I think we all go through the panic stage when we finally get around to educating ourselves about HVX. I always make myself sleep on it when I think a plant is looking funky. That saved a Sum and Substance that is just fine this year. I have three hundred plants, and so far I have only had one plant with the virus. It unfurled just fine and a few weeks later, all these spots showed up. At first glance, I thought I had spilled something on it, but the more I looked at it the more I knew it wasn't right. A day or two later the ink bleed started. It was a Lady Guineverre, and someone had the exact hosta from the same place over at Hallson's. I have my hostas in containers so it is easy to quarantine any that I am wondering about. You are on the right track by keeping a close eye on things. Just try to buy from reputable places and keep your tools and hands disinfected. Those of us that are new to hostas have to do the best we can. Happy gardening, Mary

LOL..... Women.... you never catch on.... But that's good. Didn't you watch Everybody Loves Raymond when Robert was supposed to make the wedding invitations? Chemocurl, that's true, but they also say "A woman's work is never done... since the invention of the TV!" ;) Now go fetch yer men a beer, bring their pipe and slippers and give him a nice back rub. To quote some great men: Women.... can't live with 'em. Pass the beer nuts. - Norm Peterson Women.... can't live with 'em, can't stuff 'em in a sack! - Larry (of Larry, Darrel & Darrel) Oh, this could get interesting! ANYWAY, I was going to just put up an eye hook (ask your menfolk what they are if you don't know, ladies... hehe) and put a rope through it. Simple and effective pulley system. And BTW, guys NEED $30k pickups to carry home 500 pairs of shoes for whom??? Maybe we should use the same argument: We need a BLACK pickup, and an EBONY pickup and an ONYX pickup... After all, you can't drive the white pickup after September...

Gentlemen, thank you for you responses but please do look at the photos of my first sunflower here https://www.plantvillage.com/gardens/82?locale=en . I sprouted them in the same paper cup, transplanted two times and I was more worried than happy they didn't grow any taller, at least being a first timer. I believe I can improvise a little differently following what I learnt from previous time but needed a few tips so as to take care of anything that might come in the way of successful sunflowers in the end. As for how I water them, I observed pretty well from last time how much I need to water. I have been using spray gun and have been carefully watering each paper cup and only letting the sun evaporate the water. I have used a mixture of sand and manure and I have observed that sand tends to dry off faster than manure so I am also carefully not to let the seedlings have to push through hard soil. I would say they are thriving pretty well in the paper cups just concerned if I should give them sort of a bridge or a buffer of larger containers in between before finally moving them out to the lawn.

This is a North American native plant. In the right place, like at the back of a border, it is absolutely stunning. It is a good wildlife plant -- birds were how this it was probably planted to begin with. From the Lady Bird Johnson organization there in Texas: http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=PHAM4 http://www.wildflower.org/expert/show.php?id=9424 FataMorgana