r. crossings. What was your opinion on almostedenplants? Size and quality of plants? Do you rate them good? I want to order a pink Rockrose (Pavonia lasiopatala) next spring. I notice you are in Louisiana and wonder do you grow this or see it around there? It is "just" hardy here so I decided to wait until early spring and let it have as much time as possible to establish roots. I did some second thought type of thinking about the liatris seed and the self sowing. Actually, when I consider the # of seeds each stalk produces, the # of volunteers is rather low, but I do get them. Thats a good thing really because it definitely won't be a bully in the garden. I accidentally pulled a few thinking it was grass but now I know them instantly on sight. Mine are just starting to bloom. I've got some "crawlers" out there that need moving but others are standing tall. I think my favorite are the wild ones we dug up in Kansas, Liatris punctata. The roadsides were a solid mass of purple with these last fall when I was up there. This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Mon, Sep 9, 13 at 13:48

Hi! I can't help but wonder why the need for pots? If the "8" that follows your user name indicates your zone, I can pretty much rule out the need for bringing them inside over winter, but you might be planning to use them on a deck or driveway or you might be like my wife who seems to enjoy seeing me relocate them to her current liking! Whatever, I have to use some kind of armor to protect my plants from the voles, which are absolutely terrible here. Incidentally, potting is the only defense that has worked. EVERY one of my plants is potted and then is planted, pot and all, to a depth of 6"-8". The partial burying keeps them from tipping over in heavy winds and helps retain some of the moisture. There are two things that are of prime importance in growing with pots in my garden...the first is to make sure that you water often enough. The second is that you drill additional holes around the circumference at a point where these holes will be beneath the level at which they are buried. This helps to insure proper drainage and also allows the anchor roots (or the taproots) easy access to the outside. If your climate is such that you would normally require protection of your plants in winter, just leave these be and protect them as you would your other hardy plants that are not potted. I use 15 gallon pots for all my Buddleias...everything else goes in 5 gallon. I grow all the plants in your list, except the Showy milkweed. While I have only been growing the butterfly directed plants a couple of years, I have utilized the same methods successfully for many years on roses. This is what the main garden looks like in the spring...the large pots contain Buddleias. In late summer from approximately the same spot. A little closer shot of a few of the plants. A Buddleia "Nanho Purple" that is potted and has been in the same location for five years. Hope it helps, and welcome to the site! Bob

Melanie - PLEASE tell us what you made those markers out of! I have made a few from the clay you bake but it is a little pricey. Karen - WOW WOW WOW!! I got my box yesterday and I love what you sent : ) Iris: From a Distance & Thornbird, Daylilys: Kindly Light & Little Joe, White tiger Lillies. These are not tiny puny little starts - they are HUGE, very mature plants! And then lots of seeds! Annuals and perenials and wild flowers. These are wonderful as I have 39+ acres to cover and I have been collecting wild flower seeds everywhere I have been this summer - my neighbor 'Steve' is rather shy (we have been neighbors for over 6 years and he has only been to my house once - my cows were out) & I even have him leaving little bags of seeds on my step LOL I don't think he cares so much for collecting seeds, he just would like something better to look at besides the over grown weed patch that it is now. hehehehe Also - my cleaning lady 'cleaned' off my desk and I can not find my sheets of paper that the names of those Iris that I sent you are on. All the bills and junk mail that were cluttering it up are present, though! :( I don't think they are gone forever, just MIA for awhile... but when they turn up I WILL get them to you. I hope everyone had as good of a weekend as I did! I caught & released fish, took pictures and saw my eye doctor. My vistion is 20/20 and everything is healing wonderfully! Life is good : ) Marie

Eep, you put me on the spot - it's starting to get that late-summer disheveled look. And yet I'm STILL waiting for some laggards to get blooming! Not a beauty shot, but I take pics like this (with camera held up over my head) so I can more or less get the whole bed in the frame and have a record of where everything is and what size it is. This pic is a little over a week old, taken shortly after the rain. It's hard to see my tiny Juneberry tree against the tall coreopsis behind it, but that's what's in the seemingly "empty" space to the left of the fern. The front of the bed is all shade/GC plants, because the building shades that area most of the year, but it looks a little crispy after high summer because the sun hits all of it for a while. I've started a good collection of violets here and also in the dirt alleyway that's behind the fence - it doesn't belong to me but it was totally neglected and full of trash and weeds when I moved in, so I've been gradually cleaning and clearing it and planting things to serve as ground cover. Immediately behind the birdbath are turtleheads, still not blooming. Along the white wall on the left, New England asters that I grew from seed this year. In the back left corner of the fence, Tall Coreopsis that I transplanted this year, so it's had a setback and is late in blooming and also not so very tall. In the middle back, Asclepias incarnata "Ice Ballet", not blooming. Back right, "Blue Fortune" agastache which is still going like a hero though the flower heads are now pointing every which way. There are a couple of very small Monarda "Pink Lace" to their right. Buddleia "Ice Chip" is on the right of the birdbath. It's looking nice these days, but still snubbed by the bees and wasps that are constantly on the Agastache - though I do see butterflies on it. The gigantic mound of vines on top of the fence is morning glory. I planted "Heavenly Blue" and it has yet to bloom despite being started indoors early under lights. As you can see, if I have a major gripe it is not enough blooms, in general! I still need to fine tune my bloom succession quite a bit, which is tricky in such a tight space. Turning to the right hand fence (east side of garden) I have a narrow bed with autumn ferns and some of the volunteer morning glories that grow wild in the neighborhood. That one, at least, has bloomed like crazy for weeks now. The vines on the fence are climbing up copper wires fastened to eye hooks at top and bottom. When this year's morning glories are over, I'm pondering using that space for some pipevines, or else some other vine that will have more pollinator value.