I lost the most plants when I started using a rototiller one fall for new beds. That soft fluffy earth really attracted them to eat almost everything. I also started using a bed above a dry stack stone retaining wall - didn't know those walls are a perfect winter home for voles. Neither voleblock nor gravel nor castor oil products worked very well. now hostas and lilies in bottomless pots (I use drip irrigation & try to use richer soil and water crystals for potted hostas and watch for signs of overcrowded pots since those waxy leaves are so thick -light rain showers don't help them), gave up on iris anyway, long daylily bed on deep wire box. If my wire boxes aren't deep and I use them for plants that must be divided, the roots can get pretty mangled in the process. When I suffered so many losses I used the rat poison in their small exit holes with good luck, but not now in many yrs - this process also requires due diligence, even when its very hot and humid. I have never lost a member of amaryllis family, nor a ginger plant, nor clematis, verbena, salvia, dahlia(I have many, all types), small allium, rain lilies multiply but I don't think I've lost any, fern, lily of valley, iris cristata,iris pseudo., acorus, dodecatheon, gaura, begonia grandis (huge patch), agastache, aster laevis, aster divaricatus, mum, ice plant, dianthus or alstromeria. I know that some of these could be attacked, but they have survived for many years now. I am actually afraid to till again, and I add in small areas by necessity now anyway. And this has gone on way too long - Sorry.

Dawn, on the pansies, I know. I'm rather surprised that we have them already as well. I keep warning everyone that asks questions about them that it's still rather warm for them and they will need to baby them or expect them to wilt and possibly die. People have been asking for them for weeks, especially since we've gotten the mums in. Mine are currently sitting in a very shaded spot and watered twice a day. I went ahead and picked them up because the ones I wanted are one of the harder color combos to find. They're that deep burnt umber and deep burgundy. I don't understand why that shade is so difficult to find around here, it's really gorgeous and just sings Fall to me :) I've been binging them inside before I go to work, before it starts getting really warm. Then in the evenings they go back out. I'm gonna baby them because they're so difficult to find. I've repotted them from the four inch nursery containers they were in to a sturdy 6 in container each until it's cool enough to mix some of them into my potted mums. After a day long foray to the various nurseries around town, with the exception of TLC, I came across them. They looked so yummy sitting there among the pastels and less rich colors and there were only a few of them. LOL. and I also found the Queen of the Night tulips I wanted for a Round Robin trade for this next month. Halloween theme this time, so I have the Queen of the Nights, I put in a plant order Saturday, when I was stuck at home (and in the house!) with heat exhaustion, and ordered several things for myself as well as more for the swap. I have some Jack o' lantern seeds, so I ordered a Candlestick plant to go with it :) and a Lollipop Lily for whomever my partner turns out to be. So those four things will be going into my partner's box as well as some other things I ordered enough to share. Hehe, and with the things I'm sending my partner, I'll have a couple of each to keep as well. I found both pink and white old fashioned Bleeding Hearts on a good sale as well as fern leaved Bleeding Heart, so I will have the three of them to spread around my yards :) I also ordered some dwarf Fritilaria, some checkered lilies (which will share for my box), Green Mystery Tulips, Red Creeping Sedum, Trout Lilies for the gorgeous yellow they will add to my deep shade areas, a variegated Firespray Lily that is just gorgeous! and some winter Aconite. I'll be planting all of this, plus I'll be picking up the aforementioned Claudia tulips as well as some early crocus and hyacinths, I'm thinking about some pink splash weigela we have at work as well as a Cordyline. And I may, if I'm not too worn out planting bulbs, pick up some Full Tide and Superstition Iris and some Angelique double tulips. So that's my planting list for the flower beds so far. I'm sure it will grow, it always does. Moni, I've seen some "pebble" sized Surprise lily bulbs. They grow just fine, as long as the bulbs are healthy. I have some red and some white that a couple of friends sent me in Round Robin swaps and am anticipating seeing them bloom! We're seeing little shoots coming up, so hopefully it won't be much longer! I know that though we don't have any potted herbs, that we still have parsley seed. And I think I've got some extra curled parsley seed if you weren't able to find any. OHHH! Hilarious story! About a week ago a lady came in. She had her husband and two grown sons with her. She was all frantic, and I DO mean frantic, to find some catnip plants. Well, of course we don't have any, and we don't have seed for it this late in the season. She was telling me all about how it's not just for cats, but keeps mosquitoes away and makes a pain relieving tincture and tea.... so, I told her that this late in the season, we carry only a few herb seeds, like basil, parsley, etc and offered to show them to her, mentioning that I'd not noticed catnip on the rack, but I could be wrong. She stopped dead still and looked at me with this really confused expression and said "Catnip is an herb?" It was all I could do not to crack up. I managed to keep my composure, just a small twitch of lips (at least until she'd gone!) and assured her that yes, it was an herb in the mint family. I told her about GW and suggested that if she couldn't find it elsewhere, that she might try some of the seed traders here on the Seed Exchange. Well, it wasn't on the rack and she went about her way after I mentioned that Home Depot also had some Citronella plants, I'd noticed the other day, to help with the mosquitoes. After she left the department, I HAD to go out into the patio! Thankfully there were no customers about and I was able to crack up! I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes! I don't mean to mock anyone, but seriously, how could one know so much about the uses and not know it's an herb?! Even one of the young women that I work with came out laughing and though she doesn't garden and is rather.. "blond" (her description) even she knows it's an herb! I still get a chuckle out of that one! Kathy

Dave, these two have just amazed me. I don't know about the color of the Kimo, but post up some pics when yours opens so we can see if there is much difference. I can tell you that mine opens this real deep color and then fades to a much lighter orange over the course of a week or so. The scent is faint but smells like honeysuckle. The Pink Pansy has been blooming for nearly a month now with no end in site. It has a strong sweet scent of sweet tart candy. Kevin

My guess is Candy Stripe. I think it is beautiful but since you ordered Pink Pansy then you are definitely entitled to receive what you paid for. Yes, by all means contact the nursery :) Tony