Here, let's know what we're really discussing: On a practical note, when the adult moths will fly a couple of miles to find a mate or an appropriate host crop for their eggs, will 20 or 50 or 100 feet of isolation space make any real difference? Probably not IMHO. Your best bet is heavy use of Bt powder during the summer. I spread it around my garden on various crops about every 10 days. Alas, I admit that I do not get black swallowtail or monarch larvae in my yard, but I also don't have problems with cabbage worms or corn earworms or tomato hornworms. Unless I forget for at least a month. The beauty of Bt is that it's safe, cheap, and easy to apply. I use my "Dustin' Mizer" and do it on a windy day for maximum dispersal. Biologic warfare at its best. Here is a link that might be useful: Corn earworm aka tomato fruitworm

quirkyquercus and dibbit: Your answers caused me to have more questions. The program won't let me post another question unless I change the subject so I'm putting these questions into a single post. quirkyquercus: Thanks for clarifying the difference in spacing for specimen trees v. trees to form a canopy. In most places, I do want overlapping canopies. Your answer led me to have another question, You wrote, "If I want the canopies to overlap, I'd plant a little less than half the anticipated mature size..." Q: If the mature width is 50 feet, you might plant approximately 20 feet apart, give or take a little? Is my understanding correct? If so, I want to move a few trees planted within the past week or two - IF another move won't hurt them (they are Autumn Blaze maples). dibbit: Grass is not important. At the cottage where I used to live, I had grass paths between beds. The less grass, the less time spent mowing. I'd like to reforest the property using different trees and plantings, depending on the characteristics of an area. The property has several areas that are very different - a sand beach and dunes; a big open field; a protected area that overlooks a cove; a shallow pond that we are laboring to clean out and make healthier. The 'pond' is actually a ditch abandoned by VDOT for decades, the culvert got clogged up, a narrow ditch became a wide, shallow mosquito filled swale or 'pond' into which the summer people threw their trash and old appliances. Some areas are hard to access because they are so overgrown. These areas are wildlife heavena so I probably won't do much except make a path, try to keep the invasive stuff under control. I understand that public gardens may do things for short-term impact. What struck me here was that this garden used groves of dawn redwoods at the entrance to their main building. They can't cut these trees down in a few years because they planted them too close. I concluded that they didn't plant the redwoods too close, that the redwoods are okay being planted this close. We Virginians love our trees. If a botanical garden destroyed healthy trees because they didn't plan properly, they would be committing organizational suicide. I am using surveyer's tape as a reminder about newly planted trees that will need to be watered more often. Thanks for the tip about bamboo stakes and the 5 gallon bucket. I can do that - it's an improvement over my technique. Take care, Pam

I have an Endless Summer in the ground, not a pot. I put it in last year but it was terribly damaged by our late freeze in spite of being carefully covered. So...I haven't had it in bloom yet and probably won't for another year and a half at least. As for the color...here's a quote: "If your blue hydrangeas are flowering pink you can make your soil more acidic using Aluminum Sulphate fertilizer. This is the best way of turning your hydrangeas blue. Using an all-purpose fertilizer like MirAcid will maintain acidity but will not change the color very quickly. To turn your blue hydrangeas more pink, add lime to your soil. These techniques will work gradually. Lime, especially, take weeks or months to work in the soil." Bear in mind that the aluminum sulphate is not a complete fertilizer and should be supplemented for the health of the plant. My Daddy used to say you could get bluer hydrangeas by putting rusty nails in the ground underneath but I wouldn't bet the farm on that one.

Melissa, I, too, was motivated to plant my new hostas last year TOO close to each other, trying for that "fuller" look; needless to say, I have spent the last 2 weeks moving every single hosta farther apart. It hasn't been 6 months and they were already encroaching upon each other. I moved all the big ones as far back along the fence as possible & managed to give each one at least 1 more foot of clearance. Eventually, these must be dug up & divided, as I have managed to fill up almost every nook in my garden. I will try to post pics so that you have an idea. They say patience is a virtue; it's better to space them apart & wait the 3-5 years it takes them to reach full maturity, than to have to dig them up & move them. My two cents.