lavender

You have the makings of a very nice perennial border.

First of all August flame lilies are probably Gloriosa superba (that is what I get when I google it) which are not hardy around here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloriosa_(plant) They seem to be fairly tropical so I don't know about them making it through our winter. You could try growing them and lifting them in the fall. Or maybe they are something else.

The black-eyed susans are going to get to be 2-3 feet tall and bloom in August-September. They will make a large clump. You might stick them to one end of your border.

Gloriosa daisies are the same genus and species as black-eyed Susan's but come in different shades or rust and yellow. Some have a green center. They get to be about 2-3 feet tall.

Both of these are very hearty and could go near the back of your border.

The Stella d'oros are fairly short, start blooming in mid summer and will rebloom. They only get a little over a foot tall and make a nice edging for a border.

Magic lilies are Lycoris. They are the ones that put up flowers from the ground very late in the season with no leaves. The leaves come after the flowers are done blooming. I'm not sure how hardy they are around here but I have seen them. You might want to mulch them. I'd plant them as a cluster.

I'm not sure what your "lilies" are. If they are daylilies you certainly have enough room in a 22' border for all of them. Daylilies will get tall flowering stems but the foliage is usually not too high.

You are kind of heavy on the yellow shades here and on plants that don't bloom until mid summer or later. Maybe you could get a few bulbs for spring. Some veronica might be nice to add a touch of blue/purple when these are blooming. Liatris or gayfeathers are a good plant around here. You might want some plants that bloom earlier in the summer and in spring.

Borders are an ongoing thing. You will be adding and subtracting plants for years. Don't forget small shrubs like spirea or some interesting evergreens to anchor your border.

This perennial selector might give you some ideas of what you might need when you find places you want fill in with specific colored flowers that bloom at a certain time.

http://www.rydersranch.ca/perennial_border.html

I heard a good one today. Cut the tops off 20 Roma type tomatoes and split them down the middle. Toss them with coarse salt and olive oil. Spread them on a cookie sheet and dry them in a 200 degree oven for 8 hours or overnight. Layer them with large leaf basil in a quart jar. Cover with olive oil and store in the refrigerator. Garlic optional. I'm going to try it.

I picked up two from a sale rack last year. There were no tags. On the way home I dropped one off at a friend's house. I had a sneaking suspicion that it was a passion vine and when mine bloomed it confirmed it. Friend says hers is blooming away. Mine is a mess.

Six feet is recommended for a screen.

Do apples grow well that far south?

I know people who use them in pies but it doesn't sound very appetizing to me. I passed on trying a piece.

I use the pressure canner for everything even tomatoes, apple sauce and pickled beets. It is so much easier than dealing with the big pots of water. Never hurry the cooling down process in any way; don't even remove it from the burner after the heat is turned off. I learned this the hard way in unsealed jars and leaking contents.

I did the blender thing one year and had orange tomato sauce. Still haven't figured that one out.

I canned some stuffed cabbage soup a few weeks ago. Had 10 pound cabbages in large numbers. I put in everything but the rice. I'm curious to see how it comes out. I'll put the rice in when I use it. I thought it would make it too thick to seal if I tried canning it with the rice in.

Also did tomato, tomato puree, beets and pickled cauliflower. I freeze most things these days.

Thanks!  Can you take starts from the existing plant?  This thing is still blooming...it's a purple and white flower, some of the runners are  8ft long.  I will go get new potting soil...

Wow! Yours did a lot better than mine which is still trying to recover from a bad bout of mealy bug.

I've never tired rooting them but I'd say take some actively growing shoots with 3 or 4 leaf nodes. Take the leaves off the first node and stick it into something that is sterile (potting soil, vermiculite). Do this in a container like the ones that you get take home in with the clear plastic lids. Water it and put the lid on. Keep it in good light but not in the sun. It will probably root since the plant is in such active growth and this method works for most things. Just for the heck of it put some in water. A lot of things will root in water. Let me know what works. I might try mine.

Pick your tomatoes from a ladder! Regular tomatoes, the indeterminate ones,  can get fairly tall if they are staked and encouraged to grow upright.   In the hydroponic green houses they get about 7 or 8 feet.

The moonflower seeds are listed as seeds that have to be "stratified" or subjected to a cold period before they germinate. Anyone who has grown them knows that they will sprout in the pot or ground the same year or even next year without being subjected to cold. They will often come back the next year even if you do nothing or just scatter them in the fall as tipcat says.

All I can say for sure is that fresh seed from your own plant will germinate better than bought seed. I usually have small plants in the spring if anyone wants them.

So, you are saying I should clip the stem off right below the pods. Just like dead heading flowers.

Yes, plants use a lot of energy setting seed. If you don't want the seed there isn't much point allowing them to expend the energy. We deadhead to encourage more bloom but also to allow the plant to save its energy to produce better roots, tubers and bulbs.

You might want to remove seeds and spent flowers from the cannas to encourage more flowers. I can't imagine wanting to grow them from seed, unless you are interested in hybridizing, when they multiply so rapidly from tubers. Here is what a seed pot looks like.

You are welcome. Good luck with the seeds.

Usually sunflower seeds are allowed to dry on the stalk. The only problem with this is that birds and deer love them and will eat them if they can. They also can shatter before you get a chance to gather them. You can put a cheese cloth or mesh bag over the heads to prevent this if you think there is a risk. They are dry when they are easily removed from the head. They will have the black/gray striped appearance of the seeds you see in the stores. Once you have removed them from the heads let them dry for a few days on a tray to make sure they are good and dry. They can be stored in a cool dry place for the winter or put them in an airtight jar in the refrigerator.

If you want to save them for the birds I don't see why you can't leave the heads intact and store them for the winter. Make sure you put them in a secure container or hang them. Mice will carry them all off if they can get to them.

If you have planted hybrid sunflowrers do not expect exactly the same colors that you have this year when you replant the seeds.

Bring the passion flower in and treat it like a house plant. Cut it back as necessary. It is usually a good idea to trim back tropical plants that have been outside before you bring them in because you are losing roots when you dig them up.  Reducing the top keeps them from wilting or losing leaves.

Since the plants have been in the soil it is important to get them into pots while the weather is still good. Dig them up and remove as much of the garden soil as you can without destroying the roots. This is kind of a compromise here. Because indoor conditions are great for the multiplication of bacteria and fungi we try to keep soil conditions as sterile as possible. You can't do this completely because your plants have been in the ground but do get them into good potting soil. I'd leave them outside in the shade until they recover from the transplant and then bring them in.

If any of your non-hardy purchases are bulbs or tubers you can wait until after the first frost, dig them and store then according to their requirements.

I suspect you mean non-hardy things like cannas or gladiolus.  If so yes get them out of the containers and into a cool area to store for the winter.

I have two azaleas blooming now. I think it is the strange weather we had this summer with the wild fluctuations in temperature. Confused everything. Rhodys should be pruned in the spring right after they bloom. Don't take them down to far or they might not bloom in the spring. These bushes look best with as little pruning as you can get away with.

You're welcome. Good luck with the landscaping.

Daylilies multiply like crazy and if you plant an 8-10 inch pot of them they will have to be divided in two to three years. If you have 6 clumped together I would separate them. They will continue to bloom even if crowded usually but will bloom much better if they aren't.

Plants are very forgiving, at least some of them. I've hacked daylilies out of the ground when they were in bloom, shoved them in somewhere else and never had them miss a bloom. Mums are more of a problem because they are so borderline around here. You never know when they are going to die on you over the winter.

You can divide plants in the spring or in the fall. Personally I'd wait until spring to divide the mums because they bloom so late and I think that is what is generally recommended. If you divide in the fall wait until after they bloom or they probably won't bloom. Just dig them up and cut into as many pieces as you feel will make nice sized plants.

With the phlox it is reseeding. You don't have the same plant but the off spring of the old plants which may not always come the same color as the parents.

The mums are harder to explain. It is not usual for plants to change color. It only happens in very unusual circumstances because of viruses or mutations (sporting). If you are remembering correctly what may have happened is that the yellow plant was not as hardy or healthy as the white one and it died over the winter. There may have been the start of a white plant in the yellow plant (happens when plants are field grown or when seedlings or cuttings are potted up) which did survive or the white one may have spread depending on how close they were together.

Some flowers do turn color as they age but you are apparently saying that the buds do not ever come out yellow.

I'm always amazed when I go south or west and see what are houseplants to us growing outside to enormous size. The first time I saw a Norfolk Island pine grown to full size my jaw dropped. Also saw a monkey puzzle tree once in Arizona that was bigger than I am. Saw philodendrons growing wild under the bridges in Fla. Good thing my husband won't let me drive or that car would be stopping every few miles.

Rose of Sharon seed so readily that I think that is the usual way to propagate them by gardeners. The only problem is that if you have a fancy Rose of Sharon it might not come true from seed.  You are probably going to get a sturdier plant if you dig up a seedling than if you try to root a cutting. With a rooted cutting there is always the shock of going into the ground from whatever you have rooted it in.

How soon it will flower depends on how happy it is where you plant it.  Mine took more than a year but it was a tiny plant and I didn't have it in the sunniest location. As tipcat says they are a fast grower.