If you want a small tree at the right end of bed (near corner) then putting in a Hydrangea that's NOT a tree, won't work. You'll need to find another place for it. Earlier I recommended PG Hydrangea which can be grown as a small tree. Burning Bush, common Lilac or Philadelphus coronaria are other large shrubs that make good small, multi-trunk trees. For planting a large groundcover bed, you'd want to arrange plants in rows with the leading row in line with the front edge of the bed, but set back a uniform distance from it. Usually, the same spacing between plants works well as the front set back distance... so let's say for Hosta, 18". Then space them 18" apart in the row. 18" Behind that row is another row laid out in the same manner, except that you would place these plants not directly behind the first row, but offset them so that they are staggered relative to it. Continue the process until you have reached the back of the bed and filled it up. Since you are planting around trees, just don't place a Hosta where the tree is. You can come close, but not so close that you are struggling with tree roots (the tree being the Dogwood) as you don't want to disturb its ability to grow. When the Hosta grow, they will nestle around the tree trunks just fine. Though you PLAN the planting beginning with the first row, you'd actually install plants beginning with the last and work your way backward so you are not crushing installed Hosta as you plant more. That's the manner in which you'd approach laying out a normal large bed. Now let me contradict that. If your bed is only 4' deep from front to back, the above instructions would only allow you to place 2 rows in the bed. That'd work OK, but if you have sufficient Hosta and want a full look more quickly, keep the plant spacing the same, but adjust the row spacing so that you can fit in 3 rows...say each being 12" apart. (Spacing would now be 18" o.c. x 12" rows.) Whether you install whole Hosta clumps or split them up is a factor of How many you need vs. how many you have available. Split them if you're going to need a lot of Hosta or if the clumps are so huge they just need splitting.

Yes, our summers, if you can get enough water, tend to make things grow like mad! My Sabal Palmettos are a little slower than my Minors, but they grow more than one might think. Sun seems to help out a lot also. I've seen Sabal Palmettos out in the woods, under big Oaks and they do tend to grow very slow, the ones out in the sun light, grow much faster! My Sabal Minors put out a lot of growth last year. Here's a few pics of some other stuff that I'm growing... 15 footer (overall) transplanted a few months back and starting to push out some growth. Another Sabal Louisiana, about the same size as the other. A Sabal Minor with a young Sabal Palmetto in the background. Here's one of the same Sabal Minor showing the flower spike coming up. Can you see the coffee grounds all over it? This one had an attack of scale last fall. It's now scale free after several treatments of pouring the grounds, mixed with water, all over the palm and putting quite a bit around it and in the center where the spear pushes up. Here's 1 of 7 Slash Pines that I have growing. Look at all of that new growth! It's about 8ft tall right now with all of the new growth.

Hi Laura, sorry I missed your post, you posted just 1 minute before I made my post haha! The beaches in bermuda were definitely the nicest I have ever seen. There were plenty of large rocks around the beaches, but the sand itself was really soft and fine. The beaches around my area dont compare at all! Definitely one of my favorite vacations even though I was only there for 5 days. My plumerias are doing really well. The cuttings you sent me are growing really well, the Scott Pratt is doing especially well, it put out a ton of growth this summer. The California sunset is doing well too, but I think I will give it more sun so it grows a little faster! My largest plumeria is approaching 13 feet tall (pot included) and is now the tallest tropical plant in my yard (even larger than the Adondila I bought!)so it's going to be a real challenge finding a place for that one inside. It has 3 inflos on it now but I can only take pictures of the blooms from my upstairs window! It's about a week or 2 away from blooming. Looks like it's going to have to get cut back next spring as much as I hate having to do that to my plumerias! I havent posted too many pics of my plumerias this year because they all bloomed so well last year that this year there have been barely any blooms at all. My plumeria Divine put out 2 flowers from the inflo that it made indoors and it is just now starting to make another inflo. My Pretty Princess has always been a late one to bloom and it's inflo is still a good month away from blooming. I hope it blooms before it's too late! Hopefully it will be a warm fall and nmaybe next summer the plumerias will all have enough growth to bloom like crazy again. I hope your plumerias and tropicals are all doing well! -Alex

I'll have to admit that I don't know how I manage to keep tomato plants growing. I use a more primitive heat system with wood stoves and trying to start a wood fire on a rainy day in a tunnel is asking for a tunnel filled with smoke. But today even with only 46*F and drizzle all day it managed to get up to 60*F inside that tunnel and my biggest decision was whether to keep removing suckers which are growing inches every day or protect plants from damp weather issues by applying a preventative fungicide. The tunnel growing definitely has it's own set of issues but the degree of my control over these issues is greatly improved. I've lost a few plants to cold temps within tunnels many years ago when I relied on the cover alone as in 1. row cover within 2. covered canopy within 3. tunnel (following concept that one gains a weather zone for each layer of cover). A heat source makes all the difference nowdays for me but I chose to keep it low cost. An Amish neighbor has a thermostatic controled propane heat system that he claims held his greenhouse at 60*F when it was 15*F outside. We both are growing for profit but I wouldn't want to trade setups. Just like many of you, I have a sense of pride in overcoming odds. Yet I think everyone should erect a tunnel simply to vastly improve those odds. I just covered my 3rd one this weekend.