Stunning photo Jeanner! Mystery solved. I planted verbascum last year and this spring it was gone, and it was in a good garden bed. Talk about a short lived perennial. In this case also known as an annual. LOL 'Jackie' is really pretty. Good luck with it Brenda, maybe it will like Cali better! Campanula grows well for me, the peach-leafed type the best. No luck with the shorter 'blue clips' types. Delphiniums last two seasons in my zone 7, with decline in the second season. Just too hot for them, but boy do I love them. Raptures. Foxgloves are great too and will grow well via re-seeding provided they like their location. Surprising my Lobelia cardinalis is coming back gang-busters this spring. Lobelia is another plant that has to love it's location or it goes poof. It's growing on the back side of my pond in damp clay, partial morning/mid day sun. Full shade from afternoon sun. Next to several varieties of Joe Pye Weed (eupatorium). Also, great blue lobelia. QUESTIONS for the plant people. My Lousiana iris plant (Black Gamecock) is huge, but has never bloomed. All my other iris (Siberian, species, yellow flag, Japanese) bloom with no problems. Could it want a lower Ph? My soil is clay and tends to be 8.5 and the city water here is also 8.5. Rain is about 5.5 to 6.0 It started as one small fan and is now 3 feet tall and just as wide with many fans. It's lush looking. It is on the damp left side of the pond near my other pond marginals that do bloom (those listed above). I fertilize once per year in early spring with general purpose Miracle Grow, but maybe I should try Miracid or something else? I have an Endless Summer hydrangea nearby that blooms pink (as proof of the higher Ph). I need ideas - thanks. -Susan

Great pics of fronts & looks like you have the ID on most. I love ferns, too. I can't help you much as I'm from western WA with different ferns; however, I thought it might be helpful to remember what type of soil the ferns prefer... humus rich with some tolerating dryness once established. Also, fern growth is a mound & those might be a bit too close to the brick wall to mature into their lovely mounds. Some ferns here grow 12" crowns, so need a lot more space that it appears you've given them. Maybe you can go back to the woodland areas of your place to view the mature specimens growth & gather more forest humus for the new plantings. I've moved some of our native ferns from our backyard forest to inside the fenced area for a fuller native garden section. If I get a large enough rootball + the native soil & move them early in the season to get spring rains they thrive. I also mulch with lots of my bagged shredded maple leaves as they would have in the forest, but without the weed seeds :o). Some like licorice fern grow on rotting logs, so you must move the piece of log & it pulls off easily with your hands to set on top of humus rich soil in similar light conditions. If I move them later once we have dry summer weather I have to water them weekly and daily in 90 degree weather if I want them to make it. Maybe you can grow native wildflowers there, too. Ours mostly bloom in spring, so I also plant our native ferns in my mixed beds for contrast. Corrine

I didn't know we had a "Name That Plant" forum. Very handy! And I have a native shrub I want to identify with yellow flowers that blooms in the fall. I hope I don't forget to take a pic and post it over there. Dang...I know I'll forget by the time it blooms. Remind me, Jan! ;-) Kathy

@iochroma "I would weed out 1, 3, and 6. Use that space for edibles." You didn't identify 1, 3 and 6 and suggest I weed them out. Is that because they are inedible or dangerous? Or you just don't recognize them? Can pepper tree leaves be fed? I have a lot of mature ones.. @socks I do have a lot of stuff growing right now but this is very unusual. I'm planning a major landscape makeover and prior to the crazy rains I hardly had anything growing. Now the grass and weeds are knee high -- or higher. Perfect timing for the tortoise which I just got a few weeks ago. Prior to the rains my land was pretty barren from lack of attention. @ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 My tortoise is a baby, about the size of a golf ball so I provide all of its food in the enclosure. Won't be big enough to be left outside for years. And even then, it will have to be in a protected space to keep predators away, so even then I'll have to provide its food. If "agressive reseeding" weeds means that they will keep reproducing that is fine. Grass and weeds are the preferred diet for this type of tortoise, so I don't mind until I get my landscaping done.