Art61, I'd definitely be interested in your cardinal flower seed if you find you have any extra once you've filled your own needs. I let all my native columbines self seed and there is already a new patch of tiny babies starting despite the horrid drought we'd had for about a month. IMHO, protection of the red mulberry is only one facet of what needs to be done. You can plant as many pure red mulberries as you want but if the gene pool is disturbed by the continued importation and planting of the white mulberry, ALL planted or natural red mulberries will continue to be at risk. We have an old, very unkempt arboretum here in Woodstock and it has a mature white mulberry and I'm going to firmly request that it's time to take it down. It can be replaced with something of a more native nature, even if it's not native to our general area, at least it could be native to Canada or Canada and the north-east of USA. It's a danger to our native stocks and serves little purpose in the arboretum which is not the attraction that it should be in our booming little town. Now it is down to finding the time to write the appropriate persons about taking down the tree and see what comes of it. Good luck in your search for your mulberries. I'll let you know if I find any unaffected red mulberries (not likely since there are so few pristine red mulberry left in the whole of the country...they say as low as 80 trees left in canada) in my neck of the woods and collect some seed for you. Here's an eye opening article from the University of Guelph that shows the state of the Red Mulberry and how the white mulberry needs to be eradicated in order for the red to rebound. IMHO with such a small genepool as only 80 specimens, the species may already be doomed as small gene pools almost always mean death to a species as they are not able to survive disease and infestations as those in cases of diverse genepools. At any rate, here's the article: http://www.uoguelph.ca/research/news/articles/1998/preserving_legendary_mulberry.shtml Barb southern Ontario, CANADA

Hi - I, too, have a bad spot to fill - between the sidewalk and the road - gets lots of road salt in the winter. It is awful fill soil, lots of rocks and quite dry. Dandelions love it, unfortunately. I am trying creeping thyme. I got the seed in bulk from Johnny's Selected Seed last spring. I had grand ideas of starting plugs and using them, but never had the time. Around the end of July, owning up to the fact I wasn't going to get to it, I just broadcast the seed in the area. Last fall I noticed some plants and was quite pleased, although it looked like only one area seeded. Last night I was removing the Dandelions ( yep - still have some) and found that the entire area had seeded, just the plants were still small. Last falls plants were already 4"+ in diameter. This is going to take a year or two, but will cost me less then 10 bucks (can't remember exact price) But I think it will be a no maintainence, scented spot soon. Plus flowers. (crosses fingers)

I have done it both ways. We have two wildflower meadows across from our elementary school. The second one was added about two years ago and was beautiful during this past spring. The previous year, it didn't do as well due to our drought, but it made up for it with the rain we received over the winter and was full and lush. We asked the city to kill the grass in the area where we wanted the meadow, waited a few weeks, then let the kids spread the seed. We also asked the students to walk across it so the seed embedded into the soil. We did this at the end of September, but I also threw more seed out there last fall that I had collected from my native plants in my yard. As far as wildflowers in my garden, I either got pass-along plants from friends in my garden club or bought them from a nursery to plant in my garden. I don't have one favorite, but two. The first one is the pink rock rose. I love the color of the blooms and so do the butterflies. My second favorite is Turk's cap because of the bright red blooms against the green leaves and it is a favorite of the hummingbirds. The plant I would like to try again is blackfoot daisy. I plant it where I think it is neglected the most - at the front corner of my yard in a raised bed where it got full sun all day, but the neighbors watered way too much and the overspray killed it. Yes, I'm blaming my neighbors. ;-) We have new neighbors there now and I have noticed they don't water as much so I may try it again.

I don’t have blooms on my ranunculus either Azusa, just foliage. Looking back on my records, my ranunculus start blooming in late March or early April every year. I live about 12 miles from the famous “Carlsbad Flower Fields”. They grow thousands of ranunculus, and sell the cut flowers and corms, seasonally. The fields are open from March 1 -May 12. Their ranunculus bloom a little earlier in Carlsbad, (slightly warmer nights by the coast) and bloom longer, (cooler Spring days, than at my place, 12 miles inland.) Your ranunculus sound like they’re right on schedule. I’m trying to overwinter my lisianthus this year. I didn’t realize they were actually tender perennials, until this year. The foliage looked very ratty by November, and I recently cut them back to a healthy looking rosette of foliage. Mine get a bit of afternoon shade, and I made sure to amend the little planting holes with perlite and compost. My soil is heavy clay, and I suspect they’d rot without the extra drainage. I really would like to grow some of the really unusual colors available at Johnny’s Seed, but I hear they’re difficult from seed. Stocks are great winter bloomers for us. Isn’t the scent wonderful? I purchased some very pale pink stock seed, from Floret, but I haven’t seen a thing from them. I did save at least half of them, so I’ll try again in the Fall. You picked out some lovely roses! We pale pink lovers don’t lack for choice when it comes to roses, that’s for sure. I’ve never grown Scepter’d Isle, but it’s gorgeous in pictures. My Queen of Sweden wasn’t very happy planted in the hottest, sun-scorched spot I could have possibly given it. It’s no surprise she didn’t perform very well for me. I’ve learned that very few David Austin roses are truly happy in full, blazing sun in MY yard. In my yard the true exception to this has been ‘Evelyn’. Everyone’s got a different microclimate, though. Those growing the exact same rose, in the same zone, can get drastically different results. I need to look up that pink lavender! I didn’t realize there was a pale pink one available. I’ll be looking up your camellias, as well. I’m currently growing one, and it finally has a few buds on it. I can’t remember if it’s a pale pink, or a darker pink. That’s another thing I need to look up. Every year I vow to be more organized in my garden journal. I’m finding it SO helpful to look back on. The problem is remembering to write it down in the first place. There are some gorgeous breadseed poppies out there. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pale pink ones. They do great here if you throw the seed around in mid November. Lisa