jsut speculating .... if we are talking seed ... many named cultivars are at a deadend of genetics ... and the seed is sterile if we are talking creepers like moonbeam .. again it might be a heritage issue ... i dont know about this plant in particular.. but sometimes.. to get the exotic colors.. crosses are made.. that are at the extreme of the species .... perhaps a plant that can take the northern climes.. with a more tropical version ... and the resultant plant is simply not as hardy as one of the parents might be ... i also like the soil issue .... who knows.. live and learn .... ken

I grow them every year. Some years are better than others. I don't remember them ever NOT blooming but there has only been two years when they were covered in blooms. One type that did well for me was the pale pale creamy ones with the orange red center streaks (maybe 'Peach Melba'). Little stubby plants, I wished I had planted them in hanging baskets because they got kinda lost down on the ground. The best year and type was a couple of years ago when I planted 'Alaska' on a whim (it was the spring I was busy planning a summer trip to Alaska). They were the extra long trailing type and they did great, even in the shadier parts of the garden. They did not last long once it got hot and they were only full of blooms for a short part of their short lives... but I was happy with them. I dream of getting ahold of the nice apricot orange fully double type - they don't even look like nasturtiums! Thompson & Morgan carried the seed a million years ago and now the only place I have seen them is Annies Annuals (as a plant).

I'll tell ya what's the BIGGEST pain w/ bulbs. And this error in judgement was made our first planting season in our home (which is our 1st home). Hubbie insisted on landscaping fabric. Because as much as I LURVE gardening (read: addicted) from time to time, I get too immersed in other aspects of life (family, work, etc) and can't get around to weeding for a couple weeks. So, like I said, he insisted on landscape fabricing ALL the garden beds. Which is great in theory. A gi-normous PITA (pain in the *BLEEP*) in practice....particularly when it comes to bulbs. 'Cause low and behold, some bulbs seem to multiply. Like, crocus bulbs. And, apparantly, daffodil bulbs. So this past spring, I happen to notice these mounds of mulch in my beds. What's that?, I say to myself. Move the mulch only to discover tenting of the landscape fabric 'cause, yep, I've got new sprouts from new bulbs desperately trying to find their way out. **sigh** So this fall, I've gotta dig up ALL the bulbs I can find and transplant them to non-fabric'ed areas. And I must admit, as much as I love tulips, I haven't been all that jazzed about having them in the gardens. For what I planted in the last couple years I haven't exactly been thrilled with the result. I also think I made a BIG mistake w/ bulbs in general. I wanted color "here and there" in my very new garden beds (which equates to most of our yard). So I spread them out a bit. I'm finding that's not the way to go. So when I transplant, I'm going to do so in clumps. The lone bulb here and there (be it crocus or whatever) just doesn't paint a good picture come spring. Honestly, what I'm really considering is focusing on early/late blooming perennial purchases for the front yard and moving ALL my bulbs to the back yard. Having 'em all over the place doesn't appeal to me for some reason.

I am probably not going to be posting many pics when asking questions any more because I find that too many people are only looking at the pictures, NOT reading the text, and thus their responses are either directly contrary to something I've said in the text (for instance "get rid of XYZ" or "the color of ABC is wrong" when I've already said in the accompanying that I love XYZ so it's not going anywhere or that the color of ABC is really more toward mauve when it shows up as puce in the picture) or have nothing at all to do with what I'm asking. I find that intensely frustrating. I have almost no pictures of my current house because it's still in "whatta dump" stage. No paint (walls need a TON of work), short on furniture, dreadfully designed kitchen that's a perpetual mess because there's nowhere to put things... and forget outside pictures, a few weeks ago we ripped out almost every trace of vegetation outside (and will not be replacing it until next year, probably fall '09 to get the end-of-season sales) due to a honeysuckle invasion that I swear was growing by feet per day and was starting to attack the porch. I'll happily post pictures of my previous house because I think I did a pretty decent job with it. We're not on Google Maps but we're kinda-sorta on Google Earth - but the best you can get is a fuzzy whitish blob in the midst of a bunch of other fuzzy whitish blobs on a fuzzy grayish stripe. No closeups. Our town is clearly not a high priority as far as Google is concerned! WRT security - we live in a somewhat iffy neighborhood so I am one HECK of a lot more worried about the people a dozen houses down the street breaking in looking for meth money than I am about someone trying to track me down via the Internet (I Googlebate every so often just to see what's out there re: me) from half a dozen states away. I've been email-stalked and -harassed a bunch of times in my 18 years online because of my outspoken ;-) opinions and my ISPs have always been helpful in dealing with it. However, I've had meet-ups with a whole slew of people I've met online over the years, twice flying nearly cross-country to do so, and it's been grand fun.