Congrats on your first garden. As they years pass, the better you'll get...the more failures you'll discover...and the more successes you'll master. You're paying attention to not only what's growing well and what isn't...you're paying attention to how plants compete with each other in your environment. "I planted peppers in the ground and they all went crunchy. So I took them to the greenhouse and they gave me new ones." ...and it sounds like you've found one hell of a friendly supplier there. Good on them. Good luck with the rest of this season and next season, too.

ingrid, When I first started reading GW, I couldn't understand how people could SP a healthy rose. But now I know. If it doesn't work for you, it doesn't. It's simple. I too maxed out on Austins, and probably will not add anymore. I think I have every possible color anyway:) Strange things do happen. When I first moved here 7 years ago (after never having gardened in my life!) I planted 6 white bearded irises. Well now I have about 100 from that 6 and they are in bloom now. I think I get more comments about them as I do my roses. And now the irises are intermingled with the roses (I do have to dig them up, separate them and redistributed a bit more this year) and it looks great. So a simple HD bag of irises does wonders. I probably should look at reblooming ones, but now I have an emotional attachment to these. And I can't say enough about alfalfa. Last year was the first time I used it and I do think it makes a huge difference. I have the biggest fattest buds this spring and am seeing many basals. I've also noticed that the root balls of many of my roses are thick with feeder roots where they were not before. So I'm sold. I'm really excited because I have 12 bands from Vintage (11 teas, one HP) and am planning a new rose bed on the other side of my yard. I too have fallen in love with teas and yes, the lack of pruning required is a plus! I just hope I get to stay in this house long enough to enjoy the fruits of all this labor!

Cath, I love Sombreuil. It was shipped in error as Maitland White. I planted it, and it just sat there, getting no larger, flopping on the ground and blooming small pure white blooms. I finally dug it up, and it came up in two pieces. I potted each piece in huge pots. They have not quit throwing clusters of huge white yummy blooms since. However, one of the plants is three times the size of the other even though they are in identical pots, soil, etc, sitting side by side. Go figure. The foliage is perfectly clean and gorgeous. I hope you can get this one to grow.

As I newbie I have no success stories but I can share what I have learned thus far.. 1. Newspaper is the best quick fix for a bed overgrown with weeds that is so far from the house that the notion of planting anything there is so far off the too do list that typing it onto my to do list hasn't reached the end of my fingers - not to mention the fact that is was an area I thought, for two years, was my neighbor's neglected mess! Much to my mortification it was really my mess - newspaper, mulch, forcythia and stella dora - beautiful, weedless, in a morning. And it still looks good nearly a year later! 2. I love sprouts! Period! They are growing!! I hope they live but right now I have my instant gratification. I seed green in those jugs! 3. A nice glass of wine, viewing my potential plants, is a lovely thing on a warm spring day. I know I look silly sitting with my feet up admiring a bunch of milk jugs but hey... I am over 30... well over 40.. who do I need to impress but myself! 4. I am so ready for planting! I bought 6 flats of flowers last weekend - I thought I wouldn't be buying any more 5. My design skills improve when I "pretend" to read a book while drinking a glass of wine and observing my gardens! With every glass of wine I have better and better plans! :) What I wish I'd learned.. 1. Why do I keep buying, buying, buying plants and seeds?! Why do they call my anem?? "Christy, Christy, Christy, we need you... you need us.... buy, buy , buy forget your husband... he loves you and doesn't really care if you keep buying!" Well... I am not so sure about that - at least my house isn't full of zip lock mini green houses... 2. When will my husband quit rearranging / adding to my gardens? I love gardens but last fall I split and replanted a bunch of border plants to edge a garden perfectly... they are now in the middle of the new and improved garden - which melded my perfect red and white garden with my emerging purple and yellow garden - what to do with that? (I net a pond in the production so I will quit whining!) 3. When will I figure out how to keep track of what I have planted, what it looks like, how tall it is, is it perennial....???? I plant, go and forget... I hate that I do this but cannot quit! buy, plant, buy, plant, buy, plant it is an addiction! Christy