Hi kentstar. I received a 'Hot Papaya' through mail order, over a month ago & potted it up (4"), upon arrival. I don't know about your specific cultivars, but I have an idea the one I bought was from tissue culture. Not only that, but I'm also fairly certain, a hybrid. Since it is a hybrid,(& possibly some of yours are too) producing any viable seeds, may actually be more of a problem, in particular if you wanted to sow some seed. I'm not cutting off the leaves on mine, since they are still green & not only that, but I doubt this offers any real 'protection' from winter, anyway. Actually, come to think of it, I might recall from this past spring, quite a few posts from people complaining about a terrible lack of hardiness, on some of the newer Echinacea cultivars. Some of of the very same ones, which you happen to name. I would imagine they used mulch, probably being in a slightly colder zone than I, expecting protection, but to no avail. I have my doubts, that it was loss due to 'inexperience' with gardening, but rather the cultivars being not so hardy. Now that I think about it... I'd sure hate to find out mine isn't very winter hardy either & would regret having to get a replacement (another small one at that & starting all over again) in a matter of only just a few months. So I may just end up putting it in the garage in a larger pot for some period of time, during the winter. Especially if it there is a sudden cold spell predicted. I'm not going to trust its survival (were it planted in the ground & mulched, or not) to a sudden severe cold snap, even if a catalog does state most Echinacea are winter hardy to zone five temperatures. Not after what I've read here this past spring, with people wondering when their new Echinacea cultivars were ever going to appear again...

Mendy..you really should wait till they go dormant..if you prune..you will most probably invigorate them and they will start to put out new leaves...I hard prune mine at the same time I do my roses..which is around February 14th ..or the same time your Forsynthias are in bloom..that is the same time you fertilize them as well...Jeanne

Jonathan, An interesting observation. Not sure what 'tip' means. Probably you did not mean those dormant 'scale shields' that first drop off at dormancy break, cannot remember the right technical term. Just went out to inspect all my figs trees. Noticed some that fit your description. At this early stage of spring, I noticed some figs with 'still tightly' held buds that looked reddish. On very close examination, I noticed that it is ACTUALLY the underside of the (very young) curled leaves that FIRST shows up, together with their underside veins! This is what gives the 'tip' the red hue. No contradiction here. Then the leaf flips over and the vein red color fades, as it matures. This is what I observed: My 2 HCs (sources: EL and Hartmann) showed it. Sal's (EL) showed it. VdB (EL) showed it. My #4 unknown (Ta Cenc) showed it (wonder what this fig really is!). My #2 (MOST obvious, also observed by Herman last year) and #5 unknowns (supposedly of the Mission fig type) showed it. All other figs none... Specifically looked at the Black Mission and Vista Mission young figs (both) from Jon, and neither showed it! They may in a more advanced leafing out stage. However I did observe the the Vista breba start as a bead-sized, shoe-polish-black color, and then fade away as the figlets grows... George (NJ).

Heh. I'm playing the waiting game as well. I snuck some of my annuals in here and there and figured by the time they get established, the leaves will be close to browning out. Some of those said annuals have been blooming their heads off, so I'm getting antsy on removing the bulb foliage. I recall the 6 week rule too and technically EOW would be 6 weeks for me. I'm erring on the side of *more food for bulbs* and might push off the leaf culling to next weekend.