Who has started seeds for their gardens?

I do peaches also with blues, purples and lavenders. Also some yellows and of course whites. Hardly any pinks anymore.

I'm not a pink person, either, except with some Japanese irises in a soft pink. Peach is lovely with the blues. You have a great eye for combos, Sue.

Love that photo, Sue, and love the orange with the blue.

For a long time I wouldn't have orange in my garden and then bought a mix of Asiatic lilies that included orange so now I welcome it and love it with purple, Russian Sage, and yellow (not all in the same spot).

Zuzu, maybe it's age that makes us throw rules to the wind but I feel the same way. If I love something it will find a spot and I couldn't care what other people think: the same goes for the gardens. If this is my dotage then it feels good and I've earned it. A friend who took a decorating course and believes she's a decorator, always playing by the rules, has the most boring home I've ever seen. There's nothing to indicate she lives there - not a single photo, nothing personal, nothing from her childhood or from a vacation and it's that sterile feeling that's more harsh than Clorox.

Here the garden is MY domain, no opinions but my own matter, LOL.

I notice that I have been adding very few purples, the sun really washes them out. That said, most of the backdrop for all my other plants is plumbago, so there is already alot of purple/blue. If I have a nice deep red or purple, say daylily, I will plant it with other kinds of flowers, usually not another daylily.

The darker daylilies do best with protection from the harsh sun of the day so mine are in shade.

I love blue with everything in the garden. Voluminous plumbago all around sounds gorgeous! And very cooling to the eye in a warm climate.

Agreed Pirl. I have moved most of mine to at least the tree line so they get filtered sun. I might not get as many blooms, but they sure are prettier. That plumbago never fades or fails me in this zone. It did not like the many freezes we had this year tho. It will be back better than ever tho, I just know it. The daylilies might be accenting the plumbago this year instead of visa versa tho. They will bloom early.

GG - I'll trade off ugly blooms in great volume for fewer unspoiled blooms anytime.

Speaking of blue in the garden earlier, have any of you grown Browallia speciosa? I've started seed from them and have 2 flats full. Hoping they are more blue than lavender to use in the Sky Garden.

Zuzu, I was thinking you may know with your fondness for blue blossoms :-)

No, Neal. They're definitely more lavender than blue in my experience.

It's true the sun does wash out the brighter blues and purples. We get very little sun here, it's overcast most of the time.

Pirl, what conditions do you grow your Russian Sage in? I've had absolutely no luck with it, and I love it. I only planted it once, and understood it wanted to be dry, so maybe it was not enough moisture for it.

Polly - they get treated like the Lavender plants - on the dry side and never cut back until early spring when they begin to show signs of growth and then cut back to about a foot tall.

They grow along with the Echinaceas, lilies and yarrow and they all play well together.

Yes, that's how I tried to grow them. I have trouble with echinaceas too. It could be my soil, then. You would think they would love a well draining sandy soil. Lilies grow great there. I'll have to check into their ph wants, as I do love them. I can live without echinaceas, but I would like the perovskia. Yarrow does quite well in the area where I tried the perovskia..

A true Polly Puzzler.

Thanks Zuzu, good to know. I can use lots of lavender in another area, so they'll still be quite useful.

Polly, my experience with Russian Sage has been hit and miss, and I've never quite figured out what the problems were/are. Here they seem to do better in poor soil. I don't know if that's normal for them or not. They do prefer lots of sun- I'd think if Yarrow is happy they would be too.

My yarrow does quite well, but the perovskia only lasted a year. The next year after planting it was not nearly as tall, and full, and then the next year it didn't come back. It was in full sun, for what sun we get here. And I kept it on the dry side. I know my soil is slightly acidic. I'll have to see if perovskia likes an alkaline soil.

Well, I see neutral to slightly acidic, so that shouldn't be the problem. Maybe I just need to try again. Maybe some moles ate the roots or something.

Full sun seems to be mandatory according to this article:
http://www.youcanlearnseries.com/Landscape/Plants/RussianSage.aspx