There are some reblooming irises, although I don't know exactly when they rebloom. I have a NOID dwarf purple that actually has rebloomed in November for me. It was sold as Royal Knight but I think it was mislabeled. Anyway, not sure if in general reblooming irises rebloom in fall or just later in summer. Maybe they should concentrate on planting spring-bloomers and fall-bloomers? Wow, they are lucky. Although I would miss my garden being away that long, lol - perhaps the ideal situation would be to have the whole summer off, but be able to spend a lot of it at home in the garden! Dee

Nancy, This past spring I did something very much like what you describe, I took apart and shuffled plants from four beds, because I needed room for what I had wintersown and also because I just thought things would look better together. I wish I had done it the fall before, gotten the stuff moved and amended the beds, and then replanted what I wanted, cause I didn't get to a lot of it as early as I should have. Everything I moved was in an active, "wake up it's spring" growing mode, and suffered setbacks. A lot of stuff didn't bloom, such as peonies, which had grown too big really for transplant. But I think they survived, they were just very floppy. I'll see how they look next spring. By the time I got around to moving my butterfly bush, it was too late, and it didn't survive being transplanted. Anyway, my advice is to move stuff around now. You still have plenty of time there in Zone 7. If you can afford to hire help, I'd advise it. My DH helped me spread compost and move the big clumps of daylilies and peonies, but I did the rest and it was exhausting. Also, anything that you're moving, make sure the spot you're moving it to is ready for it, even down to having the hole dug, before you dig it up. The logistics of doing that this past spring was a bit of a nightmare, especially since DH only helped on weekends. Hope my advice helps. I rambled a bit, but my main point is -- do it now, not in the spring. Alison

Spring is ideal but early fall is fine too. The trick is to ensure its well watered prior to the first freeze. Abies DEMANDS well drained soil. They can really struggle in wet soils when the snow melts if its not draining well. This is the very reason you will "rarely" see this plant growing in clay soils successfully. I learned the hard way that as a species there are seed variants (hopefully that is the right terminalogy) and therefore there are various shades of blue, silver and green. My neighbor has one that is turqouise and mine are green. I bought them in March and asked why the plant looked so green and he said it will be blue when it flushes...not what a lieing jag off. Obviously you'd have more control with selected cutlivars. Avoid 'Candicans'. It has awesome cones and needle color but they are very thin, gangly looking plants. Its been consistent in the ones I've seen in person. My neighbors plant. Congrats on your first potential conifer. Be sure to venture over to that forum.

I'm storing small potatoes in the crisper of my fridge this year. These are a purple variety that Tom Wagner developed and Darrel Jones of Selected Plants sent me last spring. He says he keeps the small taters in the crisper. Just make sure the temp is set above freezing and then a short while before you wish to plant remove them and let them develop sprouts. So far mine seem to be storing fine. Since he told me this I've had others that save and plant a lot of taters say they set the temp on an old ice box where it stays around 40 degrees and feel the whole ice box except the freezer with taters. Say they keep well to eat or for seed potatoes. I remember the old silos they used to store them in along the Arkansas vallley. Just like a silo pit with a top over it. They would fill them up in the fall and they would keep most of the winter in them. Jay