I love Delphinium too but I hate staking anything so I haven't added any at my new house. My boyfriend keeps carrying them around at the nursery and then putting them back so I expect some will find it's way here fairly soon. He tends to sneak and plant things when I'm not looking... that's how gout weed came to be in the front and back gardens. After much debate and backing up my point with postings on gardenweb, I finally got mean and ordered him to take it out the other day... and that's how gout weed came to be in the lawn along the new walk way. I'll take Delphinium over some of his other craziness any day!

For blackspot resistance and continuous bloom, you might want to also consider the hardy, disease-resistant floribundas Easy Does It and Day Breaker. They have been very clean for me and are almost in constant bloom and brighten up the garden with their apricot blend colors. The Buck rose Square Dancer is another heavy bloomer (bright fuschia) that is quite disease resistant and hardy. All stay a nice compact height as opposed to many shrubs. Royal Wedding is another - nice hybrid tea type blooms and a constant bloomer, but hard to get. Good luck - lots of wonderful choices out there. One hybrid tea that I really love to grow is Helen Naude - more disease resistant than many, extremely robust grower and a very quick rebloomer.

The primary reasons bigleaf hydrangeas fail to bloom is improper pruning or flowerbud cold damage. I am not familiar with 'Really Red' and can't find it listed anywhere as a registered cultivar, but I'd assume it is one of the many macs that bloom on old growth. This makes it very vulnerable to cold damage in your zone that would destroy any flower buds, if not provided proper winter protection. Pruning back most macs anytime much after midJuly also does not allow enough time for the current season's growth to ripen sufficiently to set flower buds for the next blooming season - you are essentially cutting off the flowers :-) My recommendation is not to prune Hydrangea macrophylla at all other than to remove obviously dead wood. Site them initially where they have enough room to grow to size. If you must control size by pruning, remove a third of the oldest growth of the plant each season at the base. This will generate new, vigorous growth yet leave enough mature growth to support some flowering. But in your zone, winter protection of these plants is going to be necessary to ensure flowering, pruned or not.

Latex mattresses sold by the big "S" companies are rarely, if ever, composed of 100% latex. They contain layers of cheaper foam which tend to sag over time, and mattresses with pillowtops sag the worst. I once saw a chart showing specifications of big-name "latex" mattresses and you wouldn't believe the small amount of real latex. There might be five layers of different types of foam with one or two thin layers of latex. About four years ago I was looking for a latex mattress and did a lot of online research, including spending many months reading posts on a mattress forum. I learned about several online companies that sell real latex mattresses and provide great customer service. Specialty stores in some geographic areas (not mine) also sell latex mattress, some organic. But I was on a limited budget and knew I could never afford any of these (and I question the concept of organic latex but that's for another thread.) Based on suggestions on the mattress forum, I took a risk and made an online purchase from a web site called foambymail (the company is Foam Factory.) I purchased a 6" firm base, a separate 3" soft topper, and upgraded to a terry cover, which has a zipper around all four sides (a $20 upgrade.) The mattress comes shrink wrapped, shipped by UPS. Shipping is free. Latex is very heavy and a friend helped me lug it upstairs to the bedroom. We placed it on the platform bed before unwrapping it. As we cut through the shrink wrap carefully, it made a whooshing sound as it expanded. The 6" latex base had already been placed by the company inside the mattress cover, so we only had to shift it into place on the bed. We placed the 3" topper inside the cover and zipped it all around. Since I like cushy beds, I bought a separate mattress cover with its own pillowtop made by Cuddledown (from Costco). After four years, the bed is like new and it's the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on. If I were doing this again, the only change I would make is to get a 2" soft topper rather than 3". I might also substitute the Cuddledown cover with a wool topper since the Cuddledown is filled with polyesther and sleeps a little warm. I paid less than $700 for a full size mattress and topper; it would be a little more today. Here is a link that might be useful: Foam Factory