I am interested in these: Iris Charuese Chalice Iris Light LavenderIris, mixed bag, blues, reds, purps, yellow, white , pinks.singles and bi-tones, some tri-tones,scented and unscented. Iris pruple/blue. large flower, scented Iris dk red Iris purple blend and yellow /white - Hostas green and white striped/lavender flower narrow leaf green , lavender flower penstemon Mountian Fountians Coral Bells (RED flowers)Huechea Gailardia (blanket flower) Fanfare, Goblin, Burgundy Coreopisis Sunray daylilies: David Kirchoff Tierra del Fuego fan Tierra del Fuego fans Raspberry Winter beautiful unknown pink blush w/ white/ lav blend, many blooms fan silken touch fan Picasso fans Blue eyed soul mate fan Spanish Sketch fan Kate carpenter -Ruffled Pantaloons huge flowers a few fans of unknowns also Hope we can work out a deal. Chris

You did say 18 FEET, not 18 INCHES? That plan, then is shot, now I don't know what to do. I've only been feeding there since last fall, and I do like to feed all year, but maintaining 2 bird feeding stations gets expensive, especially when I buy unsalted dry-roasted peanuts for the squirrels and English walnuts (and other nuts if I can afford them for a treat). I hammer the Brazil nuts so they won't ruin their teeth :-). The nuts got to be too expensive, so I just threw one a day out there, lucky the squirrel that got there first. Squirrels will eat corn, but they just take the inner kernel and leave the rest, and I'm here to tell you they like nuts and sunflower seeds better, especially the striped ones over the oil ones. I've hardly any place to grow anything RIGHT. In desperation, I was going to plant some tomatoes along my brick porch and protruding stoops facing west (maybe not a good idea) and I have been feeding birds on that stoop for YEARS. There are sunflower hulls all OVER the ground in that spot. It doesn't seem to faze a forsythia I planted last spring just a few feet back. Morning glory volunteers sprang up there last year and went nuts climbing all over my new porch rail and a bunch of other stuff. I'm going to have to think about this. I could move where I feed them someplace where I never will plant flowers. Hmmm. Just had my yard mapped with a bunch of spray paint and flags. I could feed right over the phone box, why it's buried there is a mystery (but I probably shouldn't sink a post there). Then I could scoop out all that bad dirt and fill with topsoil, another gruelling task I'm just not up to with everything else I have going. I am having rotten luck with a lot of things lately. But thanks for tipping me off. I can quit the sunflower seeds in back, I buy extra striped ones for in front for the squirrels and chipmunks, and maybe find bags of just safflower seeds for the cardinals and get a regular mix with no sunflower seeds in it. Maybe that is the answer to the back bird feeder. That is right outside the back door in the lawn. The Patriot hostas are out behind the garage becaue I didn't have a place for them either, didn't want to look at them. Now I have them mulched. Since it's pretty weed-free behind the garage now, and part shade, I was thinking of black raspberries, partial shade mix or Knockout roses or something. I just can't seem to get it together. I'm usually on the old garden rose forum, and you should see what a mess I've made with my latest planting scheme :-(. But I keep planting more stuff as fast as I can. Sorry it's so long, I read the article, and it's kind of a shock, but better before I bought a bunch more expensive plants for some of those places. Here is the area I am talking about, I must say you have been so patient with me, I feel like a complete ditz, and it's not as if I've never grown things before, just not hostas and heirloom roses and some of the new things I'm trying to grow:

Columbine Hybrids (3 month bloom time) Interrupted Fern Montana Centralia (sp) Bleeding Heart Violets, found in lawns everywhere! Wintergreen (edible) Mints, (they grow in shade and are less invasive that way) Sweet Woodruff mounding geraniums (perriennial, pink) Ghost Ferns (look like japanese painted but huge) Varigated iris German Iris I planted Roses with mine too...in deep shade, Someone in the rose forum has just screamed! WHOOPS! anyway it works for me. They're blooming, the Ghost Fern and Varigated Iris are in with my giant hosta's and hold their own structure-wise. I use the chartruse sedum and sweet woodruff as fillers, violets and columbine too. Go figure! My girlfriend keeps actually reading the sun requirements on plants she purchases, I just slap them in where I have a hole in the planting and things either work out or get moved. Lungworts! I almost forgot! Good Luck with the Hosta congo line you have!

Im sorry jmcbackyarddigger!! I didnt mean to steal your post!! very sorry for that!! The poison ivy is gone (Thank someone, probably the doctor that put me on steroids!!) And yes Ken i am surrounded!! but i love this little city of Ferndale, MI!! cant think of anywhere else I would want to live!! But the yards are SO small and the double lots here are too expensive (and a double lot here is probably a 1/4 acre! I dont know!)It would be nice to live out in the middle of no mans land, but I really hate to drive over 40 miles to work one way. and that is how it is around here!! even the city of South Lyons (which was farm country 10 years ago "and is only about 25 minutes from home on the xway> now even has a McDonalds!!! would you believe that!!! it is so built up now!!! my parents used to drive out there when we were kids (8 siblings, and not much money) to go see a movie for less than a dollar each!! That is where I get my hair cut ( friend owns a barber shop) so I know how much it has changed in the last 10 years !! I would love to go back when nothing ws open after 9 pm and life was SOOOOOO much slower (not even a gas station was open on sundays!!! let alone a BEER STORE!!! (and this is not the Quadrillion acre woods that winnie the pooh lived in) this house was built in 1918 and so was this tight knit comunnity) probably spelled wrong there!! OOPS!! I am rambling..... uh oh yeah now I know, Pics on the hosta forum SORRY!! Ken you are bad for distacting me!! now i am onto wine cause i forgot to pick up the BEER when i got out of work!!! okay now for some answers I guess and hopefully in order as they appear to my eyes ( the wine is starting to hit me faster than the beer ever does!! ) and this cat is sitting in my lap which makes it more diffifcult to type (she is really ornery tonight!!) sunny east texas pic 3 the three hostas in the pic are Francis williams (behind the begonia) to the left of that is Sagae to the right of sagae is aureomarginata something (or Oreo Margaritta)! Pic #6 That is Perrilla Magilla (not sure on the spelling) grows just like a coleous, no flowers that i know of (which means no picking out flower buds, and is REALLY easy to start from cuttings, usually i do those in the fall) the one on the right is planted in a pot (with some blue hosta seedlings that you cannot see, and neither can I when i look at it, around the base)the perilla was about 6" tall when put in that pot, and the other in the ground, the hosta in the middle of all of this is Rich Uncle. and the black things in the background are my neighbors garbage cans that I cannot photograph around!! Thanks for the nice comments (always love to here them, dont we all?) Hey upnort!! I didnt even see myself in that pic until i read your post!! (there is a ghost in my yard, or did you get out the microscope to check out the pic? now i see the bird feeder in there, hope the birds arent hungry!!) was having a hard time juggling the two, (the beer can just wasnt taking the pics i wanted!!)so I had to hold the camera!! DARN and i was so thirsty!! Carol ( I should have said Sunny and Carol, Sorry!!) oh wait!! the dryer is done (have to fold and put in the other load) back in 15!! thankyou for the nice comments!! my head is swelling as my glass gets more empty (does that make any sense, this is the wine speaking , it is so much different from drinking BEER) Actually my pond does not get that much sun, only a couple of hours a day, (well maybe 6 at different times) I have a large canopy of MAPLE, elms and oak, all of them are mature. I love the shade that they all make!! which makes it so nice to sit on the deck and just watch the yard grow. and then go pull another weed b4 i take another picture or go grab another can of beer(or grab the 5 gallon bucket and fill it from the pond to water another hosta). that plant is also in pics #1 to the left next to blue angel #3front and center #5 to the left (which is the same plant in pic number, oh jeez #6?) Hey starina thanks for the Zanfel tip!! is that a cream? it only cost me $10 (and 2 hours)to see the dr and $10 for the steroids (insurance). which started to work on the second day!! but took about 2 weeks to finally clear up after 2 weeks b4 seeing the doctor!! oh carolreall tough! (well, and gross!) hey mctavish6! Thanks for the nice comments! pic# 2? is wide brim if i am correct or pic # (soory i have to go back and count) oh, have to go count again...oh and again... lost my thought here... #4? to the lower ledt (i think the wine spelled that one!!) uh left? is ... darn, one more time (darn wine, not like the beer)...hold on, let me go back....oh jeez! what is that!! let me think!! ummmmm oh yah ,,, uh uh uh OH!!! summer breeze next to the uh japanese painted fern. WOOO!!! that was hard to do (LOL) okay, and for the sculptures, there are actually 3 total, only 2 in these pics, a very nice friend of mine was living in an upstairs flat, just around the corner from me, such a really nice guy. was helping him move to an apt around the corner from where he lived, they were in his back yard when he moved there. when he moved out the land lord told him that he could take them with him if he wanted to. they are made of ceremic and weigh between (depending on which one) 150 to 400 pounds each. he told me and my partner that we could have them. (had to leave one behind because after moving 3 we were pretty well worn out) (and kinda upset to leave one behind) they were made by a previous tenant which the landlord (or my freind) didnt rememner the name of. so we picked them up( and not really that easely) and brought them over the couple of blocks to our house! and what a chore that was!! but they are SO WAY COOL!! oh and mctavish? I store my elephant ear in 5 gallon buckets over winter. no holes in the bottom in a sunny window. they like a lot of water. except the Xanthosoma in pic #(have to count again, DARN)4!!! (yes!! okay,getta grip) in a very large pot, in a window. my dining room in the winter time is pretty much a over winter plant area, I have a 7' ficus and some orchids and others to deal with. and for some reason i take the tropical waterllily in for the winter too!!(which all my freinds can attest too!! and the second load in the dryer is done, hold on, more folding and hanging stuff!! AAARRRGGHHHHH!!!!!'' did i tell you that i dont have an eye patch or a parrot? If this doesnt make any sense at all or I have spelled something inkorrectlie, I will blame it on the "charles shaw" wine that i am drinking!!! (or 2 buck chuck for those who shop at (oh no !! i forgot the name of the store!! oops sorry!!) well any who thanks for all of the nice comments (except for KEN, there are no cows in FERNDALE!! LOL!!) Paul ps I hope i got to everyone here! and id this message is rejected i will be so POed