countrycarolyn: I won't give them a haircut then and leave well enough alone. The main thing is to get them planted, will give them a month for the roots to work on down although it sounds like they're tough and could just have stuck them in the ground without repotting. ladyrose65: You confirmed the dianthus, too. Where did I get the raspberry seeds? I've been all over everything, search engine here, google advanced, my old computer fired up twice and got into my mail but it hangs now. I can't post real names and didn't find the raspberry trade, know it was somebody on this forum. In my mail I did find mastergardner2003 but she sent me the currants; I found conniejw who designed that beautiful space in front of my garage with some special software she has. I know it wasn't they. This name sticks in my mind of having corresponded with, brandmulvaine. It might have been she but I couldn't find the trade emails. Also I traded with Carol (hosta) but know it wasn't raspberries. It will be prob 3 yrs before I get any seeds. Was going to buy some at amazon but they wanted $9.95. But I'll post a link where the plants are much cheaper because I might have bought from there if I hadn't found mine. Oh yes, I'll keep the sprout pics and may take more later if they look promising. northerner_on: Strange error, not so much here but what I went through trying to find that raspberry exchange. I'm not sure I sent anything in return; if I did it might have been alyssum and lupines I had a ton of that I bought. Now the lamium, that is not a pleasant prospect because my yard is a total mess. It's already worked it's way through that small garden space and may smother some of my plants and working north into a bare spot. I've got a terrible invasive behind the garage and want to cover the fern and do roundup on the whole mess. Then I'd like the lamium there if I knew how to transplant it. Evidently it roots easily, grows a ways, puts down roots, then more with more roots is how it travels. Yes I have two other lamiums, one variegated and one plain, I think, with pink flowers. They haven't been such a problem at all. I just ripped them back a little when they were threatening my new brunera, have had several years now, haven't gotten into the lawn, seem to want to move toward more shade. So thanks so much everyone for the help and advice. Now the hard part. Getting them in the ground in the right places. My backyard is pockmarked from tree chunks falling last summer, and I shouldn't even walk in it but do very carefully. Am 69 and fell when the lawn guys were here but easy fall. The tree people last year wanted $800 to fill the holes, nothing doing after spending $3000 to have the tree taken down which was cheap for that. One of the best tree companies wanted $10,000 included stump removal, no way. but if I break something, maybe I'd better get some topsoil and pay somebody to fill them in. I want to be able to enjoy this again without all this other stuff to mess with, and just because things are difficult now, I don't want to give in to a sense of futility. Here is a link that might be useful: Bristol Raspberry Plants

Trudi is right, although I've seen some so called biennials last for quite a few years. What started me on Sweet Williams was one such plant which was on it's 5th year. This was at a nursery where the gardens were tended by one of the kindest gardeners I've ever met. He looked as though he was in his eighties and noticed my curiosity about a particular flowering plant. He told me he loved the colour - a beautiful velvet wine red laced with a tinge of white - and had never let it seed in five years as he had been unable to grow another like it. The footing had grown to 1 foot in diameter and the plant was a knock-out!! I've decided to try what he did and this year I separated all the seedlings - no hunks - for about 15 plants. We have SWs in my daughter's garden which have been there for 4 years. They have to be the same plants as we've never let them seed. Now I just want to separate one colour from another.

Do you need solid purple, or will reddish purple with a white edge do? I have grown plenty from seed and they are very easy but it took me two winters to get blooms and it was a seed mix so I had to wait all that time to weed out the colors I didn't want. Or are you talking about the short pale lavender dianthus? I grew that from seed too. I didn't collect seed this year and I didn't write down which pot bloomed which color, but they will bloom again next spring/early summer and I have plenty to share. I was growing them for the darker red with white edges so I weeded out the solid colors - oops.

Just finished wintersowing these commercial seeds and have some leftover for trading. I prefer to do multiple trades with each person if possible. I am still looking for a number of items on my "wish" list. Let me know if you're interested in trading. Thanks....Heather Here is a link that might be useful: My trade page