nc-crn: yeah, that's always happened to my ladybugs but this year I'm making a concerted effort to have year round planting of plants to keep them around. It might take me another year or so of purchases, but we'll see. I'll let you know. You are one GW member whose words are highly respected by me -- there's other members, but you're one of the ones at the top. By the way, I may have actually turned the corner a bit on building my insectary. There's actually been many sightings of ladybugs this season and I didn't purchase them. I live in a suburban subdivision so i guess one of my neighbors could have released some. I just know that none of my neighbors NEARBY would have a reason to release some. Everybody around me has either lawns or rock and drought tolerant natives growing. Thanks. Kevin

I think Gaillardia is a prairie native. So if it were sown & grown in peat based growing medium, it's quite possible that it stays soggy wet in winter & therefore rots. If sown & grown in poor soils then it may last longer, in a raised bed position with full on sun, all day long. I would surmise, if you wee able to remove the peat moss by rinsing it off & using trashy soil it may last longer. but some hybrids may lose their natural vigor of longevity... I've been a big fan of Jung for quality & value. f they had it but maybe do a search of suppliers, if any are still in stock...Bluestone. used to be a fairly good deal back when they did three packs... Now it's just one. Haven't tried Santa Rosa, but what I did want, no longer was listed last I looked. Streambanks was fairly nice order. As for seeds, maybe 2bseeds.com has it in stock? Or perhaps Stokes, Park, or Burpee, which by now are likely having end of season sales, with discounted prices or sometimes free shipping. I've given up entirely on Thompson & Morgan, since bought out by U.S conglomerate. Good luck with trying out other ways to grow it, to see if it lasts in different areas of your garden. It often makes a big difference & if by seeds, then you have the option of planting in more sites to see where it may perform best.. Then you get a better idea of what it likes & not based upon exactly where you decided you wanted to plant it, in your scheme of design...

coco does not disintegrate, it resist decomposition and last several years.. i have made a quick video showing how airy it is, and it's certainly not "dust" like it's mentioned in that 2 line sentence about the person in that link you posted say it is, and as i've said, coco can be purchased in coarser grade too. i'd imagine mixing the finer grade coco with the coarser coco would make one hell of a mix that will put the 5-1-1 mix to shame and keep so much money in your pocket.. but i think just the normal texture coco is fine, there are plenty of people who use it on thehotpepper forum by itself with amazing results. it does not compact at all despite how hard it is squeezed. very fibrous which is why it does not really need any additives such as perlite, bark, etc..which saves huge amounts of money. the amazing thing about is it has tremendous water holding capacity while still staying light and airy and not suffocating plant roots. there are so many other reasons why it's superior to just about every type of planting media out there. research and very much doubt you'll find many valid negative things about it.

kellienoelle, I'm a big believer in faux silk. Sometimes it's impossible to tell it from the real stuff. See second picture below of a window I designed and had fabricated in the early 90's. It's not washable, most elaborate drapes are not even dry cleanable, (they get vacuumed only) but it can be effective and less expensive when you're talking about yards and yards of material. The panels in the first pic below are each 50" Wide for a total of 100" on the rod,and when stacked like you see them, the stacked width is 24". Each pleat is about 6" deep. Each pleat requires 6" going out and 6" going back, and that's why it takes 100" So the formula I use for this stack set is the width you have to stack the drapes times four. You can use fewer widths, but they can sometimes look like rags on the rods. Pleats do not have to be 6" deep. As a rule of thumb for drapery panels, I usually figure 300% or 3 times the width of the window & wall I want to cover. So if you want to cover 2 French Doors and overall the doors, plus trim, and some wall on the side for stacking is 104", then you'd need 312' of fabric width for drape panels. Using 60" width fabric, that would work out to be about 5 1/4 panels overall divided in two for center draw panels. holly-kay, Drapery is all about proportion. If you view the third picture you'll see why 1 non-operating drapery panel on each side of.of a sliding door is not enough in this case. The doors are 120" tall and the 50" stacked panel should be double the width to look right. The rod would be the same length, but the drapery should be fuller.