Gorgeous!! I am curious too what cultivar that is?? I love Foxglove too and ws'd quite the variety this year - Excelsior Hybrids, Apricot beauty, and Camelot series (white, cream, lavender). They have all sprouted. I'm planning to grow several patches for next year. Gardenweed, sorry to hear about your plants expiring. They do like good drainage. A couple years ago I had a gorgeous patch of huge Foxglove clumps going, but most of the crowns rotted over the winter!

Congratulations on both your Coral Reef bloom and those gorgeous Lupines around her! There've been questions about Patty's Plum coming true from seed for a number of years including here on GW forums. http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/calif/msg1213342330577.html In searching the net for Patty's Plum SEEDS they seem to have "disappeared" from vendor sites where they used to be available just a couple of years ago. From everything I've found they do NOT come true. All sales offered that's I've found are either for plants or what are being referred to in UK as "bulbs" which I'm taking to mean bareroot plants. The link to Missouri Botanical Gardens states they do NOT come true from self-seeding and will likely show reversion to natural orange coloration. Don't know if color reversion from selfseeding was known to propagators or vendors in years past but seeds have disappeared from their online sites now offering only plants. They can be propogated by root cuttings. Gardeners would have to be vigilant to deadhead Patty's Purple if they don't want color reversion to orange disrupting possible lovely color schemes they've created. Annual Papaver somniform 'Lauren's Grape' has been suggested as a substitute if retaining purple bloom is desired for garden setting. Here is a link that might be useful: MOBOT-Patty's Plum papver orientale

yg - unusual? Why? Seems to me to be common enough of a lot of my posts - a rather strongly expressed opinion :-) Here's what impresses me about 'Big Smile' (Sweet Chris) - it is a very robust plant with a compact habit, great foliar attraction and considerable PM resistance. It has dark maroon stems and distinct leaf veining and develops a very rich fall color. These features contrast beautifully with the lacecap flowerheads, which tend to pinky-mauve in my area and often with a darker edge. It's a coloring I find partcularly useful in the garden as it offers a lot of possbilities for combining with other plants. They fade to a pleasing (to me) pinkish tan color. Like oakleaf hydrangeas, there is a lot more to this plant than just a flower show in season, a requirement for any new addition to my garden. Except for winter when the plant is dormant, it has a lot to offer over and above just seasonal flowers. And it's not very gimmicky, which seems to be a failing of a lot of new plant introductions. And, finally it is not a mophead with big, basketball-sized flowers, which I find overblown and blowsey. As I said, I don't have room for many new shrubs and hydrangeas are only one of my many plant passions. Inclusion into an already overplanted garden requires a shrub that makes a statement for itself over a long period, which Big Smile does in spades. Now I just have to figure out what comes out so that BS goes in :-)

That's hysterical, Tibbie . . . love it! I have a sister-in-law that I'd love to send it to, but instead will just post it on my FB. A safer way to get the point across (LOL)! I loved the Far Side cartoons, too. DS would gift me with one of their daily calendars every Christmas. A laugh a day! So many great ones. One fav was of this dachshund peeking around the corner into his living room at night as some creepy space monster was climbing through the window. It said something like, "OK, now is not a good time to go into my usual hysterical barking fit."