Debbie's Garden: Annuals

Plant: African Daisy "Soprano Vanilla Spoon"
Source: Parking lot plant vendor
Quantity: 2
Planted: 5/24/09
Notes: Planted in back garden. These have really unusual petals. They continued to look good after the first frost.

Plant: African Daisy "Tradewinds Pink"
Source: Parking lot plant vendor
Quantity: 3
Planted: 5/24/09
Notes: Planted in back garden. I saw these in Greece several years ago and promised myself I'd plant these the next time I ran across them.

Plant: Dahlia "Sean C"
Source: Dan's Dahlias
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/18/09
Bloomed: Mid-July
Notes: Planted in back garden by kalmia. These are exquisite. I had these in a vase in my office and everyone who saw them talked about how pretty they are. One plant has produced dozens of blooms.

Plant: Dahlia "Evening Lady"
Source: Dan's Dahlias
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/18/09
Bloomed: Mid-July
Notes: Planted in far back garden. Free with purchase. This one is terrific. Very tall but produces many four inch perfectly shaped blooms.

Plant: Dahlia "Pasadoble"
Source: Dan's Dahlias
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/18/09
Bloomed: Mid-July
Notes: Planted in back garden by clematis Jackmanii. Hasn't produced many blooms and I'm not impressed by it.

Plant: Dahlia "Moorplace"
Source: Dan's Dahlias
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/18/09
Bloomed: Mid-August
Notes: Planted in far back corner by lilacs. Hasn't produced many blooms. Blooms are golf-ball-sized perfect circles.

Plant: Dahlia "River Road"
Source: Dan's Dahlias
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/18/09
Bloomed: Late September.
Notes: Planted in front garden in 2008 where this poor little thing nearly died during a drought in August, but it sent up new stems in an effort to survive. Bought a new one and planted it in the kitchen garden in 2009 where it thrived the least of all of my dahlias once again. Perhaps this isn't such a winner. Finally bloomed in late September and I got three blooms before cold weather started killing the buds, even though the other dahlias were still blooming several weeks longer.

Plant: Snapdragon "Snapshot Purple"
Source: Meijer
Quantity: 16
Planted: 5/4/09
Notes: Planted in back garden and kitchen garden.

Plant: Celosia "Castle Pink"
Source: Meijer
Quantity: 16
Planted: 5/4/09
Notes: Planted in back garden and far back garden. These didn't done very well in either location and I'm not thrilled with them.

Plant: Dianthus "Telstar White"
Source: Meijer
Quantity: 16
Planted: 5/4/09
Notes: Planted in far back garden and kitchen garden. Sturdy and reliable, if a bit boring.

Plant: Viola "Comte de Brazza"
Source: Select Seeds
Quantity: 3
Planted: 5/13/09
Notes: Planted in far back garden. Doing well but it probably won't bloom this year. It's only hardy to zone 7, so this is an annual in my zone 5b garden.

Plant: Lantana "Luscious Grape"
Source: Select Seeds
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/13/09
Notes: Planted in back garden then moved to front garden in July. Bloomed all summer. Unusual color for lantana.

Plant: Lantana "Silver Mound"
Source: Allisonville Nursery
Quantity: 1
Planted: 7/11/09
Notes: Planted in front garden. Bloomed all summer.

Plant: Lantana "Deen Day Smith"
Source: Allisonville Nursery
Quantity: 1
Planted: 7/11/09
Notes: Planted in front garden. Bloomed all summer.

Plant: Lantana "Confetti"
Source: Allisonville Nursery
Quantity: 1
Planted: 7/11/09
Notes: Planted in front garden. Bloomed all summer.

Plant: Lantana "Landmark Sunrise Rose"
Source: Allisonville Nursery
Quantity: 1
Planted: 7/11/09
Notes: Planted in front garden. Bloomed all summer. These were really beautiful.

Plant: Lantana "Landmark White"
Source: Allisonville Nursery
Quantity: 1
Planted: 7/11/09
Notes: Planted in front garden. Bloomed all summer.

Plant: Amaranth "Velvet Curtains"
Source: Select Seeds
Quantity: 1 packet
Planted: 4/18/09
Notes: Free with purchase. Seedlings appeared within a week and were bright red. The plants grew to be four feet tall until a storm knocked them down. I really enjoyed their bright color in the garden.

Plant: Ipomoea "Moonflower"
Source: Select Seeds
Quantity: 1 packet
Planted: 4/27/09
Bloomed: Late August
Notes: Planted by large compost bin with the hopes of camoflaging it eventually. One evening, we watched these open. It took about 20 minutes.

Plant: Morning Glory "Milky Way"
Source: Select Seeds
Quantity: 1 packet
Planted: 4/26/09
Bloomed: Early August
Notes: Planted at base of gazebo trellis.

Plant: Morning Glory "Sunrise Serenade"
Source: Select Seeds
Quantity: 1 packet
Planted: 4/26/09
Bloomed: Mid-August
Notes: Planted on round drainpipe trellis.

Plant: Torenia "Summer Wave Amethyst"
Source: Select Seeds
Quantity: 3
Planted: 5/1/08
Notes: Planted in back garden. First blooms appeared within a couple of days. These spread very quickly and bloom constantly.

Plant: Torenia "Summer Wave Blue"
Source: Select Seeds
Quantity: 3
Planted: 5/1/08
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. These spread nicely and bloom a lot.

Plant: Verbena "Lanai Purple Star"
Source: Meijer
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/17/08
Notes: Planted in back garden. This is a cute little plant.

Plant: Snapdragon "Night and Day"
Source: Park Seeds
Quantity: 1 package
Planted: Spring 2007
Bloomed: Mid-July
Notes: Planted in back garden. I planted these in 2007 among some tulips and they never came up, no doubt due to being crowded by the tulip foliage. However, one plant showed up a year later and a couple of feet to the left of where I planted the seeds.

Plant: Snapdragon "Black Prince"
Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds
Quantity: 1 package
Planted: 4/26/08
Bloomed: Mid-July
Notes: Planted in back garden. These are a rich, dark burgundy color. I had many more seedlings in 2009 which did better than their first year.

Plant: Lupine "Golden"
Source: American Meadows
Quantity: 1/4 lb. bag
Planted: 5/21/08
Notes: Planted 1/3 of bag near rose bushes. This is an annual form of lupine that promises to bloom within one season from seed. Germinated very quickly but only a handful survived to the end of the summer and none of them bloomed.

Plant: Lupine "Arroyo"
Source: American Meadows
Quantity: 1/4 lb. bag
Planted: 5/21/08
Notes: Planted 1/3 of bag in back garden. This is also an annual form of lupine. Germinated within a few days, and bloomed in seven weeks.

Plant: Morning Glory "Cameo Elegance"
Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds
Quantity: 1 package
Planted: 5/8/08
Notes: Planted half a packet at base of metal gazebo. By 6/29/08, only two seedlings were coming up, so I planted the rest of the packet. Started to vine in mid-July. The foliage is variegated. The blooms were small, late to appear, and limited in number.

Plant: Dahlia "Blended Beauty"
Source: Dan's Dahlias
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/27/08
Bloomed: Mid-July
Notes: Planted in far back garden. This was a nice, fairly short dahlia with gorgeous blooms.

Plant: Dahlia "Carl Chilson"
Source: Dan's Dahlias
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/27/08
Bloomed: Mid-July
Notes: Free with order. I love Dan's Dahlias. Planted in back garden. These were fairly tall and produced many blooms.

Plant: Dahlia "Magic Moment"
Source: Dan's Dahlias
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/27/08
Bloomed: Mid-July
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. These blooms were very nice.

Plant: Lupine "Sunrise"
Source: Park's Gardens
Quantity: 2 packets
Planted: 4/12/07
Notes: This is an annual form of lupine. Planted half packet of seeds in back garden. The seedlings are much larger than other lupine seedlings and were doing well until the leaves were all stripped off by the rabbits and the stems died. I kept planting new sets of seedlings with almost no luck. One seedling planted in early July bloomed in late August. Planted another couple packets of seeds in spring 2008 but the rabbits ate the tops off of every one right just before they started to bloom.

Plant: Torenia "Catalina Pink"
Source: Menard's
Quantity: 3
Planted: 7/2/07
Notes: Planted in back garden. This has beautiful pink, white, and yellow blooms. This struggled a little during a drought, but bloomed all season until early November's frost.

Plant: Torenia "Catalina Midnight Blue"
Source: Menard's
Quantity: 3
Planted: 7/2/07
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. The blooms are a deep royal blue and the plant blooms all summer in a nice mound of foliage. I liked these so much I ordered more torenia in 2008.

Plant: Cleome "Mix"
Source: Vail Villager
Quantity: 1 packet
Planted: 4/15/07
Bloomed: Early July
Notes: Planted half the packet in far back garden. This was free with purchase of columbine seeds. This grew to five feet tall and was quite pretty. The foliage is nice and the plant stays in bloom all summer. It dropped hundreds of seeds that produced hundreds of seedlings in the fall, and hundreds more the next spring.

Plant: Sweet Alyssum
Source: Miles Kimball
Quantity: 2 snowmen
Planted: 4/15/07
Bloomed: Mid-June
Notes: We sent out 2006 Christmas cards with little snowman-shaped seed cards. I tore them into smaller pieces and planted them in two places in the far back garden and they did well. By late August, they had already produced dozens of seedlings all around them.

Plant: Dahlia "Juul's Pearl"
Source: Dan's Dahlias
Quantity: 2
Planted: 4/16/07
Bloomed: Early July
Notes: Planted in far back garden. The blossoms take a long time to fully open. The Japanese beetles love the blooms, unfortunately. The plants reached nearly 7 feet tall and were covered with blooms all summer.

Plant: Dahlia "Emory Paul"
Source: Dan's Dahlias
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/16/07
Bloomed: Early October
Notes: Planted in back garden. This is 2 1/2 feet tall with very thick stems. It didn't bloom until I gave it extra fertilizer in mid-September, then it finally produced gorgeous huge blooms in October.

Plant: Dahlia "Park Princess"
Source: Dan's Dahlias
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/16/07
Bloomed: Mid-August
Notes: Planted in front garden. These were really pretty blooms. Ordered another one in 2008 and planted it in the front garden again, but it didn't come up because the front garden is not a very hospitable location.

Plant: Dahlia "Mirage"
Source: Dan's Dahlias
Quantity: 2
Planted: 4/16/07
Bloomed: Late July
Notes: This was sent to me in place of "Aitara Cloud," which was sold out. I could not find any reference to it online, so I had no idea what it would look like. Planted in back garden. It's a pleasant flower that is about 2 1/2 feet tall. The bloom was lavender-pink about five inches wide.

Plant: Dahlia "Hawaii"
Source: Park Seeds
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/23/07
Bloomed: Early August
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. This bloomed, quite fittingly, while we were on vacation in Hawaii. Like all our dahlias, it gets eaten by Japanese beetles, but the blooms are beautiful.

Plant: Caladium "Little Miss Muffet"
Source: Park's Gardens
Quantity: 5
Planted: 5/23/07
Notes: Planted in far back garden. Took over a month to sprout, so I was worried that it wouldn't make it, but it was worth the wait.

Plant: Morning Glory "Heavenly Blue"
Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds
Quantity: 1 packet
Planted: 4/15/07
Notes: Planted half the packet on pyramid trellis in spa garden. Planted the other half on 5/28/07 when the first half didn't come up and by 6/16/07, the seedlings were starting to vine. Planted more in 2008.

Plant: Morning Glory "Blue Star"
Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds
Quantity: 1 packet
Planted: 4/15/07
Bloomed: Early July
Notes: Planted half the packet at base of metal gazebo where many of my clematis are. While I realize that this is considered an affront to the clematis, the truth is that I get tired of the endless clematis wilt that seems to happen mid-summer, and it is nice to see some vines actually make it to the top of the gazebo for a change.

Plant: Sunflower "Kong"
Source: Henry Field's
Quantity: 1
Bloomed: Early September
Notes: I started these indoors, then several sets outdoors, before one seedling finally survived. It grew very quickly and is shown here next to our banana tree (Musa Basjoo). A week after blooming, the weight of the blossom caused it to droop as sunflowers often do. The birds ate all of the seeds in the blossom.

Plant: Celosia "Fireglow"
Source: Park Seeds
Quantity: 2
Planted: 4/23/06
Bloomed: Late August
Notes: Planted in back garden. Started these as seedlings then transplanted outdoors in May. They didn't start to grow until mid-August. In the future, I'll plant celosia plants instead of starting them from seed.

Plant: Pepper "Marbles"
Source: Park Seeds
Quantity: 2
Planted: 4/23/06
Notes: Planted in back garden. Started these as seedlings then transplanted outdoors in May. They were slow to take off, but eventually two plants started to thrive. The peppers started to turn yellow, then red in late August. These are cute, tiny peppers, but they are tough to eat and can be extremely hot. They did not succumb to the leaf rot that all of our other pepper plants seem to do, so they were beautiful all season.

Plant: Pumpkin "Jack Be Little"
Quantity: 1
Notes: Planted in back garden. These grew very quickly and produced lots of blooms and a handful of pumpkins. This was a chance seedling from last year's Jack-Be-Little pumpkins that I threw in the compost bin. Last year's vine only produced four pumpkins, but this year's vine produced a dozen, despite being diseased by cucumber beetles.

Plant: Pumpkin "Lumina"
Quantity: 1
Planted: 6/23/06
Notes: Planted in far back garden. This vine was inundated with cucumber beetles, but grew to about 20 feet long and produced two white, round pumpkins.

Plant: Gourds "Mix"
Source: Select Seeds
Planted: 4/6/06
Notes: Planted in spa garden. These took off in July and I had to cut them back constantly to keep them from growing out of control. They produced yellow/green round gourds, green round gourds, and yellow/green J-shaped gourds. I enjoyed them so much that I planted another mix of gourd seeds in early August. The only drawback is that these attracted and nurtured a huge crop of cucumber beetles who slowly killed these vines and my cucumber crop. I removed the last of the dying vines in early September.

Plant: Lantana "Irene"
Source: Select Seeds
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/9/06
Bloomed: Late May
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden in memory of my mother, Irene. This has such cool blossoms, consisting of pink, yellow, and orange. It turned into a large beautiful mound of flowers, and I really love it. Ordered three more plants from the same supplier in spring 2007, two more in spring 2008, one more in spring 2009, and I couldn't be happier.

Plant: Rosemary "Irene"
Source: Wayside Gardens
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/9/06
Bloomed: Early June
Notes: Planted in back garden in honor of my late mother, Irene. My stepmother loves rosemary and I can see why. The scent is amazing and the plant spreads quickly, setting roots down every 6 - 8 inches. It's a shame that it is not hardy in zone 5. Ordered another from Park's Gardens in spring 2007, but it never bloomed or spread.

Plant: Passionflower "Lady Margaret"
Source: Select Seeds
Quantity: 2
Planted: 4/9/06
Bloomed: Early September
Notes: Planted in far back garden. These took forever to get established, partly because they are slow and partly because they get nibbled by rabbits. They finally started to take off in mid-August. The dark pink color of the amazing blooms is worth the wait.

Plant: Morning Glory "Mount Fuji"
Source: Park Seeds
Quantity: 5
Planted: 4/17/06
Bloomed: Early August
Notes: Sowed seeds directly into far back garden. The third set of seedlings survived, despite being eaten repeatedly by rabbits. Lesson learned -- be patient and wait until the end of May to sow morning glory seeds.

Plant: Castor Oil Bean "Zanzibarensis Mix"
Source: Select Seeds
Quantity: 2
Planted: 4/6/06
Notes: Planted in far back garden. I started one seedling indoors in mid-April, and directly sowed the other seedling in mid-May. The later seedling is the larger of the two. Earwigs love the foliage. As of late September, these were twelve feet tall. The trunk is sturdy and hollow, like bamboo, and the leaves are at least two feet across. We will probably plant them again someday, because these are some of the most fun plants I've ever had.

Plant: Dahlia "Arabian Nights"
Source: Langeveld
Quantity: 6
Planted: 4/9/06
Bloomed: Late June
Notes: Planted in far back garden. This is a medium-sized maroon dahlia. Like many dahlias, it is very floppy and requires staking, but it produced lots of blooms from August until frost came in October.

Plant: Begonia Mix
Source: Langeveld
Quantity: 12
Bloomed: Mid-September
Planted: 4/15/06
Notes: Planted in back garden. This was a mix of two kinds of begonias. Only three plants came up. I really don't have good luck with begonias, but they are cute flowers

Plant: Gladiolus Mix
Source: Langeveld
Quantity: 50
Bloomed: Early July
Planted: 4/15/06
Notes: Planted in far back garden. The mix consisted almost completely of pink glads, with about 20% reddish orange glads. They came back the next couple years, as previous annual glads have done, until I pulled them.

Plant: Musa (Banana Tree) "Ensete Maurelii"
Source: Brent and Becky's Bulbs
Quantity: 1
Planted: Spring 2006
Notes: Planted in back garden. This is less hardy than the Musa Basjo (or Basjoo) we plant every year. It has nice red accent coloring. It grew very slowly and was only two feet tall when frost came.

Plant: Dahlia "Serena"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 3
Planted: 6/1/06
Notes: Planted in far back garden. Shipped a month and a half late, with almost six inches of upside-down plant growth. Only one plant made it to the surface. Finally bloomed in mid-October, two days before frost arrived, because it was shipped so late. You're looking at the only bloom I got. I no longer purchase items from Van Bourgondien.

Plant: Abyssinian Gladiolus (Peacock Gladiolus)
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 18
Planted: 6/1/06
Bloomed: Late July
Notes: These are one of the only healthy things I received from Van Bourgondien this season, but it's hard to mess up corms. They're exactly as pictured in the catalog, but they're not very exciting. The blooms only last a week.

Plant: Passionflower
Source: Lowe's
Quantity: 1
Planted: 6/25/05
Notes: Planted behind kitchen garden. Since some passionflowers are hardy to this area, I was hoping this one would be too, but the tag said it is an annual and it was correct. The extremely striking blooms only last one day, but there are plenty of blooms to enjoy.

Plant: Fuschia
Source: Wood's Edge Nursery
Quantity: 3
Planted: 5/1/05 (already blooming)
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. Didn't bloom very long, most likely due to drought and neglect. It would have been better off if I had planted it closer to my back patio, where I would have noticed it more often. Oh, well, I've now tried planting fuschia, and my curiosity is sated.

Plant: Cosmos
Source: L&H Nursery
Quantity: 24
Planted: 5/8/05 (already blooming)
Notes: Planted in back garden. These are beautiful, colorful, and huge. By mid-August, I was starting to pull out some of the plants, so I learned my lesson that I only need to plant a couple, no matter how small they look in the spring.

Plant: Climbing Shell Plant
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/11/05
Bloomed: Mid-August
Notes: Planted at base of wisteria in back garden. Starting vining in early July. This has such a cool bloom! Planted another in 2006 that did nearly as well except it didn't bloom, but it produced vines like crazy, so perhaps I fertilized it incorrectly.

Plant: Lavatera "Twins Cool White"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/7/05
Bloomed: Mid-June
Notes: Planted on right side of weeping cherry. Moved to side garden on 6/9/05 since its twin plant didn't survive and the symmetrical look I was trying to achieve failed. Blooms were short-lived and the plant was quite disappointing.

Plant: White Angel Trumpets (Brugmansia)
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/12/05
Bloomed: Early September
Notes: Planted in back garden, but later moved into a container. Buds appeared in early August. This thing requires a lot of water because it grows so fast. Hard to believe that this was only a couple of inches tall in May!

Plant: Gladiolus "Tiny Tot"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 30
Planted: 5/12/05
Bloomed: Mid-July
Notes: Planted in back garden. Shipped in three bags; one containing 10, one containing 9, one containing 7 (including a rotten one). So, let's just say we have 25, shall we? These are much taller than the catalog described (12"-18"). The foliage is three feet tall and the flower stems are over four feet tall, so they required staking. The hummingbirds absolutely loved these. Discarded bulbs at the end of the season.

Plant: Gladiolus "Cheops"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 20
Planted: 5/12/05
Bloomed: Late July
Notes: Free with two purchases. Planted in back garden. Required staking, but the lovely blooms were worth it. Discarded bulbs at the end of the season.

Plant: Dahlia "Blue Bell"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 3
Planted: 5/12/05
Bloomed: Early August
Notes: Planted in back garden. Without support, these plants sprawled somewhat, but the blooms always managed to point upward. Perfectly round, pretty blooms.

Plant: Dahlia "Le Baron"
Source: Van Dyck's
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/26/05
Bloomed: Mid-August
Notes: Free with purchase. Planted in back garden. Beautiful blooms. We love the dinner plate dahlias, as long as they are well-staked. We use 5' tomato ladders from Gardener's Supply to support ours.

Plant: Dahlia "Kenora Macob"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/12/05
Bloomed: Mid-August
Notes: Free with purchase. Planted in back garden. The blooms take many days to open. Interesting bloom but not as pretty as other dinner plate dahlias.

Plant: Ageratum (Flossflower) "Hawaii Pink"
Source: Menard's
Quantity: 36
Planted: 4/25/04 (already blooming)
Notes: We planted an entire flat in 2004 and kept them in the ground until it started to get cold and we needed to clean up the garden. Although this version thrived, we like the look of the blue and purple versions better.

Plant: Ageratum (Flossflower) "Hawaii White"
Source: Menard's
Quantity: 36
Planted: 4/25/04 (already blooming)
Notes: We planted an entire flat and it did well, too. Not as pretty as the blue and purple versions.

Plant: Bachelor Button "Cyanus Double, Mixed Colors"
Source: Lowe's
Planted: 2/29/04
Bloomed: Mid-June
Notes: Started seedlings in small potting soil pellets. Moved outdoors on 3/24/04. Cut down on 7/10/04 while still blooming because the plants were too tall and were unsightly.

Plant: Snapdragons
Source: Lowe's
Planted: 4/7/04 (already blooming)
Notes: I have great memories of snapdragons from my childhood, but these did not impress me. I remember taller plants. These provided decent color, but I tired of them and pulled them out on 7/24/04 to make room for perennials.

Plant: Calla Lily "Peach Chiffon"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/7/04
Bloomed: Late May
Notes: Annual in zone 5; hardy to zone 9. This was a free Internet bonus. I would not have picked a peach-colored flower for my garden, but this is a gorgeous plant and I love it. We dug it up and composted it at the end of the season.

Plant: Calla Lily "Anneke"
Source: Van Dyck's
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/16/04
Bloomed: Early June
Notes: Annual in zone 5; hardy to zone 9. These are absolutely beautiful. At the end of 2004, we dug up two of the three tubers to store for the winter. The third tuber had rotted in the ground. The two surviving tubers had grown and divided quite a bit so I planted 13 separate tubers in spring 2005, and close to 20 in spring 2006.

Plant: Anemone de Caen "Poppy Anemones"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 24
Planted: 4/10/04
Bloomed: Early June
Notes: Annual in zone 5; hardy to zone 7. This plant has lovely white and pink blooms, but not enough of them to make up for the weed-like foliage. Removed them on 7/19/04.

Plant: Mirabilis Jalapa (Four O'Clocks)
Source: Brent and Becky's Bulbs
Quantity: 10
Planted: 4/14/04
Bloomed: Mid-June
Notes: Annual in zone 5; hardy to zone 8. Wow! These are huge plants which bloom and bloom. Some have bi-color blooms, including full pink, full white, and some blooms which are half of each color. Dug them up when it became apparent that every single bloom had produced a seed that was germinating. We pulled hundreds of seedlings out of the ground all fall and will never plant these again, even though they are stunning. Continued to pull up hundreds of seedlings throughout 2005, and even a few in 2006.

Plant: Dahlia "Mick's Peppermint"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 3
Planted: 3/29/04
Bloomed: Mid-August
Notes: Annual in zone 5; hardy to zone 8. First foliage appeared 4/25/04. First bud appeared 7/20/04. While not dinner plate sized, the largest bloom was 8" across and they are gorgeous. Blooms last up to three weeks on the plant, and over a week in a vase. The three plants produced at least 50 blooms in total, and only stopped blooming once a hard frost hit. We happily dug these up to plant again in 2005, but the tubers shriveled up over the winter and did not grow when we planted them in spring 2005. Planted another from Dan's Dahlias in 2008 but it didn't come up. Trying again in 2009.

Plant: Peruvian Daffodil
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/14/04
Bloomed: Mid-June
Notes: Annual in zone 5; hardy to zone 8. Van Bourgondien only shipped one of the two bags I ordered. After over a month, I finally received the second bag. These are lovely, exotic blooms, but they only last three days each. We dug them up and the bulbs were huge. We planted them again in 2005 and they produced more flowers, but we decided not to save them again for 2006.

Plant: Gladiolus "Flirtation"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 10
Planted: 4/7/04
Bloomed: Late June
Notes: Annual in zone 5; hardy to zone 8. Huge, beautiful flowers. We dug up the bulbs instead of saving them at the end of the season because we had discovered the joys of hardy gladiolus instead, however, we missed a few and three of them came up in 2005 and bloomed, while the hardy glads next to them did not. Lesson learned: don't dig up annual bulbs.

Plant: Freesia "Ballerina"
Source: Meijer
Quantity: 24
Planted: 4/7/04
Bloomed: Early July
Notes: Annual in zone 5. About half of the bulbs appeared, but only one plant bloomed. However, it sent up several stalks of blooms. We dug these up before the end of the season to make room for other plants.

Plant: Camelia Begonia "Grandiflora White"
Source: Meijer
Quantity: 6
Planted: 4/1/04
Bloomed: Early August
Notes: Annual in zone 5. Planted in kitchen garden. First sprouts appeared 6/16/04. Only two plants appeared, but they flowered quite well until frost.

Plant: Elephant Ears
Source: Spring Hill Nursery (onsite), Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 2
Planted: 5/12/04
Planted: 4/4/05, 6/1/05
Notes: Sprouted on 5/28/04, and first leaves appeared on 6/3/04. These were huge and complemented our banana tree well. When we dug them up at the end of the season, they were massive. We planted two new bulbs from Van Bourgondien in 2005, then discarded them in the compost bin, where they stayed nice and warm all winter. Found them trying to grow in the compost bin in spring 2006, so we planted them again.

Plant: Caladium
Source: Spring Hill Nursery (onsite)
Quantity: 2
Planted: 5/12/04
Bloomed: Mid-June
Notes: Sprouted on 5/28/04, and first leaves appeared on 6/3/04. Look closely at the photo to see the strange flower in the center.

Plant: Pink Dianthus
Quantity: 4
Planted: 7/03 (Already blooming)
Bloomed: Late April
Notes: We thought this was an annual in our zone, but it was alive and thriving in 2004. We cut it back drastically on 5/29/04 and it just started blooming some more. We removed it at the end of the 2004 season while it was still blooming to make room for other plants. Also planted some in 2005 which survived in 2006.

Plant: Pink Dianthus
Quantity: 4
Planted: Spring 2004 (Already blooming)
Notes: Another great dianthus plant. This was planted in the back garden and did well. We pulled it at the end of the season to make room for perennials.

Plant: Paperwhites "Ziva"
Source: Lowe's, Allisonville Nursery
Quantity: 7, 12
Planted: 9/7/03
Bloomed: Mid-November
Notes: This bulb is meant for indoor forcing, but it grew well in Fall 2003. In Fall 2004, they took a little longer to bloom and were killed by a sharp frost after it started blooming. We bring the blooms inside and they look and smell terrific in a vase.

Plant: Ageratum (Flossflower) "Hawaii Blue"
Source: Sundown Gardens
Quantity: 4
Planted: 5/15/03
Notes: This is an annual that did so well, we rescued a dark purple version in mid-summer 2003 which also thrived. We also planted it in 2004 and 2005.

Plant: Ageratum (Flossflower) "Hawaii Royal"
Source: Lowe's, Menard's
Quantity: 1, 36
Planted: 7/12/2003
Notes: This was a pathetic, thin 50 cent plant which absolutely thrived when planted in our garden.We loved it so much we planted an entire flat of them in 2004. A seedling appeared in the same location four -- yes, four -- years later.

Plant: Tropical Hibiscus
Source: Sundown Gardens
Purchased: Spring 2002
Bloomed: Blooms continously in warm weather (indoors in the winter)
Notes: This spent two summers on our front step, and one winter in our sunroom. It is breathtakingly beautiful when it is in bloom, but our cats dig into the dirt and eat the leaves. It moved to Tom's sunny window office in 2003 until it got too big, then came home until we cut it down after frost 2004.