You know, Lizalily... you could always put your older Dahlia corms up for auction at Ebay, make a little money, and spend it on new Dahlias! In spring, Ebay is loaded with corms and bulbs and roots for sale! And the only energy required would be a little typing, and then bagging up the corms for shipping! Plus, you'd be surprised at how many people would want the older varieties! When it comes to most of the garden chores and projects, I don't trust anyone to do it, but me! Not everyone is familiar with what weeds vs. perennial seedlings look like, or knows that the sod must be taken off first if you want a decent bed, etc... I'd just as soon do most of it myself so I know it's all done right! In response to your idea for adding moisture holding crystals to the raised shade bed, I wouldn't if it were my project... I'd use a bit heavier of a soil mix, and use a good layer of mulch to help hold in the moisture, instead. I despise the new-fangled moisture retaining chemicals and gels! They don't keep the moisture even within the soil mix, and are a waste of time, I feel. I think that a mix with a bit more compost and actual soil, or a mix with some clay type soil, in addition to using layers of old carpeting or newspaper between the plants, with wood mulch over that would be a better choice. That's what I'd go with, anyway. When choosing bagged soils, I always steer clear of the moisture control products, and go for the regular high quality soils, such as MiracleGro or Schultz's. If you plan to add some bagged soil to the bed, Hyponex brand is a heavier, wetter soil mix. By the same token, I wouldn't use Hyponex for any of my containers or anywhere I want to keep really good drainage, either! Hyponex tends to be a damp, muddier type of bagged soil, not good for bulbs! Another item that may help the raised bed with moisture content is an irrigation system... I saw some small, inexpensive systems at Miejer's yesterday that just lay on top of the bed and attach to the garden hose... they have tubing and sprinklers at intervals... the system actually looked kind of cool! The columbine is in full bloom right now, but as soon as it fades and the seed heads ripen, I'll ship you lots and lots of fresh full seed pods! I'm just about ready to give up entirely on keeping permanent markers with their respective plants in the gardens! Every single tag I placed with bulbs or plants last fall either faded to un-readable, or they were pushed out of the ground by weather, critters, and who knows what else! I don't have time now, but when I get some time this coming fall or winter, I want to begin making aluminum tags from cut soda cans... I can then scribe the names of the plants on them with an engraver or just press sort of hard with a pen to "engrave" the writing. I want to hang those from loops on thick wire pieces that can be stuck quite deeply into the soil! It's the only way I can think of to keep name tags with the plants, besides buying the really expensive tags, which is out of the question for so many plants! Dahlias are not my favorite plant, and even though I like a few of the newer ones, I'd have to dig them all up and store them every year... something I'm not willing to do as there is already too much prep work for winter! I have Cannas and Glads to dig, not to mention Oxalis and Hippeastrums! Those are enough! We got another inch or two of rain yesterday... not that we needed it, really... the ground is already saturated! What we really need are several days in a row of sunshine and warmer weather! On a positive note, we picked up a couple of foam garden kneeling pads yesterday, which will really help save my back from bending over so much, and my knees from all the kneeling to plant things! Another box of named Daylilies arrived yesterday, so you know what I'll be doing today!

That's either normal reaction to California chill,or the medium stage of its death too be. If its chill.no big deal. It will flush for you in soucal in February and shed worn leaves. If its serious anthracnose,it will soon shrivel. Shriveling stems is sure death. Don't let it go dry and keep the good care. If it dies,that's not unusual for seedling Mangoes here.

Hi Carol, Yes your box did arrive and let me share with Everyone what I received! The plants look great! Our temps have been really chilly, I've been afraid to send anything 'live' lately. The heuchera's my favorite, I love the foliage! Cranberry & Pear bath soak (I need a few hours to revive, LOL) Gardening gloves (always need these) Fridge pad of paper w/magnet (paper never lasts in this house, we always need it) Rain gauge (really neat, I've always wondered how much rain we get with our crazy weather) Cute picture frame (Daughter ran away with this) Package of plant markers (I always need plant labels) Jap Iris/blue (love Jap IRIS) Asiatic lily (love Lily too) This is going by my Mom's house in her landscape Heuchera with reddish leaves (another one for my Mom's house) Earring set with earrings (Daughter ran away with these too, LOL) Sweet pea body lotion set/gels (I'm hiding this) fruit delight (looks so yummy) Pink sweet pea candle (smells wonderful) Nice notebook (I need this by the computer desk) Journal, photo frame (Daugher ran off with these) Chai spice tea (Never tried spice tea, sounds really good) purple elephant (MINE, LOL) I'm putting him in my car, let's see how long I'll have him. ;) Thank you Carol for such a wonderful box! I loved everything you sent! This swap was so much fun! Better make this short, It's so late and I'm jumping in the shower to try Carol's shower jel, yummy smelling lotion! Hugs, Deb

She looks so happy--not a bit afraid. Beautiful little ones you have there, but they're growing up waaayyy to fast.