Hi, I am interested in your blackberry lily , spiderwort any color especially red, obedient plant, and New England aster. Please take a look at my list to see if there is anything you would like to trade. If not maybe I could send you postage. I do have paypal too if that helps. Thanks Paula / gpborger / gpborger@consolidated.net Here is a link that might be useful: My trade page

Hi Kellybird; There is a good article on pearl crescents in NABA's Amerian Butterflies magazine. It is the Summer 2009 issue, volume 17, number 2. The author and his students have raised a lot of pearl crescents. The author states "My rearing records indicate that Pearl Crescents prefer New England and lance-leaved asters (A. novae-angliae and A. lanceolatus), but that they'll readily use crooked-stem aster (A. prenanthoides) as well." Then he goes on to describe the long list of published records for host plants, all in the aster family. He mentions that they wont a plant that has the chemical atractylon in the leaves, of which flat-topped aster does. He mentions that the are probably our most common butterfly. He also says that the eggs match the plant color and are hard to see. He also says that the 1st instars do group together for defense but are very small. They don't spin nests like baltimore checkerspots. The pictures show the caterpillars to be light green with black heads. So, they may be hard to find as well. I highly recommend reading this article. Cheers, Elisabeth Cheers, Elisabeth

Pam - I see you saw my comments on the rudbecka Rustic not-really-dwarf mix on the other thread. For folks who missed that, the 1/8 oz pack at Swallowtail (in their annual seeds section) contains about 3000-4000 seeds so that actually beats the prices on most of what they offer in their bulk section. The Swallowtail bulk section is always worth checking, but sometimes they also have wickedly huge seed packets at low prices in their regular section. Some of my faves there include: California poppies at 4500 seeds for $2.49 - $2.95 depending on type. Strawflowers, 5000 seeds for $2.49 Cosmos, 1300 seeds for $1.95 Foxgloves Excelsior hybrids at 20,000 seeds (yes, no typo) for $2.95 but currently out of stock. (But you could get 2500 seeds from ValueSeed.com for $0.99 if you need a bunch right now.) They've got some other bargains in there too but those are my favorites. Their xeranthemum and paper daisies have bargain packs but I wasn't impressed with the flowers or plants - especially when compared to their tall strawflower mix. That tall strawflower mix is a real winner. I didn't know they were as hardy as they were - my plants were green and flowering into the beginning of December here. In your area you might still have them blooming at Christmas. Another of my favorites is Helenium Autumanale - especially after seeing it as Bluestone's Perennial's cover flower in last year's catalog. I bought a pack from the bulk section at Swallowtail - 1000 seeds for just under $10. I got those in late May last year. The germinated fast (and with a very high germination rate), transplanted well, many bloomed the first year and I got a nice seed farm level of seed out of those. Helenium flowers are gorgeous with a lot of variety. They blow in the breeze in a super pretty way. I don't think it's possible to take a bad photo of them. I ended up hositing a photo group on Flickr just for helenium flowers because they are so beautiful. They are even super easy and fun to seed save from - seeds pop right off without fuss. AND they are long lived and perennial to zone 3. Oh, and they propagate easily by division so that once you have a favorite color you can divide it and make a garden full of clones if you like. I also think that they are likely to be a hot item for gardenweb seed and plant trading. Unless everyone who reads this ends up growing their own. :) Lynda Here is a link that might be useful: Slideshow from Flickr Helenium group

I also give my Asters a "haircut" in June sometime. This makes them bushier and more compact, less prone to flopping, but it does delay the bloom time by a week or two. I also trim many other perennials, like Solidago, Helianthus, Phlox, Rudbeckia, etc. for the same reason. Use some small hedge clippers which make short work of trimming and shaping the perennials. You could consider leaving the Asters in place, and digging or making a lasagne bed in front of the Asters and planting other perennials there and keeping the Asters weeded out. This would hide the scraggly legs that A. novae-angliae always seems to get. Or selectively weed out some of the big Asters in your bed. If you have Craigslist or Freecycle in your area, you can offer the extras free and people will come and dig them up for you! Your asters are pretty though. Bet you have zillions of bees all over them.