I just sent you an email. I looked at your want list and did not see any there, I do notice you want peonies. You have reached the right person. Send me an email and I can send pictures of which ones I am diving. flowersbytheriver2@comcast.net This post was edited by illinoisdoglover on Fri, Jun 14, 13 at 22:29

THANK YOU Vikki, MrMorton and Leslie! This is exactly the information I needed. I do NOT want to be moving anymore heavy plants. Vikki, your grass bed is lovely. I bet it's going to be awesome by this fall! MrMorton, your question about mowing over is a GOOD one! The problem is that this new "cottage garden" had to be put in a field. Since money is a major problem now, I'm trying to create a backdrop for my garden without investing too much cash. I'm using a mixture of helianthus, boltonia and grasses, which I hope will blend into the countryside. I do know it will take many months for any of this to achieve any height, but that's ok. Anyway, the grasses etc. create the border between the garden and the field, so it would be quite easy for the man who mows the field to clip these little fellows, even though I've allowed several feet between the field and the grass. Leslie, I'm so happy you mentioned the sedum AJ!!! This was exactly my plan to put them between the grasses. Last year I divided all of my AJs and this year I have about three dozen plants ready to put around the grasses. I also have a few dozen each of daylilies, Rudbeckia 'Goldstrum' and Echinacea 'Magnus' to fill in this zone between the field and the main cottage garden area. I also have a long mound helping to divide the areas, which will be covered with my collection of hens and chicks and lots of different sedums and other rock garden type plants. It's a work in progress and I'm having a lot of fun overcoming all these obstacles. :-) Thanks again to you all for taking the time to help! PattiOh

And so do I! I planted sunflowers for the first time this past spring. I just bought seed packets everywhere I saw them , so had sunflowers from 12" to 12', lemon, orange, red, and even a couple of black ones! They made the side yard look so bright and cheerful, I'm going to do it again in 2015! I just need to find a way to keep the seedheads on the stalks till the birds have had their fill - I ended up cutting some and putting just the heads on a privet hedge next to my driveway. The cardinals went crazy for them - I LOVE SUNFLOWERS!!!

yes, you will. i did--so i hired a man to roto-till it all up. WRONG!! each lil piece grew. actually, they arent too bad, roots real good in stir fry, to me they taste like water chestnuts. and then the blooms look like sunflowers. so, i guess all in all, if you harvest some each year, you can control them.