I'm going to propose you approach this a bit differently :-) As large as it may seem, a 15" diameter container is not very big and I think you may have difficulty in planting one this size that will offer you a succession of color beginning with daffodil bulbs. Unless the surface perennials have a very open root system, it is difficult for bulbs to grow through them......in a garden setting bulbs are often planted adjacent to various perennials so that the developing perennial foliage will hide the drying/dying bulb foliage, but not exactly on top. When you are working within the confines of a 15" diameter container, that's going to be difficult to do - you could plant a perennial in the center and bulbs surrounding but an extended bloom sequence from multiple perennials will be hard to achieve. And too, spring blooming bulbs prefer to be dry during summer, which is complicated with the need for frequent watering of a containerized perennnial planting through our dry summers. Keeping daffodil bulbs in a moist setting all summer - like what would be required for healthy perennials - is just asking for rotted bulbs. And anemones, particularly fall blooming anemones, are spreaders and will rapidly fill a 15" container all by themselves. Here are some alternative thoughts: plant up the containers now with spring blooming bulbs and intersperse with something small like winter pansies, which will give you color throughout winter in this climate and won't conflict with emerging bulbs. And they don't mind a bit of shade :-) Once the bulbs have bloomed in spring and the foliage begins to fade, remove them, heel them in elsewhere or allow to ripen and dry and then store for the summer. You can now replant your containers with your choice of perennials/annuals that will offer color throughout the summer. If you are careful in your choices, you should be able to combine both early, mid and late season bloomers to provide continuous color for 4-6 months. Then in fall, you can replant with the bulbs, etc. Another option is to obtain larger containers (I recommend 18-20" pots as a minimum) and plant them with plant choices that will be semi-permanent - small shrubs, ferns, flowering perennials, etc. Leave some spaces so that seasonal color can be slipped in and then easily removed when that color goes over. This way you avoid having to replant the entire container each season. FWIW, the above are some techniques I've learned from both my own container plantings as well as doing container design professionally. Bulbs and perennials together long term in a container planting are just not very effective - their needs differ sufficiently so that if one is correctly addressed, the other will languish and fade. And the best long term container plantings (as opposed to just single season plantings) are those that focus on plant form and foliage rather than just flowering attributes. Flowers of pretty much any plants other than annuals are very transitory, lasting only a few weeks - if you select only for flowers, what do you have left once the flowering has stopped? But if you select your plants based on their form, texture and foliage shape, color, etc., you will create a container that looks attractive with or without any flowers :-)

It's unquestionably a member of the Solanaceae, and if it's not something you planted and there's no reason to think you'd want to keep it, then you can just treat it like a weed and get rid of it (or attempt to), regardless of what it is. Does the plant have any spines on the stems, chueh? When I saw your photo, my first thought was that it looks most like horsenettle (Solanum carolinense), which is an abundant and widespread weed in many of the warmer parts of the eastern U.S. It may not be spiny when it's very small or young, but usually by the time it gets large enough to flower, it has at least some vicious, sharp spines on its stems. I don't see any in your photo, but I'm not sure. If that is what it is, then I highly recommend spraying it with Round Up versus trying to dig it or hand-pull it. That's because horsenettle's roots are remarkably deep and tough, making it nearly impossible to remove them all without a backhoe, and also because the aforementioned spines are likely to leave you bloodied and cursing. Round Up works well against it, and against most other weeds, too, so you should be able to quickly dispatch it, whatever it is.

Jeanne, I've just read that shasta daisies can be used as a trap crop for thrips. These are new to me - I'll examine the flowers more closely. The leaves do have a silvery damage that I was blaming slugs (which were highly visible) for. Pollie, we've had abundant rain so in a sense, overhead watering. Most of the rain fell before and while the buds were just forming though so I don't think that's the problem. And no other flower has similar damage. Btw what I meant above was "this 'simple' business" of flower growing. I've only just scratched the surface and realize more and more how much knowledge and dedication you growers must possess. And Btw, the lady who asked two months ago for flowers for the wedding, particularly sunflowers, and for whom I planted special varieties, which I've babied all this time - she called yesterday looking for produce and when I asked about the flowers she said, "Oh I won't be doing that; the girl's mother is taking care of the decorations. But if you want to give us a bouquet for the table that would be nice." This lady is renowned hereabouts for such flightiness yet I keep falling for it, like Linus and Lucy with the football.

This website has been invaluable to me when looking for hardy Japanese maples (I'm in 5b), and unlike the sellers out west or east, this nursery is located in the norther(ish) midwest. He gives estimates on maples' sizes based on how he sees them grow here in the midwest, which will be different than the ideal maple environments of Oregon, etc. Also, he has a maple "app" for choosing the right Japanese maple, and you can choose hardiness, shape, leaf color, and size. SO HELPFUL! Here is his A-Z listings of his maples, which I very much enjoyed reading. There are a lot of cultivars he's found to be hardy, some of which surprised me. When I dug around in this forum and on the UBC maples forum, I found his experience mostly reflected the experience of other 5a/5b gardeners: http://www.davidsansjapanesemaples.com/shop/allproducts/ The app. is in the link below. Good luck! Between the Davidsans website and Vertrees & Gregory's book, you can find more than a few cultivars worth trying. Here is a link that might be useful: Davidsans Choose the Perfect JM App