Hey Terese! While surrounding areas here have been dry this summer, we've somehow lucked out with rain, but has it ever been a hot one! The 30 minutes a day it takes to water the potted stuff has been all the "gardening" time I've spent outside this summer, so my beds are horribly weedy. For the last couple of weeks we've had relief from the heat and mild, pleasant weather, but I've been busy with indoor projects and haven't gotten out into the garden. I'll just get it all back in shape come fall, at least now I can sit on the porches and enjoy the potted plants. For so much of summer I was just watering and saying "see ya tomorrow", and not really paying much attention otherwise. Now that I'm spending time out there, I'm amazed at how good all those are looking!

I hear ya Neal. I'm trying to pull myself out of that habit now. I go outside and it feels weird. Need to get back into spending an hour or two outside every morning this week if I can. Got oak trees starting to get as big as the perennials... that is NOT good!

Oh yeah, I got Maples instead of Oaks, but they're everywhere! Oh, and Kelly I meant to ask you, did you receive those bulb pics I sent? From time to time an email I send goes *poof* into cyberspace although it appears to have been sent. No rush, just wanted to be sure you got 'em

Mornin Neal.
In case anyone is interested,this is the 10 foot cosmose .Allison and I have been growing seeds she got at an RU. Hers was huge last year. I wcureous to see how tall it would actually get here on the nuclear waste I have to garden in.
Its 89 inches today.
There is also a cubit on the subject.

Yikes, Neal, I did. It's gotten buried under start of school year volunteer stuff! Will get to them soon!

WOW Jo Ann -- that is HUGE!! and no staking. Some of my taller Sensation's have fallen over.
My Klondike's get tall too, but they are not as heavy.

Kelly, no worries- take your time, just wanted to make sure you got 'em

Wow! JoAnn, that's a Cosmos tree! My tallest Cosmos grow in the crappiest clay soil on the property, is that kinda like your nuclear waste?

You got it Neal.
I have to confess there are about 5 or 6 plants in there. Allison said the seed pack said 10 feet so thats what we are going for.
I have the Seashells and other cosmose that are half the size.

Have you ever gone out early in the morning and found the bees asleep in the cosmos? I didn't have any this year, just didn't get any planted. Me and the finches, along with the bees, are missing them. Next year. I've never seen any that tall, JoAnn!

I photo when its light but not sunny.
I have often found bees asleep in Dahlias.I never checked the other cosmose I planted Seashells etc. There were so few plants this year.
It is the sweetest time of the day.

I think I have one of those cosmos. I'm waiting for yours to flower to see if mine will flower. I almost pulled it out thinking it was a weed. I know it's well over 5ft on mine, but haven't checked it.

A few of mine are 5-6' max. like i mentioned, some flop over... i bet if they were straight, they'd be a good 5-6'. This year my big ones are Sensation Mix. the dark pink ones.

Allison gave me the seeds so I have no idea what variety mine are.

Here's the short cosmos I was talking about ages ago (hope it was on here...). Finally got a new camera and was able to download my pictures from Colorado. I just loved these little cosmos in the planters all around Breckenridge. Would have gotten a lot more photos if my camera hadn't died. The pots were amazing! This isn't a particularly good example, just wanted to ID the short cosmos... any ideas?

They are sweeet and look fantastic in the combo.

How cute! I've never seen any that short, I'd bet they're new on the market- we'll probably be seeing more of them when the catalogs come out this winter.

those are CUTE. the shortest i have is Limara Lemon, about 6" high. but i love the look of those pink blooms. sorta like a dwarf Sensation Mix.

Is it possible to have too much mulch? That's an alien idea for me, I've never had enough to even do all my beds. Well, the tree trimmers have been busy around here, and have dropped loads of free mulch off to everyone in the area who wanted some, and nobody around wants anymore. So I told them I can take as much as they can bring. We showed them where to put it, and what I can see from the house hasn't changed much in the last couple of weeks. I went out yesterday and walked around the pile to see they've been bringing LOTS! OMG, I have a mountain range of mulch out there!

lol, Neal, I did that two years ago. They thought there was a possibility that there might me black walnut in it, so I've just let it sit, but it should be fine next year. I've been using a pile from state stump grinders that I know is maple because it all came from across the road. That is several years old and LOVELY stuff. It only gets better with age (er, the mulch, among other things).

Kathleen I've been reading hundreds of articles relative to using any parts of Black Walnuts as compost or mulch. The general consensus of information on BW bark Mulch seems to be that 2 months decompose time is adequate if it has been exposed to the elements. So if you have a big pile, you should either keep turning it, or use the top layer of it so that the next layer will get exposed to air and rain. If the underneath of the pile is not "hot" composted, or exposed to the elements, the bark can hold the Juglone for quite some time.