In my Hummingbird and Butterfly garden I have 6 Alyssum ( Basket of Gold ), 3 GAURA ( Whirling Butterflies ), and 1 CARYOPTERIS ( LongwoodBlue )that has not shown any sign of growth yet. I know last Summer 3 of my Alyssum went rotten, I don't know if it was from the march that I put on the garden or if it was do to the amount of rain we got when I was on Vacation in July, we got like 3 inches of rain at once they told me when I got home.

The GAURA are not showing any signs of life ether and I would love to have them come back each year. I do not know any reason why they did not come back. If you could help me out here so I could get a very good growth on them and perhaps pick one that is more suited for my area it would be helpful?

An the CARYOPTERIS it could have be me, I cut it down to about 2 inches above the ground in January. Is this a hard plant also to grow? Or did I do something wrong?

If you could HELP ME OUT here and show me where I may of made a mistake please do so.

My soil is Clayish loam and has allot of Organic matter in it. The Soil Test shows around a 7 so I am in the Middle a little high but they told me it was OK.

TWO years ago I put about 8 loads of Horse Manure on the garden to brake up the clay soil which I did and now it is really louse and fertile.