Me too, me too!!! Waving my hands wildly in the air and jumping up and down!!! May I send a SASBE too!!!! Please ;0) Thanks Sharon

Thanks everyone. I love taking close-ups because my flowerbeds are too new to look anything but sparse plus I'm fascinated with the intricate & unique designs of each flower I grow. countrycarolyn - gaura does flop but I don't care because it does so with such grace. The thin stems sway with the slightest breeze too. I put a stake in the middle and tie string loosely about 10" from the ground to keep them slightly "bundled." There are still a few holdout blooms at the stem tips too which makes them worth growing. I'll grow them as annuals if they don't come back next year but I think the WS plants have a better shot than the hothouse nursery-grown plants. trudi - I have a basic Nikon point & shoot digital camera. It's not fancy but it takes amazing photos. I only discovered the macro setting in August of this year. It's really pitiful how technology-challenged I am!

As a young plant it may be not have set seed. Watch for seed formation on the stem just below the flowers. Seeds look like tiny leaves but are firm to touch. I watch for maturity...turn slight brown colour from green and fall off stem easily. So far I've collected four seeds! LOL I'll be bringing my gauras inside for the winter as I'm still unsure of their suvival rate in Zone 4/5. Pink gaura did not make it through 2004. But a white species survived last year in my rose garden! sam

I haven't seen the penstemon Palmeri growing wild. It probably is illegal to gather the seeds. I read that the plants generally live to be about five years old, and should not be completely deadheaded, when in a garden, so that they can reseed themselves. I'm saving a few seeds from mine this year. I could send you some. They haven't dried out yet--still on the plant. I do my planning by the height of the plant. I don't take the additional flower height into account. You could plant your beds with low growers all round and put your tall plants in the middle. I don't think purple flowers would be lost against your grey house. Purple and grey compliment each other. There is a new variety of Russian sage at HCG. It is purple with a blue tone--I bought one. The photograph in the catalog makes it look dark blue and they refer to it as being blue, but it isn't. I think it is called Petrova, something Russian sounding which begins with a P. I have a few of the plants on your list. I live in central New Mexico on a windswept mesa. The winds are a force to be reckoned with around here! I find that scabiosas, chyrsanthemums, snapdragons, petunias, dianthus, French marigolds and sages do well. If the plants are slightly crowded, they shade each other and the soil. Candytuft does okay. I have a nice forsythia shrub, and some artemisia. Hollyhocks do well, but rabbits ate all of mine this year. I have two types of honeysuckle. They were slow to get going, but they are doing well. I have about twenty roses of various types. The roses definitely need some shade during the heat of a summer day, or the flowers fry on the bush. Except for the old-fashioned shrub rose. That one is a champ. My dogs ate all of the daylilies I planted when I moved in, but I just planted a couple more--give it another go. I put chicken wire up this time. I have a groundcover Veronica Speedwell which is doing nicely beneath a tree, and a groundcover sedum (cannot remember which one) which is semi-shaded and doing okay. I planted a vibernum this spring, but it is struggling. I hope it survives. I recently tried osteospermum, a hybrid red Marguerite and Euryops. They are all doing well. Sunflowers, of course, do well but they get started late and bloom in fall. I can grow morning glory if I keep it well watered. I have a lovely catmint, which I am quite fond of. I've tried several lavender, only one survived and is doing well. It is a lavendula, again I've lost track of the name. I haven't had good luck with the multicolored Columbine. My yellow one gets some afternoon shade. It has been in bloom for three solid months! I have had zero success with lantana and spirea here. I've tried them a few times. I have three big stands of Maximillian sunflowers, a perennial. It is an invasive plant but stays somewhat contained if encircled with rocks. Otherwise, shovel pruning is in order to keep it in check. I moved to New Mexico five years ago. I considered myself a skillful gardener, but soon realized that this environment was nothing like what I was used to. It was a big learning experience! Lorna