Thanks, Frilly. And the lilies smell wonderful right now!

Teresa, It won't take you long at all to get a clumpt like the picture. I believe I bought these in the fall of 2012 (may have been spring of 2013) . I bought the bulbs at Walmart or Menard's and I bought 10 bulbs. A couple of them did not come up last year, but a couple of them bloomed on short stalks.

This year they really took off and are about 4 feet high and have multiplied a little. My husband loves them because he says they smell like vanilla. I caught a hint of vanilla once, but mostly they have an almost overwhelming sweet smell.

Gaura make a great backdrop for daylilies, and here in Florida, they bloom almost continuously. Ours are currently in their third round of bloom, and will bloom again and again before winter.

Gaura probably does not grow here in Michigan and I am curious as to what it looks like. Could you post some pics when you have time?? Please.

I only plant things in my garden that are very hardy and come up every year without fail. If it fails, I don't replace it. Sometimes I will grow things from seed, like zinnias-they are pretty affordable and sometimes I even save seeds. Some things I love that seed freely are cosmos and parillas. I also have a red columbine that seeds well. These are pretty things that I know will be in my garden forever (read-invasive by some people's standards, hardy by mine) I also had some black eyed susan flowers I dug up in my back fence line, and they grew like crazy for me. Joe Pye Weed seeded well for me, but I don't remember what variety I had.

Hemlady said:Gaura probably does not grow here in Michigan and I am curious as to what it looks like. Could you post some pics when you have time?? Please.

It's gorgeous, but difficult to photograph without proper close-up lenses. The individual parts of the blossoms are very small.

Thanks, I like it.

Hemlady said:Thanks, I like it.

One of the best things about gaura is that they keep on blooming. Ours are nearing the end of their third round of bloom, and will keep on reblooming until fall.

I take it then that it is a perennial???

Finally got around to posting a pic of the Tie Dye Hibiscus I posted about earlier. here it is!

What a pretty hibiscus, Frilly, but oh wow!! I love those rocks.

Thank you Sharon, someone gave me the rocks via craigslist. I could not believe my good fortune. The thing is they weigh ALOT. and we had to get them ourselves. It was 6F outside when we loaded them sometime back last January. Now they are just laying around the yard because we aren't ready to place them yet and it will require a skidsteer to move them around or such. Getting them off the trailer was a matter of gravity mostly, but moving them now is altogether a different back of tricks, or rather a bag of money!

I'd almost be tempted to plant a little flower garden around and about right there where they are, they look like they 'grew' there.

I like the hibiscus, Frilly. What huge blooms!

But like Sharon, my eyes were drawn to those rocks. They look like they were made to be just where they are.

I plant bulbs with my daylilies because they hide the leaves after they bloom. Asiatic Lilies are in bloom before the daylilies but the leave are up., LA lilies bloom next and the n the Oriental Lilies. All the lilies bloom before or after the daylilies have bloomed.

I sprinkle Zinnia seeds around the daylilies, Sedum the tall Sedum will bloom from late Aug - Sept.

Geranium Roanne Blooms beautiful blue flowers from June to Fall it will weave around the plants.

I guess they do look nice there in the photo, but in reality from the other direction they are smack in the walk and look stupid ha ha !

Cinta if I planted bulbs in my dl I would butcher them with my shovel sooner or later.... no bulb is safe wahhahah!

Found a pic of it from the other direction so you can see how pitiful my yard is right now ! These rocks will go around a goldfish pond area when we are done.

This is my daughter who would be MORTIFIED to know that she is being seen in her PJ's on the WORLD wide web LOL The little one is my nephew "Bob" and he pretty much gets anything he wants from Aunt Carmen (whom he calls "mum"--he calls EVERYONE "mum"- I think he has figured out this is cute)

I was just standing in my yard today thinking I wish I had a fairy wand... I would move this tree here, plant that there and move this rock here and more mulch over there and whalla! Wouldn't that be handy? It would be cheaper!!!

Would love to see the goldfish pond when it is done. That is a lot of big rocks

Hemlady said:I take it then that it is a perennial???

Yesl

Frilly, I plant or encourage herbs, tomatoes, chard, coleus, daisies, marigolds, hibiscus, lilies in late summer and autumn between the daylilies. But daylilies have priority in the pre-flowering and flowering season - ruthlessly so. After they have flowered, other plants have priority.