deck or draping themselves along the ground. Perfect idea! My house coolness varies, so I would do well with plants that like variation in temps. I thought cyclamen liked cooler nights, and I think I have some ideal spots for them. If the sun's out then it gets in the upper 60's in the house because of the normal and reflected light coming in the windows. Then nighttime cools down. We've had rain rain rain all week so it's been whatever the thermostat is, and I generally like it at 60-ish in winter. So, this home temp will have a good deal of variation depending on how much the sun's out. Plants that like it cooler I'm trying to keep in more westerly windows. One thing I'm more worried about is air flow. Houses are very tightly insulated up here. Winter will be a time of still air unless I introduce some artificial wind on the leaves. Don't know how much that matters, but it's something I think about. Even though I couldn't do my own gardening in the south, I do remember learning the hard way that houseplants need infrequent watering because of the humidity. Root rot found a home with me. When I moved to NH a few years ago my plants dried up and died. What a difference the dry winter air made! Now I'm used to plants needing more frequent water up here. In addition, almost all of the heating up here is oil-fueled furnace with radiant baseboard. This house has blown dry air (propane gas), which makes it even drier than most other houses here. These past rainy days have kept all the soils inside very wet, which I don't like. Our normal weather should return soon, along with some good dry days. during normal times of dry air I am misting them, especially the ivy. Well, I have some fantastic things to shoot for. Now it seems that I need to make my next priority finding more pots! Hello, HomeGoods and TJ Maxx...in May. I suppose I can wait.

Cameron, I started the Inula from seeds obtained from Gardens North a few years ago. If you want a few seeds, just send me an e-mail. I did get a new one this year from a private garden centre. The leaves are spectacular on that one as well - more ridging, leaves much wider, but not as long - and I am waiting to see how it performs next year. So far so good. Newbie in NJ, Yep! I just think it's a nice plant in the gardens. It gives architectural structure, foliage is resistant to disease and pests and retains it's beauty for the growing season, great for late season pollinators, etc. :O) It also won't fall in the many winds we have here due to tropical storms coming up the coast. Oh yes, PV is growing it on her balcony. LOL! The shrub in the front is a variegated Forsythia known as Fiesta. The stems are a maroon red and it grows slowly. Mine has never flowered, but I grow it for the foliage.

The deer seem to like some of the plants from the Lily family. I'm growing several different Lily varieties, including the 8 foot bushy Breck's LilyTrees and found out that the Dial soap in the colorful socks seem to keep them away from my flower and veggies. The deer seem to pass up my area when passing through the evergreens and other trees behind my house. But, they visit my neighbors yards and wander through them and cross the streets via same, but, not mine... When I lived on a couple acres in a heavly treed area area beforehand and had a veggie garden 120 feet long by about 30 feet wide and had a 4 foot fence around same, they would jump the fence and visit my 20 foot long raised beds that were full of veggie crops. There, had raccons that gave me some competition and would even beat me to my corn when it was ready for picking and the like along with some other crops too... Now, in a senior citizens development and container gardening. This year, have 10 containers alongside the house/building that contain Lily flowers and a few veggies in the 30 to 50 gallon Rubber Maid type containers, both circular and oblong. Drilled holes in the bottom of the containers for drainage, and bars of Dial soap in the socks near all of them, and hanging off of the tomato cages etc. I like to use the Square Foot Garden method in the containers. THE PHOTO: Had just planted veggies last month in these 4 containers and have netting across same to keep the birds away from the newly planted herbs and veggie plants. Note the bar of soap hanging off of the waggon wheel. Added more of same to this area to keep the deer away... Have the Pink Flamingos "on Duty" in NJ... This post was edited by Oceanpeg on Sun, Jun 8, 14 at 7:26

I don't agree with blanket statements that more sun is always better. While this might be true in places with high humidity and lower elevations, here in the hot arid SW at 5000 feet, there is such a thing as too much sun, and plants which receive a few hours of shade/partial shade always produce better and are less stressed. Plants here that receive 12 hours of direct sunlight will develop a blasted look in the summer where the color is more grayish-green than lush green. The lower leaves get leathery faster than shaded plants, and the leaves rarely provide a flattened surface to the sun, no matter how carefully you maintain moisture levels. At a certain point here, sun ceases to be a critical component and becomes a stress factor. Plants grown in buckets in these conditions do even worse. They dry out very quickly, and the buckets can get extremely hot when placed on surfaces like concrete, brick, or stone. To help, you can put a layer of mulch in the bucket to help retain moisture, and if your ground temperatures are high, you can place the bucket higher up on some type of stand. Regarding your plants, yellow pear does have thinner, more sharply jagged leaves. It's typical of that variety. Under the right conditions, they can become obscenely large. Since you only have one plant to compare, it might not actually be the conditions that are unfavorable, but it could be the individual plant itself. When you transplanted the yellow pear, was it still in any type of peat container?