I love this thread. :) Well, it's August, so right now I pretty much hate everything in the garden. It all looks ratty this time of year. One exception: the "fall garden" is in full glory right now! If you don't have a dedicated fall garden, it is something I highly recommend! When everything else is spent and starting to get crispy, fall bloomers are just getting started. Mine has Early Amethyst Beautyberry, Limelight Hydrangea, a few tall purple Zinnias, Mexican Bush Sage, Autumn Joy and Matrona Sedum, Homestead Purple Verbena, Karley Rose Pennisetum, Fothergilla Major Mt. Airy...and this year I tried some Blackie Sweet Potato vine around the edges. It is SO NICE to have something to look at right now that doesn't look like death eating a cracker! Anyway, to the original question: I have decided I have way too many daylilies (only 25 or so, but still too many for me). I am so sick of pulling out dead foilage, and it started this year before they had even bloomed. I'm going to reduce them by about half in the fall, keeping only my very favorites. I've also discovered they are a bad thing to have at the front of a border for the dead foilage reason, so several will have to be moved.

*******Greybird....... You are right that different climates, different soils impact how we work with our plants to bring them through drought. I have what I consider cold winters... average night temps are down to 20F or to low teen, but the ground never truly freezes because days temps move up into the 30s and 40s, but it is cold enough to impact top growth and at my elevation and I do have some snow. My summer temps are usually in the high 90s and low 100s, but often we have weeks of temps around 110F and because there is no rain during the summer months, I think of my climate as arid but it does have more humidity than a desert because I believe the trees in the forest surrounding the town make a difference in the humidity. I laughly say that I don't have soil. I have glacier slurry. It's tightly compacted rocks with clay between the rocks. It can rain buckets for days and I will never see a puddle of water as it drains faster than I expected. California has a regular cycle of drought years and wet years. In a drought year, we get, on average 20" of rain. In a wet year, it is twice that. Last year, we got 47" of rain ... all in a few months rather than spread out over the whole year. It's learning the botany of the plants that has helped me learn how to garden here, but even then, I am still in a learning mode. I have discovered that rose holes that drained slower when a rose was first planted, now drain much faster. I think that is because the water has found a way to seep through the glacer slurry under the rose hole. I won't know for certain until I dig up a few roses to move them. Mulch helps keep the soil temps more even and keeps the rocky glacier slurry cooler, so there is less heat impact on the plant's in the root zone. There is no shade in my gardening area, so studying the impact of heat on the plants and finding a way to help them survive has been an ongoing learning experience. ********Strawberryhill: Even with years of mulching with organic material, I am not going to improve the "soil" in glacier slurry. I have to remove the tightly compressed rocks first. This year, I am putting down a very heavy layer of wood chip mulch on top of my organic mulch which consists of white oak and black oak leaves collected from a friend's oak grove. (I dig down to get the decayed stuff.) To counter the nitrogen loss, I use calcium nitrate in the spring spread around the root zone and the plants seem to like that. btw... I don't plant any companion plants in the rose beds and weed diligently because I want no competitors for moisture. I have other areas for those kinds of plants and NO lawn. It takes more water to maintain a lawn than it does a large bed of roses. I love sharing this kind of information because my climate is one of extremes that most people never experience. Smiles, Lyn

I think I have what you are looking for. I too got mine from my great grandmother in the 70's. I have rooted a number of plants this summer and would gladly share with you if I could. I have not seen another any where. I do not know the real name.

Ingrid thanks...I will try to find a permanent home for the Clematis. One more plant I do not have to haul in, come winter :-) Pam hi there. No the in ground brugs are trying to come back. So far it is like half/half. Depending on the spot and I guess how old they were when planted last year. It is the ones I hauled into the shed that show no sign of life. Plumeria's gone...Hibiscus' also show no sign...so like I said...Plants either go in the ground or else ! Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Siam :-) You MUST KNOW that I was thinking about you a lot when I saw that a short Canna is blooming already. I guess the lil fellow could not wait any longer lol Theresa thanks. Great to see you! It is a LONG way away from looking great...Camera's cheat roflmao. But at least the front looks fairly decent this year. Besides...daughter should arrive here shortly today. So help is on the way and I might just get to finish painting the house this year. 3rd year I am working on. Come to think of it...I might just start painting from the beginning again. Should be just about time to do a re coating or? roflmao Pat I bought the Pomegranate ...p.s. thanks for the right spelling :-), at my favorite nursery in Briggs. A very small town and not right around the corner...well if you think TEXAS...you might say it is ha ha ha ha She had a few of em and told me to pick that one...since it has put on the buds already. Crossing my fingers for yours! Kylie lol. Gosh I miss your laughter and fun spirit to hang out with. Hope you are going to text me one more time so I can safe your number lol. Oh trust me...the pots with the dead looking sticks will stay until I know for sure they are really dead. That would be right around when the heat is killing me roflmao Will you go ahead and enjoy the spring. Glad it got to you too :-) Isn't it just the best feeling in the world when you can go out there and enjoy the garden? Even if it is work around now :-) thanks for the offer. But this gardener is going to go with drought tolerant plants from now on. So what I have, I will of course continue to grow and love. But I will not add anymore new brugs. So.........does that mean I can stay ? Or move on to the Texas forum? lol Time to move on...to the farming lol Not quite over it yet ha ha ha thanks for all the hugs and smiles you gave me back Lucy