Chris...you're gonna love BBE...it's a small one, but very pretty. Lrae...thanks, glad you enjoyed them. :) Shelly...you really need to get BBE...LOL, another one for your list!! FSA didn't have many blooms, but they sure were pretty. I'm hoping for better things from her next season. ML is so dark, even darker that my Jungle Beauty which is a nice "black" also. GG...yep BBE was my bonus from Mariettas. It's been a late bloomer for me, so maybe you'll get scapes yet on it. I envy you going to Richmond for regionals. So far, I haven't been able to make any of the DL tours. Sure would love to though. :) Marea...thanks. Lace Cookies was one of my first to bloom this season also. Since yours are just now beginning to bloom, I'll expect to see lots of beautiful photos to give me my daily "fix" since mine are winding down now. :) Betsy....Thanks, and please do post lots of photos. I hope you get tons of bloom to keep all of us southern folk happy. Julie....you've got me blushing girl. It's not my photography really. It's beautiful blooms and my camera. :) Sp. ER is a wonderful dl, and has increased very fast for me. She has really strutted her stuff this season. FSG...since this was her very first bloom season in my garden, and she's still settling in, the bud count was pretty low, but I'm expecting a greater show from her next season. SHN....Thanks, glad you enjoyed them. I do not grow LBB but would really love to have it. Do you grow her? Thanks to all of you for your comments. Jan

Thanks for your helpful replies, everyone, especially for taking the time to reply this busy time of year. I have found a worm farmer in GA not too far out of our way who is willing to set me up with some wigglers! We leave tomorrow and I'll get the worms on my way back next Monday. Thanks again and Happy Holidays to all! CK

Flyleft I have the same kind of room in my house. Low light, northern exposure and I live on the Gulf Coast! It's sunnier than crap here almost all of the time, but we wouldn't know that from this room and it's our main living area. After testing all kinds of colors I ended up going with a medium grey. Nothing else looked good in this weird light. It uses the White Base with only raw umber as the colorant. I'm definitely affected by light conditions and it was a relief when I finally painted the room from the "light switch beige" it was before. I always steered clear of grey because I thought it was depressing, imagine my surprise! I used deep tones in my kitchen (peacock/marine blue) and dining (an almost black, blue). The Gamma Grey is a nice buffer. It's a very close match to SW 7065 (Argos). Walkin's suggestion to add shimmer to the paint sounds fantastic. Autumnal paint colors, whites, and beiges don't look good in my light conditions. I do have an orange couch and have a lot of those fall colors in my art and accessories.

"My main point - and surprise - is changing a bed to lower maintenance is harder than I expected!" I think it depends on your definition of "low maintenance". For me, that means not much in the way of supplemental watering needed, doesn't need constant fiddling to look good, not too burdensome to cut down in the fall/clean up in the spring, and if I'm unable or don't want to do anything out there, stuff will still look fairly decent. I have found that larger, taller plants are much less maintenance for me. This really surprised me. I've incorporated lots of taller, beefier plants at this house because of the visual weight of my house. Guess what? Need a lot fewer big plants than small plants to have an impact. And, I find them much easier to tend to (if needed) and cut down in the fall because I don't have to get down to ground level to do it. Faster and easier. Of course there's some maintenance, as with anything, but honestly I've hardly had to fiddle around out there at all this year and stuff looks pretty darn good. I'm looking into power tools for fall clean-up to make it even easier on me, but haven't purchased anything yet -- but that's another thread. So point is, "low maintenance" does not have to mean boring! Figure out what you don't want to or can't do anymore, and base your plant choices on that.