Highalttransplant, West facing beds can be a problem, but less so in zone 4 or 5 than down South. Remember that a west facing bed will actually have north and south ends. If it is an island bed (not along the side of your home) it will also have an east side. You will have less sun at the north end than the south end of your garden and only morning sun on the east side. You can also plant part shade plants on the north side of any taller shrub or perennial to give them some shade. As your garden gets full (mine's crammed!) nothing is in full sun anymore - every plant competes with its neighbor for sunlight, just as it does for root space, water and nutrients. As you continue gardening you will find that there are lots of places to tuck in part shade & shade plants, although that may not seem possible when your garden is so new and open. You will also learn to create/find/adapt to little microclimates on your property. Half the fun is experimenting - if you want the heucheras, my advice is try em - you can always move them around until you find the perfect spot, maybe on the north side of a tall grass. Vines can provide a lot of shade too. You'll come up with something that works. My Peach Flambes are in my south facing backyard garden but on the north side edge of a long island bed. There are in a curving line in front of a small Mugo pine, Strawberry Candy daylily, a small Blue Spruce, and then 2 Crimson Pygmy Barberries as you move to the west. You can just barely see some of them getting some early afternoon shade from the little tree and the denser shrubs as the sun moves east to west across the sky. P.S. Marietta Gardens is a reliable daylily source with plenty of inexpensive daylilies and lots of Siloams. Click on General Price List with Pictures. Here is a link that might be useful: Marietta Gardens

Hello!...I have Dragon's Blood Sedum(a low growing groundcover with reddish edges) planted in front of my Autumn Joy, and I just got some Purple Emperor Sedum to plant on either side of AJ to add some color to the sedum mixture. Purple Emperor keeps its dark purple foliage and blooms a reddish pink...it is similar in form to AJ.... I have interesting rocks and uniquely shaped pieces of weathered cedar wood added for an interesting woodland rock garden effect. This area is situated next to bridge going over a stream with spills over into a pond. Adjacent to this Sedum arrangement, I have a Densata Dwarf Spruce tree and a Mountain Ash surrounded by Goldstrum Rudbeckia, Burgundy and Goblin Blanketflowers, Flying Saucers Coreopsis, Baby Goldenrod and Blue Mirror Delphinium.(I love the deep blue of this airy form of Delphinium along with the burgundy and yellow golds of the others...That Baby Goldenrod is a really nice and sturdy plant!..great form and the yellow looks so nice with blues, purples and reds...Plant it next to Burgundy blanketflower for a wonderful effect)...When AJ blooms, it adds its burst of rosy pink color, which then warms up to a brick red color which looks nice alongside the colors of the others....Ooooppphhs...I got carried away!...I love the topic of companion plants and enjoy hearing about what works best together and is most pleasing to the eye....Take care...GardenLove

Mary, First I would say relax you really can't do any harm to these guys. I have divided them by simply taking my shovel and cutting them in half right in place not disturbing the one half. I have also dug the entire clump up and cut the plant in half with a saw, replanting one half. I have also dug up and potted pieces of plant material for a swap forgot them under a shrub and re-discovered them three years later still happily growing and ready for this years swap. If your clumps are very large make certain your shovel has a sharp edge as it will be difficult to cut through. What other plants are you growing with your sedum?

Oh gee, bogturtle .... such a loss to change the name to Pickerel in my online gallery. :-) Oh well ... I especially want to have the correct names on things. I will now search my blog to see what I can update there. Probably did a post on it. Danetherton, I try not to pick up frogs and toads because of the thinness of their skin and organisms that might be on my hands. It's very hard not to but I succeed except for the occasional baby tree frog which I will put my hand up to allowing it to walk on it. My natural tendency would be to hug everything I see. I give the bees a back rub while they feed on our flowers and so far they all love it. I know they can sense fear and react to it, so that's the key. I'm in the Piedmont actually. Mountains are 45 minutes away. Bogturtle ... biology wasn't my subject when I was in high school. We had a teacher that walked around with a huge snake on his neck. Growing up in the city I was terrified of snakes and also bugs which I got from my mom screaming every time a moth flew around or a bug crawled by. Fortunately I got gradually delivered of both fears when we moved to the woods 23 years ago. Now I love all of God's Creation and it so fascinates me. I was a good student but 3rd grading period we had to do a bug collection and I was petrified and told the teacher and he told me if I didn't do it I'd fail that period. So, I failed it because there was no way ... parents understood but it left a bad taste in my mouth for biology for a long time. LOL Thank you both for the confirmation.