Interesting comments/suggestions above. I would, however, question the statement that garden phlox are usually (interspecific) hybrids. Taking the "garden phlox" to refer to Phlox paniculata, few are hybrids. According to 'Phlox: An Explanation (www. theprimrose path. com)', "surprisingly few of the phlox garden cultivars of this group (the Paniculata-Maculata Group) are hybrids". This fits with information given on-line for a few Phlox paniculata cultivars; namely that they originated as mutations or stem mutations. For instance, 'David' was a mutation (sport) discovered in a garden situation and 'Peppermint Twist' was a stem mutation discovered in a commercial horticultural one. In addition, the seedlings of fertile cultivars tend to show reversion (by reverse mutation) back to the ancestral wild type. And in the case of the sterile cultivar 'Peppermint Twist', stem reversions seem to occur, with unusual frequency, back to the parental 'Candy Floss'. This post was edited by SunnyBorders on Tue, Oct 14, 14 at 7:26

Big, black beetles are generally good guys. Now . . . the wireworm issue. (Almost forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me, Gillian). The adult of the wireworm is commonly called the click beetle because they "click" when turned on their back. The wireworms will feed on potato, beets, corn, lettuce, sunflower, canola and seed onions. Here's an interesting fact. Mortality in eggs and young wireworms is estimated to be 92 - 98%. If you are seeing quite a few, imagine how many have died before them. All of the information I am finding is that the click beetle is a good guy. The wireworm, however, can be quite destructive. Hope this helps Shauna Here is a link that might be useful: Click beetles and wireworms

suzeprich, I don't know what kind of instructions you received from your source but there is nothing to prevent a pelargonium from coming back year after year after year IF they are treated so that they are not forced to do something they cant do properly. That is, if you provide warmth, the plant will want to grow...if you provide sun, same thing, if you water your plant....same thing. But how much growth can one expect when the sun is low in December and January. So the plant just sits and tries to survive on what it has done and hopes the March sun comes fast. Think of a prune...the dried up plum that looks like a ...well...like a prune. That's how your geranium can look through winter and come back better than ever. But, it must not be given something to initiate growth at the wrong time. The method above is without ifs, ands or buts...its faultless. The other method, to bring it along through winter and enjoy what bloom is on the plant and the little that continues into winter. But, such low sun prevents any strength in the plant to keep going. So it too, can be cut back, given fresh potting soil and it will flower just as good, maybe better, than last year.

Hi Sancho Panza, First, let's dismiss the notion that there ever is a dumb question. There are no dumb questions. Not here. Not ever. Every single question is an opportunity for each and every one of us to learn something or to look at something in a different way. When the OSU fact sheets specify a range of planting dates, those are the dates that they recommend a plant or seed should go into the ground. The advantage of using a plant that is transplanted into the ground is that it may give you a harvest that is 3 to 6 weeks earlier than if seed is direct-sown into the ground at the recommended time. If you want to sow seeds in flats to raise your own transplants, your normally sow them 4 to 6 weeks before your targeted transplant date. Keep in mind that these are recommended dates only, and adjust as needed based on what you experience in your location. That is something you learn only with time and experience. With the recommended planting dates, you will see they come in a range. For the winter/spring planting dates, the earlier dates are for far southeastern OK and the later dates for far northwestern OK and the rest of us can pick a date in between the two extremes based on our location within the state. With the recommended fall planting dates, which really begin in summer, then it is the opposite. The earlier dates are for NW OK and the later ones for SE OK and the rest of us fall somewhere in between. Take the dates, too, with a certain amount of healthy skepticism or, let's say, be willing to exercise some flexibility. Unfortunately, plants do not grow by the calendar. It is we humans who use calendars to simplify planting times for ourselves. I don't blame OSU for giving us dates at all. It is very useful information. Plants, however, could care less about dates on a human calendar. They grow, or not, when the air temperatures and soil temperatures are right for them, and when they have adequate nutrition, moisture and the right amount of light. Make sense to you? When OSU gives us dates, those dates are generally the time when the soil temps and air temps are in the right range for a specific vegerable. It is just that our weather is highly erratic so we gardeners have to take recommended planting dates with a grain of salt. I think that, with some things, we can be fairly flexible when we plant them. I want to use broccoli as an example. In the winter/spring, broccoli can be planted in March. I am very far south, so ought to plant in earliest March. However, I'm in a low-lying creek hollow in a low-lying river valley, and cool air sinks into those low areas, making them prone to late freezes and frosts. From experience, I have found it is better if I plant broccoli transplants into the ground near the end of March and not the beginning. So, in that way, I am not following the OSU-recommendation exactly, but it is what works for me. You have to be willing to be flexible and adjust planting dates based on what you learn from planting and growing in whichever part of the state you're in. Tomatoes are an interesting vegetable in this regard. They will tolerate soil temps in the 50s and will survive air temps (without frost) into the 30s, though they will freeze at 32 degrees or can suffer frost damage even at 36 or 38 degrees. Thus, we get away with planting them earlier than recommended if we protect them from an occasional cold night. Tomatoes are very flexible in some ways and you can use that to your advantage. I transplanted the earliest tomatoes in late Feb. 2012 in containers, and started parting tomato plants into the ground March 12th and continued transplanting more through the first week in May. That's a huge range. All of them have produced fruit. The ones that were transplanted in late February or early March produced many more fruit per plant and they produced it earlier than those that went into the ground later. So, even though you can plant them through at least the end of April, I find they produce well most years when planted earlier. Why not just wait and plant them between April 10-30 as OSU recommends? Because with many tomato varieties, fruit set stops once really high temperatures arrive. Don't be afraid to push the limits a little with dates, or even sometimes a lot. If someone here thinks anyone is jumping the gun and planting way too early, we'll usually speak up and try to tell you why you ought to wait. Another consideration is that sometimes our weather is just wacky. This year is a perfect example of that. Sometimes spring temperatures arrive early and stay abnormally warm. In a year like that, it really can pay off to plant early if you can. When February and March are "hot" compared to their usual temperatures, I start pushing myself to get everything into the ground early so the plants can beat the heat. Sometimes, being willing to push the limits and plant early like that will pay off a great deal, as it did this year. Under similar conditions in a previous year, I planted early like that only to have a three week spell of late cold weather, including sleet and snow, strike after I had all my peppers and tomatoes in the ground and had to go to extraordinary lengths to save the plants. So, when you decide to ignore the recommended planting dates, you are doing so at your own risk, but it can pay off (or not). When it gets hot early like it did this year, if you wait and plant cool-season crops "on time", you may not get much of a harvest because the heat's early arrival shuts down their production before it can begin. That's why there are issues with relying on dates, and always will be, but it is the best method we have than can be succinctly described in a relatively brief listing. Hope this helps. If you have questions about a specific vegetable, ask them. We know from experience which ones tolerate being planted sort of early or late and why. Dawn