If you like Corals too take a look on the Daylily forum for my thread about "Favorite Corals,planning a new bed as therapy"those that answered it posted pictures, there are some real stunning blooms. I will be using Daylilys in the bed with the Coral Pink roses. So far I am sure to order America CL and Lady of the Mist roses from Roses Unlimited. Thank you for the ideas.

I know what you mean about this species. I had a variegated Wax Begonia years ago (about 20) and until this year had never seen anymore. We have a really strange little nursery I discovered last year, hidden down in this gulley. You cannot see it from the road, as it's hidden by trees. You don't see the sign until you have almost passed the drive, as it is also hidden. They do not charge sales tax ( maybe that's why it so secretive) They don't take anything but cash or checks either. I found several Charm Pink and got them for 1.50 each, ans was ecstatic about them. I went back again and they had a few but they were in hanging baskets and were 9.00 (ouch) I didn't want to pay that. I went back again and found 4 more, that appeared to be freshly rooted cuttings. I am going to try and take cuttings and start some plants, so I can bring indoors this Winter. I really love them.

The foundation is primarily a ruddy smectite clay. While digging, there seems to be a large quantity of mica and a lesser quantity of rather small (quail-egg sized) pieces of quartz although brick sized pieces of quartz pop up from time to time. I originally tried using sand and a quantity of gypsum as an amendment with composted leaf mould, sphagnum peat, sawdust and manure as organics. Notwithstanding that I think it's the muckiest substance I've ever seen, the clay does seem to percolate a bit and Japanese irises nearby were severely injured. And a small mystery--moss has no difficulty growing on the surface even though I'd thought that iron sulphate (which I'd assumed was acidic) is used to kill moss. Performance is a mixed bag w/regard to plants situated in the native "soil". Certain peony varieties, notably the corals :), have in fact done better than some lactifloras I brought in from China. I routinely shuttle failing peonies in the autumn up to my parents' property which has actual soil. The tree peonies are a total crapshoot--certain Chinese varieties have entirely collapsed whereas other ones have produced gigantic blooms. The Japanese varieties do modestly well but increase of all the TPs has been consistently slow. Regarding other plants, I stopped vegetable gardening after the first year--not worth the effort; even quinoa failed to produce anything substantial. Lilacs have had a harder time acclimatizing to the clay than the peonies--they don't die, but they grow sparingly and many of them decrease--I did do a lot of amendment in particular for them and I got the soil in their holes up to 6.5 pH; of course, the holes are surrounded by a sea of acidic clay. I learned from a neighbour that the area in which I put the lilacs had been used to grow tobacco which is hard on the soil. With plenty of amendments, daylilies have done very well, although there is substantial variance in performance around the property. In digging up failing daylilies to ascertain what's going on below the surface, I found oftentimes that the daylily roots had only a tenuous hold on the clay and that most of their roots were situated in the mulch I'd put down. Consequently, I replace up to 70/80% of the clay in areas with daylilies. Such a large removal isn't feasible for the peonies, in large part because the quantity of mica is great enough to prevent digging much deeper than a foot with a spade and oftentimes the mica is encountered a mere few inches below the surface. Camellias have been removed entirely from the lot, since a season or two in situ and the poor things are nearly on their death beds. Similarly, rhododendrons fail, but kurume azaleas and flowering quince do well. Japanese maples do not thrive, but dogwood, Prunus mume, pin oaks and silver maple grow alright. That's about all I can summarize about the soil and performance in it. Oh--one anecdote: the water is acidic enough that distinct copper sulphate routinely accumulates on my shower walls, though there is very little other mineral deposit to be found (I assume the copper is being leached from my pipes).

ok I am definitely going to paint the house minnie pearl bright aqua dress color, along with the hat, and everything, DH is going to love this. we are in central florida near Inverness. Folks in our neighborhood have some pastel colors, but also some more traditional colors like white, brown, blue, etc. We are on an acre and no one has built on either side, so we won't stand out so much. A few have painted with a terra cotta color, but I think that is better in the southwest not Florida. the mint color on the houses we have seen, seems to fade out when driving by. We don't want to stand out like a sore thumb but we do want a little pizzaz. Years ago we painted our old farmhouse in Arkansas a yellow color that was quite bright, a year later the sun had faded it back to a nice original color it started as. I will get quart instead of a gallon and see. Each color looks so different depending upon what it is up against, I like the coral bisque siding, I will keep you posted. Thanks for all the advice.