lavender

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.

I know the feeling. Scraggly poinsettias that hang on until they are nothing but two leaves.

Do you think cutting them back when they reach their full growth would work? To get that bushel basket shape on mums and asters they do prune them back. I suppose this might deplete them after a few years but I've been cutting back a number of perennials severely after they bloom because they look so messy. It hasn't killed anything so far. Odds are though nothing is going to work. Your weather is just too warm for them to bloom later.

To overwinter in our area it is very important that mums have good drainage. I can't overwinter them in my clay soil but they come through the winter just fine on the bank that was built to raise my green house. It is mostly fill. I'm in a cold pocket here being at the foot of a hill. The mums in the garden across from Harley Davidson have come through year after year but only the ones at the top of the garden. The ones I put in last year at the foot did not do as well. Only one out of 6 or 7 made it through the winter. Better drainage on the slope or just more protected at the top? Who knows?

Before it leafs out in the spring is the best time. Next best is after it goes dormant in the fall. I'd mulch it heavily (after the ground freezes) if you do that to prevent heaving. Actually you can do it anytime that the tree is dormant and the ground isn't frozen.

That's the way it usually is, if you don't like it it grows but if you really want it to grow it won't. My poppies are the old fashioned red ones. My husband brought them home as a bag of dried up roots. I put them in the ground just to humor him. They were off and running within weeks and come up every year. They are pretty for a week and that is the end of them for the rest of the summer. A good hard rain beats them down to the ground. They aren't the best of plants other than nothing seems to kill them and nothing eats them.

The seeds may have been prechilled before they were packaged. There are also poppies that don't need prechilling but most of them do. Some seeds like the angel's trumpet seem to need prechilling only if they are stored seed. See, every time you make a pronouncement about a plant or seed it makes a liar of you. ;D

You won't exactly get baby cannas but the tuber will continue to grow. As it grows it will develop more "eyes". Each eye will put up leaves and is a new plant if you choose to divide the tuber. You should leave 2-4 eyes on each plant if you want a good sized clump. Remember that you will have to dig the clumps and store them after the first frost. The best way to sow poppy seeds it to toss them on the last snow of the spring. They need a chilling period before they will germinate. What you have done will work but they will not germinate until spring.

They grow right up until frost. I think the tropical stuff doesn't gear down the way our native plants do. They aren't expecting the cold because they are genetically geared to warmer climates.

And I lied. I was outside this afternoon (first time in a week with the rain) and the toad lilies I put in 2 years ago are blooming. I probably am going to pick up another one. The temptation is too great. I carved out another section and put in 30 ferns. I'm covered with mosquito bites.

Your toad lilies are way ahead of mine! They have a new one at Lowe's. If I remember correctly it is "Blue Horizon" and looks to be a midsized one. Actually your canna is way ahead of the ones on the embankment and they usually bloom early. I start the tubers in pots around April.

You dig the tuber and leave the dirt intact. Put them in a plastic bag with the top open especially if they are really wet. Store them in a cool area. I have a friend that thinks the area should have at least some light. I've never watered them but my basement is damp. You don't want them the shrivel. I see no reason why they can't be overwintered in a big pot as long as you keep an eye on it and make sure the tubers don't get so dry they shrivel.

You get more and more tubers each year. You pull them in the fall and then in the spring you divide them. Usually you leave more than one eye in each clump but each one will make a plant. I've dug clumps in the fall that I could hardly lift. When they started out they were 2 or three gallon pots. The things multiply like crazy.