Congrats all

Congratulations to all the winners.

My Annies certificate arrived had my stuff in the wishlist and added it to my cart before I could change my mind This will be coming next week For my first win!

Rudbeckia triloba
Tithonia rotundifolia 'The Torch'
Achillea ageratum 'Moonwalker'
Mina lobata "Exotic Love Vine"
Dahlia x hybrida 'Bishop's Children'
Cosmos bipinnatus 'Apricot'
Aster novae-angliae 'September Ruby'
Rudbeckia hirta 'Chim Chiminee'

Beautiful choices, Ronnie! Congratulations!

Thank you, Ron, for posting the plants you will be putting in your garden. I hope when they bloom, you will have lots of pictures to show us.

Nice plant choices Ronnie. I love the Mina Lobata, it's an annual vine so it's small, but the flowers are so colorful and exotic.

Avedon said:Hi, everybody, just wanted to let you know that the daylily arrived this morning and is now getting a few hours soak before it goes into the ground. Larry and Wilma also sent a bonus, Just Plum Happy--maybe--might turn out to be something different, so we might have some fun with a mystery plant. Can't say enough about people so on the ball that it took only two days for the plant to reach us--we are impressed for sure!! To all of you who know about Annies, we have ordered from Annies's before and so know you will receive quality plants--the big drawback is the shipping charges, so isn't this a great way to get plants. The reason we didn't get the caladiums is the deer---we could not protect them from being eaten. Jeanie, hope your screening works so you can enjoy your beautiful prize. Suga, keep that hole ready, you could be the next big winner, and choose daylilies. As for me, I will be retired from the raffle for awhile, just want to enjoy the new daylily, and just marvel at how lucky I was. All of you are such great sports, I'm so happy to be involved with such nice people. Now, here are the daylilies from the Rettigs--they will be planted this evening and I will send updates as to how they are getting along.



Verdant Valley Oranges and Lemons on the left, Just Plum Happy (?) on the right.

Have you tried using malgranite around your daylilies and caladiums? The plants will love it and the deer will hate it. It's a win/win. Malgranite is a fertilizer and you can get it at Lowes and I saw it at Walmart also. It has been the best thing I have ever used anyway so I thought I would pass along the info just in case.


This was the fella that was in my front yard. My DH nearly fainted lol!!!

I'm glad you said that, I wasn't sure how milorganite (which is what I think you meant?) would affect my daylilies. I just started using milorganite this season and put some down on my front yard (where I have almost no daylilies... And they are all easily replaceable varieties, at that) to test it out and I have been keeping it away from my backyard where my less easily replaceable daylilies are.

Yep I guess I need to buy a vowel please...... That's what I meant DND!!!! Hahahaha

Hey, guys, nice to hear from you. I have been wondering about the milorganite, really think I should check it out. The daylily I won on the raffle has been planted in one of our electric fenced areas, so no worries about deer there. A rabbit did get in, but it munched on the asiatic lilies and kniphofia. From there it moved on to the vegetable gardens, and was eventually dispatched by a trap. This time of year it is the veggies that are the big attraction for all the critters--we even have a tortoise or two that we have caught eating the tomatoes that are close to the ground. Suga, my husband and I both would probably faint if we saw a deer that big in our front yard, but we know that there are some around, we have seen the large tracks.

I planted the caladium bulbs that I kept (most went into our neighborhood annual plant sale), and here are some of the results. I have never seen one totally red like the first picture - and the leaf is HUGE! There are a few bulbs that are a little slower to come up, but what I see so far are absolutely gorgeous caladiums. A big thank you again to Dave and company for running this great not-a-raffle-raffle and to Caladium Bulbs 4 Less for the wonderful box of goodies!

Okay, time for me to post pictures of my prize. A few days ago, Verdant Valley Oranges And Lemons began to bloom. I will go in sequence so the progression can be seen.


July 17-2016 First Bloom, just a little color on the edges.



July 18-. I2016 Second Bloom , two sepals really curled, but there appears to be more orange showing now.



July 20-2016 Third Bloom which is on the smaller of the two scapes. I think this shows the potential of how this flower will look when it has had time to get established. The coloring on the edges is looking much improved.

Awesome, Avedon!