Thanks, Clint. I'll try it with a few.

No doubt about it, they're poorly placed in my yard, need another spot with more sun.

Karen

>> Rick, what Alyssum variety?

That's one of many annoying things about seed mixes - who knows? I'm never buying a mix again!

I'm prety confident of the species: Lobularia maritima
The variety looks most like 'Snow Crystals'
white bloom
6-8" tall bushy
sprawls 12-18"

I see Woofie contributed pictures:

Sweet Alyssum (Lobularia maritima 'Snow Crystals')

I gathered seeds, but was very afraid that they had not pollinated or matgured, since some seeds were tiny and thin. So just to prove that to myself, I tried germinating a pinch of "chaff" and "dead seeds". Well, the bowl in which the coffee filter sat FILLED with vigorous Alyssum roots & seedlings!

Maybe that's the good thing about seed mixes: they have tough, resilient, easy-to-multiply plants!

Anyone who wants some, send an address. I gots lots. In my Zone 8, wikth lots of drizzle, some come back, even for twol years in solme cases. tghey seem to love growing out of cracks between paving. They are almost ground cover, except much to pretty to walk on.

Thanks, Rick.

They sound wonderful. I know what you mean about mixes, though they are great, as you say.

mix planted here

I have a package of "mix". When should I plant them...Too late for this year as they are perennial..I have been trying to decide what to do with them.

I plant all through the year, Veronica.

Not saying it's optimal, but I love experimentation!

Clint, thank you!

You just answered both of my questions about helenium 'Double Trouble'. I love mine, and want to make more, but they do get very tall and floppy here. I'll try both of your suggestions!

My heleniums were gi-normous this year! Way to big for that spot. I'm 5'3" and they were every bit as tall as me. And bushy! This is 2nd year wintersown plants.


Karen

They dont look so bad from here!!

I just have too many crammed in not enough space.Very tough to keep upright here, tough to turn on hose, etc. I'm going to transplant a few elsewhere.

Karen

I hear 'ya. About all the room left here is for interplanted things in established lily beds and lilies themselves.
The borders cant take any more tall perenns due to floppage.DD mows the lawns and gives me looks about overhangs.

My husband mows the lawn and trims with the weedwacker. He's lethal with that thing. Then, there are the zinnias that he drove over... I can't complain, though. He's a big help on big jobs, like transplanting and mulching. Yesterday, he took out all the giant tomato plants and basil. That's hours of work.

Karen

I had some Iris and Surprise Lily I had dug up from the old house sitting in a box outside under my potting table all summer.
Finally got around to planting them and about a week or 2 later the Surprise Lily bloomed and the Iris I put around the mail box perked right up and grew new leaves.

That's great, hazeleyes!

They'll be there again to greet you shortly after the last snow melts.


Welcome to the Cottage Gardening forum at ATP!

Adding another vote for hardy geraniums, especially 'Rozanne'. Blooms nonstop even when everything else has given up because of heat or drought or wet or whatnot!

One of my favorite vines has been the Coral Honeysuckle that I got in a trade... My Loncera americana honeysuckle blooms beautifully, once, and seems especially prone to aphids so its foliage gets a little scraggly. On the other hand, the coral honeysuckle on the other side of the deck steps blooms on and off (mostly "on" at least a few clusters) all summer long and even into late fall. It still has leaves now. And it makes a lot more berries for the birds, too, with all those blooms. And it does this all with very little attention from me, maybe a little accidental watering when I rescue-water something nearby.

As long as it isn't an asian honeysuckle. National Wildlife says not as nutrisius for the birds as the native variety.

I love hardy geraniums also.The more compact ones like Biokovo
.

I've got a little "hedge" of 'Biokovo' along one edge of the driveway, and it's lovely in bloom or not! My 'Biokovo' is white... is it the lighting, or are the blooms on yours more lavender/pink? I've got a couple of shorter geraniums, too... one called 'Tiny Monster' and another pass-along one that survives very well by the mailbox (and you all know about the "inferno strip" between sidewalk & road where the hose doesn't really reach). A friend gave me some divisions of "big root geranium," and they're really tough also!

The honeysuckles are definitely not L. japonica. I can never remember the species name of the coral honeysuckle without looking it up, but both it and L. americana are different plants from the invasive one... they may grow thuggishly large, LOL, but they're not invasive like that.

Ah, found it... Lonicera sempervirens, that's my super tough, nearly evergreen Coral Honeysuckle!

The pix is of a soft pink.I also have a deeper pink Karmina

I think this is Karmina too

Wow, they're pretty! Are they long blooming?

Karen