MaryL.BEAUTIFUL EDGINGS IS A REALLY BEAUTIFUL BLOOM and it just don't mind the heat at all,as long as it gets a drink,so it don't wilt..so far, it only has the one rebloom scape,and last year it had 7 regular scapes then it got 7 rebloom scapes too. but,it still might get a nother one or two. hope so. JULIA> I hate it when it gets up into the 90's but,I hate the snow and cold more. I was raised in ILLINOIS, 90 miles south of Chicago.and use to say as a child, when I get grown,i am moving out of this snow,and I did. course, I lived in south Louisiana for 15 yrs and its hotter there than it is here. had to move out of there, too.thats a long story there. THANKS KAY, I don't stay out very long in the heat till late eveningand my girls fuss at me constantly to stay in the house and out of that heat.but,I can not stay in the house all day. I have always been a outdoor person and hate being inside.but, do manage to stay in more, since he older daughter here, bought me a flat screen tv , bigger then the old one I had, and the younger daughter just bought me a new computer when the old one wouldn't come on one afternoon. I Love it except I hate the windows 8 that's in it. AVEDON> thanks for the looking and the very nice comments.that oriental lily really smells great., That was in a little package of bulbs I bought at wal mart last fall. there was 3 bulbs in the package and this one is one of them, also there was a pretty light pink one, and a white one. MARG. I about laughed my sides out with your comment about the dog in the background of one of your pictures. MANTIS, I really didn't even think about that garabge can sitting there. I had been picking up dried leaves and a few weeds and brought the garbage can out there to put them in.I need a nice very cool evening as I sen some weeds today in the corner of a flower bed, that needs to come out, but as hot as its been,I cant do it right now, until we get a little cooldown.if we ever do, some rain would help out MARYL, Beautiful edgings is a very light yellow, almost a white early in the day or late evening. I Love it.I noticed the pot is looking a little full,so I may have to put it in a larger pot this fall.. it still has a little room left for a couple more fans, but, just a couple more. WONDER O F IT ALL is one that increases fast. I divided it and put a double fan in a nother pot the same size as its in. not sure right now if its 15 inch or 20 inch pot, but, the pot is full already. I pulled another double fan out of the pot in early spring and gave to a lady that comes here every spring early to see what I have growing,and she offered to help me pull a few weeds out of my bed, so I gave her a double fan too, and she was so thrilled.I told her she better take real good care of it aas its my favorite flower and shes lucky I shared some with her, she kept telling me oh she will love it as much as I love mine. DEBRA: thank you for looking and commenting on them. jean

ali, what about putting an arbor in and growing a honeysuckle up it? From the edge and in from the driveway to the tree, I'd edge out the grass from that area and curve slightly to the end of the concrete pad in front of your home, the patio area. All the way to the end. Let's give you some curb appeal ;) Put the middle of the arbor in front of the edge of the concrete pad where the car is sitting, about 3 feet in. From the middle of the arbor to the drive and then going up your house, you could create a path that would curve over to the sidewalk and to the front door. For right now, using newspapers and a 5 gallon bucket filled with water, cover up all grass with layers of newspapers you've plunged into the water. Lay them down, overlapping as you go. I typically use about 10 layers of paper. The more, the better. If you can create your path first, either using stepping stones or gravel, lay down something like visqueen and lay the stepping stones or the gravel over to create the path. Remove the grass where the path will be so that nobody trips over stepping stones or gravel. Take out a V shape where you're going into the lawn from driveway to tree and up and over to the end of your home. Remove the dirt and the grass from the V, so that you've got a drop off of sorts and lay your wet newspaper to curve down into the area where the dirt is. Cover the area up with mulch or mushroom compost if you can get your hands on some, except for the path area. By next year, the newspaper will start to decompose and the grass will be dead, but it adds to the organic matter of newspaper and the dead grass. Worm heaven. From now and thru winter, study up on various perennials and possibly a few shrubs that produce berries for our other feathered friends. Next year, push back the mulch or mushroom compost and dig holes to plant. There should be enough room to the right of the path up to your front door, to add in a shrub. Then the other shrubs could go in front of the poles, under planted and going out to the edge with perennials. I prefer natives. They're adapted to our weather, our soil, they make up our ecosystem. Find a list of native plants for your area, and research those plants as to what hummingbirds like and also which ones make seed that other birds will like to eat on. The native plants won't require dead heading, don't need pruned or cut back so they look better....I just prefer them over all. Now an iris in there isn't going to hurt anything ;)...or a peony....both left by the previous owner that I decided to leave and a friend of mine from TN also gave me a beautiful iris that is sentimental to me. But again, those 2 are easy plants. Hummingbirds will love to sit and rest a spell on shrubs you provide and give you a closer look at their beauty. Too much?? Where do you live? Zone 5, but where? lovefornature, you're doing a wonderful job! It's people like you who join GW that make it an enjoyable site to visit. If you like butterflies and are interested in attracting some of them to come to your yard, you could plant a Aristolochia tomentosa or Aristolochia durior. Another plant I love that I don't know draws anything in, but blooms in late summer, is Clematis virginiana. Another neat native clematis is Clematis glaucophylla. I also answered the e-mail you sent, I hope you got it.

Everything looks great! The cactus really seem to shine in late spring/early summer and once they are finished blooming you have huge tropicals that take over! The castors are going to be ridiculous by the end of this season! If you get a late frost, I would expect them to reach at LEAST 14' Thanks for sharing! -Alex

About the NOID purple: Laura - You are right about the bloom shapes not matching on Lounge Lizard and the NOID. The NOID has very round petals, while Lounge Lizard's are longer and more pointed. I know it's not Lord of Rings because I used to grow that one. Nancykvb - The color is similar to Mary's Baby, but the bloom is 6 inches. Julia - The seller was unable to identify it. Asking him was my first course of action. Out of the dozens of times I have received the wrong plant, I've only had one seller who was able to identify a plant by its photo. I always think that's odd. Several times sellers have replied that they don't have anything that looks like the daylily in my photo. So I'm always left wondering if what I got was a stray seedling.