The seed you can get at most nurseries, and even at Wal-Mart, works great for those whom the lawn is not their pride and joy. Do a search on "lawncare showcase" and you'll see some lawns that will knock your socks off. That one website has a slideshow that changes every few seconds. Just wait for it. If your lawn is your hobby, then you need to spend a little more money up front to make it really nice down the road. In the end you'll end up paying more for the weed control than you would have for the high quality seed. You will kick yourself for the extra hassle you caused, too. As Gary said, the really aggressive weed seeds are the size and weight of dust. When you get a few of those in your mix, you will eventually have that grass for your lawn. I did not see any bent in your lawn, so you may have gotten away with it. However, you do have some coarse bladed grass in the mix, so you have your chores cut out for you.

Melissa, that is certainly food for thought. The original Duchesse is gone because over half of her died in the terribly hot summer last year. I've gotten a replacement band now which is growing nicely and hopefully will bloom this summer, but I'll certainly reserve judgment about it until it has at least another year under its belt. I wouldn't have discarded the original Duchesse if she had been able to tough it out. My new band is from Vintage and Gregg Lowery assured me after I posted above that his plants are from a very old specimen of DdB which is full-petaled and my band should have at least 25-30 petals, so I'm hopeful. It does make sense that an older plant would perform better. Certainly Westside Road Cream Tea's initial flowers looked nothing like the flowers it's putting out now, even in February. They're now about twice as large and 100% more shapely than the flowers I saw the first 6-8 months. Ingrid

Ted, Not from experience, but what Marie has said sounds very true. I am sure once it is more established that next year it will reward you with it's true colors. Oh! By the way. Is that a seedling growing in the same pot with the one in Black pot in photo? Don't now why I noticed, just neede to ask. Rick

carol Here is an old and bad pic of a phal flowering for the first time on the Cassia roxburghii tree Note how small and few in numbers , pathetic leaves ?? This particular plant was always grown in a pot in the shadehouse where it always double spiked often with 3 with a minimum of a dozen flowers at least 4 inches across !! This was the first flowering on the tree skipped the first year have grown this particular plant for well over 20 years . It is flowering again has 3 this year way below standard but it is right on schedule, long ago lost the tag on the variety but it's a hybrid . Note the orientation of the leaves and the lack of a cup where they join?? Has always only kept two leaves but in a pot were pointed up forming a cup. about 3 times larger. It is exposed to too low temps,not enough water and when the tree goes deciduous in Jan way too much light lol The interesting part at least to me ,is that the roots are well over 6 feet from the plant. At first they grew in both directions but over the last year are growing down ,upwards have been aborted . Two have reached the ground and I can't wait to see what they do next lol In keeping with the subject of this post note that the leaves are growing down and no chance of collecting water with the reduced cup but is certainly not upside down ?? Might mention that a pink on the limb to the right{out of the pic) is spiking this year for the first time . Looks way below par so far . gary