Sue,

I have 2 My Monet. First pic shows oldest - in ground @ 7- 8 years. It’s @ 30” H x 36” W Second pic is in second season. That one is @ 18” H & W & has almost doubled in size since last summer. I have cut off a couple of reversions of solid green from the oldest one but not often. It was clearly solid. My understanding is most varigated plants have potential to revert over time & the way to control is cut the branch off or at least the portion of the branch with the solid color growth. If the reversions aren’t cut, they may dominate the plant. I’m wondering about your edging circle of MM’s. I know my climate zone is much more temperate than your zone 6 but if yours grow like mine, they’ll be too crowded pretty quickly. If you plan to move out the foxglove and other perennials between the MM & the tree/ shrub that will give them some room but seems like the 2nd & 4th plants in that half circle of 5 should be moved out. What is the pretty tree? A forest pansy? It’s such a pretty backdrop to the MM. You’ve created a nice hummer garden there with all the pink tubular flowers & the feeder. Do you have a viewing spot to sit & watch this spot?

KW PNW Z8 Wow your first photo is the biggest My Monet I've ever seen- it's gorgeous!

My plan is to make my garden simpler and lower maintenance and to just have the My Monet shrubs in front of the Ruby Falls Weeping Redbud, (cultivated from Forest Pansey), and then eventually move the other perenials and foxgloves once it fills in, and maybe even this year, because it's bad design and cluttered looking to me...but me and the hummingbirds do enjoy the extra flowers!

Gee I may be transplanting some of the My Monet elsewhere if they get as big as yours...in PIttsburgh the biggest ones I've seen are only slightly larger than my largest one.

Your garden looks beautiful, I love seeing other peoples gardens!

Thanks for your advice and only trimming out soldi green limbs, that was my instinct, but I just needed some reassurance!

Ps....I guess it's your wonderful growing zone that gave you such a large shrub...I just read mine will probably be smaller in my zone 6b, "Zones 4-6, sun/part sun, 1.5' tall x 2.5' wide at maturity." Interesting to learn how a growing zone can affect size so much!

@Sue Hughes Zone 6b in Pittsburgh Hi Sue, a big Yes to your Ps note. Here in PNW with the rain & temperate winter climate it does seem like many plants are on steroids. I’ve learned to take plant size info on the tags with a grain of salt. Several of my perennial shrubs have been dug up & rehomed to friends yards over the years! Another note on the MM - the older one has had some lower branches that didn’t sprout new leaves so I just cut them off to clean up the plant. But these guys need no pruning otherwise so I love them & love their varigation against all the evergreens here.

Thanks for mentioning the lower branches that didn't sprout, because my oldest shrub has one of those bare branches, I was wondering about that...so it seems normal if your's did it too! Thanks!