The bowl seal should be new and the bowl as well if there are signs of corrosion at the seal area. That being said, occasionally you will get one that won't prime.

Great Blooms!! And I'm jealous of all the space... Put in a few blanket flowers this year and they carried on like crazy and then they died completely back and then a few weeks later new growth started poking its head up through the mulch and their blooming again. Cosmos are awesome, I direct sow them just as the irises are starting to bloom so that by the time most of the daylilies have done their thing the cosmos start blooming and carry me thru till the first hard frost. What you've learned from Karol, I completely agree with her, breed from good stock and things can only get better from there.. which probably explains my psuedo obsession with knowing as much as I possibly can about a cultivars genetic background. Granted, most unwanted characteristics have been hopefully bred out... but it does help to know as much as possible about prospective parents so you're not as surprised when a cross of red X purple throws a few screaming yellow or orange seedlings. Again, totally jealous of the space you have to work with and what you've done so far looks awesome! ~Donald~

Melissa, What on earth are you going to do when all those plants of your's grow? I am smiling. May consider saving some energy for the voles. If you have 'Gemini Moon' you probably don't need either. I have held off on both. I have seen spring burn on 'Velvet Moon' quite often in different gardens. It also depends on the year how much there will be; sometimes a fair amount to just a little. The 'Moon Split' picture I seen, showed a considerable amount of spring burn. I am assuming all the babies were propagated from the one picture I seen. Like Mother, like daughter. The picture w/ all the 'Moon Splits' shows considerable variation from plant to plant and leaf to leaf. The green margin seems extremely wide in most to produce a replica of 'Moon Split'. It is going to depend on how long they have been grown and sorted by the final grower. I would be surprised to see the green margin shrink in size to get the narrow green margin and the wide yellow margin as shown. As we all know, the green has the vigor. I think some will get lucky to get 'Moon Split' and some will end up w/ 'Velvet Moon'. I have not noticed spring burn on 'Gemini Moon'. Seems to me, your previous list had both anyway? You are a strong-willed woman. Good Luck, Rick

Something very low tech I have been experimenting with is a piece of black felt. It's more reflective than I thought, so if I continue with it, I'll try different fabrics. For this, I just cut a square and put a slit in it. I was trying to get some leaf shots. I also used a bigger piece as a background for some flower shots. I just laid it on the hosta and shot from above. (I can't find it, so I must have deleted it for poor quality.) bk Here's a leaf shot from So Sweet.