Our mertensia has been blooming for several weeks and is still beautiful. One of the first perennials we put in, over 15 years ago, it has spread and become more durable thru the years. Ours is under a pin oak tree. We do very little there except water when excessively dry. The blue bells are mixed with bloodroot, spiderwort, Solomon's seal, day lily, coral bells, Jacob's ladder, crocus, star of Bethlehmem, lirope, columbine, and wood betony. I agree I would much rather pay for a mature perennial than a small dormant root. In the same small door yard we have weeping yaupon holly, blue angel holly, and box. EP

Hi Jeanne!! I do try and pot up the smaller trees each year and i will go up to the larger size being 12-15 max. My largest tree is a handful to move into my great room and I can't go any larger. Once it grows to large for that container, I will root prune and place it back into the same container. Most of my new trees go into a one gallon ( when I root cuttings) and I will move those up the following year to three and then five gallon. The number of trees I have are greater then the normal collector. Lol. Did I just say that? Nooooo.. I'm a " normal" collector.. ;-). I just have over a hundred or so to move inside each year and it takes a few days to prepare them for the " March Of The Plumeria". But I love it.. My trees are starting to have yellow leaves ( bottom.. Older leaves). And like K mentioned, that is normal. It's their way of shedding and getting ready due to the limited light now and the cooler evenings. They know when it's getting time to relax.. Mother Nature knows best.. im also seeing some orange rust, so don't be alarmed if you see this. It's getting to be that time of the season. Thank you K for your kind comment. I do appreciate your vote of confidence.. I'm still learning, but I also love to share what I do know. Please let me know if you need any help. I'd be more than happy to help you in any way... Have a great night !! Laura

Hi Shelia, Most of mine were grown from cuttings that I rooted (some named varieties, some generic). Just a few were already-rooted plants when I got them. None that I have started from seed are blooming yet. I imagine they could take 3-5 years before they bloom (for my zone). Tips? Yes -- patience, patience, patience, warmth, humidity, good soil, lots of sun, large pots, fertilizer, a warm place to winter them over, and did I say patience?

Thank you both for your input and i really appreciate the first hand experience. I also agree all to well with your assessment of the deer. This is a very rural property a little over 40-acre in size so it is going to be a struggle but the plan is to stick to "deer resistant" plants except for a couple of acres of fields planted with "deer magnets" like clover, legumes and winter rye to hopefully keep them fed enough so they have no need to raid the less palatable plants for survival. I agree that the site looks dry in the photo but that photo was taken immediately after 20 years of downed branches and debris were chipped so there is about 3" of fresh/dry woodchip mulch over the entire site in that photo. It has had a year to breakdown and the area is now scattered with ferns (unknown species) and stays moist but due to the slope, doesn't collect standing water. I've continued to research the Mertensia virginica and found the following information at the USDA site. http://plants.usda.gov/java/charProfile?symbol=MEVI3 The "reproduction" section has a lot of good information which does suggest the plants reproduce through self seeding (as well as roots) with medium vigor but do slow slowly. I think Adidas is correct that this would be a multi-year project, but perhaps worth it! As with many perennials, best-case scenario would be blooms in 2-3 years probably. Other research as indicated that the seeds must be stratified but frost seeding to bare earth in sufficient quantities I think would take care of that and mimic the natural conditions in which they reproduce in the wild. They are wild flowers after all. Our soil is acidic although we have not yet tested this area but we are liming the fields and I could lime this as well although the USDA site says they can tolerate pH as low as 4.5. That link also has plant density information and a little math puts it at about 1oz of seed ($100) per acre so we could continue to seed it for a few years until it achieved enough density and we confirmed it was "working". The other thing we've considered was mixing in forget-me-not seeds, Myosotis sylvatica, which are cheap and could perhaps fill in the site faster with a complimentary color and perhaps a scattering of Cardinal flowers, Lobelia cardinalis, in places to add a bit of contrasting later season color. Does anyone have any experience with either of those? Conditions for good growth seem very similar. Thanks again for the input. We're new at this so I really appreciate any experience or advise we can get, please keep it coming.