Hi Carol: I challenge you and others to finish our internationally acclaimed novel, using roses' name, entitled "When we are bad, and roses are good". See the below: â¢Posted by dove_song WA State Z 6b (My Page) on Wed, Aug 1, 12 at 8:09 ...some MOONLIGHT PASSIONATE KISSES. ST. PATRICK's HEART 'N' SOUL was ALL ABLAZE with anger at THE KNIGHT's and the MERMAID's MONKEY BUSINESS. CHANTILLY LACE had believed she had found TRUE LOVE with THE KNIGHT, But his FLAGRANT, OUTRAGEOUS behaviour with THE MERMAID would break her HOPEFUL HEART. :( â¢Posted by Strawberryhill 5a (My Page) on ST PATRICK invoked the help of king NEPTUNE, who sent a BLASTOFF of cold water jet into the BLUE OCEAN. This froze the knight's ass, so he had to jumped on his boat to continue with the journey. â¢Posted by dove_song WA State Z 6b (My Page) on Unfortunately for him, THE KNIGHT's boat ran into an ICEBERG thus thwarting his journey. In the meantime ST. PATRICK's sailboat was heading out into the BLUE OCEAN FULL SAIL... ST. PATRICK had a HEART O' GOLD, but he was weary of life's hard knocks to him and to those he loved. Therefore he decided to sail to FAIREST CAPE which was well known for it's EASY GOING lifestyle. Upon his arrival at FAIREST CAPE he was greeted by ... â¢Posted by WinterCat z10 (My Page) on ... a BLONDE BOMBSHELL with a BLACK HEART and a penchant for the use of BLACK MAGIC. "Oh! a HELPING HAND just at the right MOMENT IN TIME!" cried the TEMPTRESS. "The CHOCOLATE PRINCE is after me! He wants my HOT CHOCOLATE SECRET RECIPE! Quick! Please let me into your MERCEDES! He's CLOSE UP behind us!" "So much for EASY GOING lifestyle," mumbled ST. PATRICK, but how could he abandon a BLUSHING DAMSEL in distress to her fate? "Hop in LADY! Let's go!" "You're a saint!" sighed the BLONDE BOMBSHELL. "Don't BUTTER ME UP" replied St. Patrick. "What I need is a break from it all. Besides I'm thirsty. You wouldn't have any of that famous HOT CHOCOLATE left, have you? Even some MILKY TEA would do". "I've got SOMETHING ELSE that's much better. A real SURPRISE! Close your eyes", whispered she. ST. PATRICK closed his eyes and ... â¢Posted by Strawberryhill 5a Chicagoland (My Page) on Sun, Aug 5, 12 at 9:45 The BLONDE BOMBSHELL stuffed a GOLDEN DELIGHT into ST. PATRICK's mouth. It tastes so GOLDEN DELICIOUS to him, that he kept eating until he exploded into GOLDEN BUDDHA. Thank God that his entourage of the 7 dwarfs came to the rescue, running on their CUTIE PIE little legs. They are: BASHFUL, DOC, DOPEY, HAPPY, SLEEPY, SNEEZY, and GRUMPY. The dwarfs carried the bloated ST. PATRICK onto his boat. The 7 heroic dwarfs steered the boat toward the ICEBERG to rescue THE KNIGHT, whose YELLOW SUBMARINE got jammed. Here is a link that might be useful: Our novel using Roses' names This post was...

I was on vacation, returned yesterday, happy to get so many responses to my post, and wonderful feedback. Coolplantsguy - yes, I do love peonies and heirloom plants for that matter, I just don't have the room though I admire them in my neighbors yard. The one we had toppled from the weight of the blooms, I don't know the variety, they were here when we purchased. Thanks for the suggestion, I will consider if I ever find the space again...my lawn gets smaller with each passing year. LOL. Pat, you make me chuckle. I'm like you. I spend so much time planning and thinking things through over the winter, only to find later that I don't like the combos or placement, so I plan again for next year. Some of my plant combos happened by accident & some I've followed suggestions when researching companion plants. I'm still learning how textures compliment eachother, and other things I didn't know to think about a few years back, but it's fun to learn. Summer is too short though. Prairiemoon, I also have Astilbe planted next to my Annabelle, and I enjoy the contrast of the red plumes and darker foliage with the brighter green backdrop of Annabelle. I've learned it's best to NOT fertilize it once it's established, it makes the blooms too heavy and they'll topple. Still, the rain does make them flop, but mine usually bounce back, I have one staked with a support, but it was just planted this year. I also cut my dianthus blooms back before I left for vacation, and returned to a new flush of blooms, the foliage tends to yellow on me though, I need to stop watering, I didn't realize they're drought tolerant. I forget the variety, it's got blue spiky foliage and red flowers. I will have to do more research on hellebores...we added a raised planting bed/retaining wall with a row of purple leaf sandcherries on top, and I'm looking for an underplanting in full sun; the sandcherries will be trimmed into a tree form once established. For now, I planted yellowish hostas at the base for contrast, but I know they won't do well in full sun. I'm glad to hear about Sedum Angelina, mine will be delivered some time this week, now I'm really looking forward to growing them, I just worry about our new dog, she's so rambunctious - she's a chihuahua boston terrier mix, the cutest thing, she likes to grab my plants and tug on them..I'll have to get her some more toys. I was thinking of amending my soil for the iris, adding more grit for drainage, we'll see if that works. I had one aster that bloomed for me, but it was spindly, a combo of dry soil in this area and minimal sun, but my campanula that I moved not too long ago is doing much better, must be the sun. I have to move the asters, just trying to find a location. It's funny about the Autumn Joy Sedum, my husband keeps telling me to pot them up since I can't find the 'right' place for them, I'll have to try that. I do like the blooms, very pretty, and they grow amazingly large after transplanting a single stalk, very impressive. I will try to post a pic of William Baffin rose when I have a chance..the pic is not mine as mine is only a few months new and I'm still learning how to prune them to shape, but my friend has one along their property and it's a stunner, grows upright almost like a tree canopy, and does well in our zone without protection and is disease resistant, with prolific blooms, but I know they have to trim it back regularly, it's a monster. Give me a couple of days and I'll try to post here if I can figure out photobucket. Of the climbers, I have Don Juan and Sombreuil. They died back almost to the ground, but new growth emerged in the spring, so they're still puny and it's the end of July, though I also transplanted them in early spring. We'll see next year if they do better. I purchased Smokebush 'Grace' and 'Golden Spirit' - I've read there's some potential winter die back, mine is only a month new, but I've also heard that they grow like weeds once established, so even with winter die back they'll grow like crazy. 'Golden Spirit' has new growth in a pretty lime green color and grows more upright in form whereas 'Grace' fans out. 'Grace' grows at a house up the street from us and it's just beautiful, especially with the smokey plumes. I ask my husband to slow down every time we drive by. :) Phyl in Chicagoland, I'm embarrassed to post pics. I still consider my landscaping in the beginning stages, most plants aren't mature or established yet, I've moved a lot around, still a work in progress. I had problems with photobucket last time I tried, but I'll see what I can do. I'll tell you though, do an internet search on 'Nancy J. Ondra', I came across her website when researching plants (that's where I got my iris and lemonbalm combo inspiration from) - her garden is to die for, absolutely STUNNING!!! I peruse her garden pics whenever I get the winter blues. Mxk, I was also looking at the Iris pallida but wasn't sure if it would look odd to mix these with the non variegated type. If you like the look of Jacobs Ladder, it reminds me of a shrub, Carol Mackie Daphne. Same variegated foliage, with pretty spring flowers. Connie, this is also my first year with wave petunias and I love them, I have them in hanging baskets. I've read they are self-cleaning, unlike the regular petunias, but I still deadhead here and there. I'd do them again, definitely. The foliage is also very pretty. Gabby, I used to throw tags away, but as the gardening world became more intriguing to me, I've learned to write down the names of my plants on a 'map' of my yard...LOL. Mostly in an attempt to overcome winter blahs, I also compiled a list of plants that need deadheading, cutting back, dividing, etc. so I know what to do come spring. Daylilyluvr, ok, like I said I'm an 'advanced' beginner in the gardening world, still in my learning curve. LOL. I had no idea Sweet William was a biennial. I've had it for two years now, the blooms are stunning, but this year it got all brown and ratty after blooms were spent, I chalked that up to too much watering. I cut it back and it looks like a few blooms are starting to come in again, but I had to remove old dried stems. Web says if you don't let it self seed it will shoot up more stems and act as a perennial...looks like that's what's happening for me as I likely cut back the spent blooms last year too. Crunchpa, my favorite person from the container gardening forum. LOL. I have a TON of containers this year, maybe too many. It takes me over an hour just to water everything, and that's just the containers, but I think I got overzealous and overstuffed them this time around...still, I wouldn't go without my containers, I'm hooked. I love that moss sedum, I'll have to try it. You always have the best pics. I still have dirt to cover until everything is established, I'm waiting patiently though my transplanting doesn't help either. I was looking into that red hot poker at one point, if I remember correctly I think it goes dormant mid season and then comes back again later?? Or am I thinking of something else? Pretty. I'll have to research more of the suggestions here, though I'll probably be losing more lawn in the process. :)

Well, if snow is the poor man's fertilizer, then, as usual, the poor man gets squat. I'm not saying you're wrong, Annie, no ma'am! But here are a few facts to chew on. One - rain is the poor man's fertilizer too. In fact, rain has five or ten times more nitrate in it than snow, on a weight basis. Two - although every bit helps, neither rain nor snow really has a whole big bunch of nitrate. In the course of a year, we might get about 20 pounds of nitrate on an acre of ground. Three - Let's hope we don't get rain or snow with higher amounts of nitrate than what we already get. Nitrate and sulfate in precipitation go hand in hand with acid rain, and are due in large part to the burning of fossil fuels, although some has always been there from natural processes. Luckily, the poor man is smart enough to keep a cow for dairy and good old nitrate-loaded manure. OK, I've run my mouth now. Are we still friends? I wasn't trying to criticize, I hope you know, just to expand on what you wrote. It's always fun to read your stuff, Annie. I'm glad you are having such nice weather today. Ahhhhhh, it will be so nice when it gets here. ThinMan

Scott, YOU had to water! That's amazing. I would have thought you'd be the last person in Oklahoma this year who'd have to water anything. LOL I love, love, love Brandy Boy. The first year that it hit the market, I was very, very skeptical, but I bought the seed and raised the plants and was very pleased with both the plant's performance and the mater's flavor. I've grown it ever since. EVERYONE who wants to sell a tomato will try to tell you that it "tastes like Brandywine" or "beat Brandywine in a taste test" or whatever. Brandy Boy, though, is one tomato about which I think this claim could be made. In a good year, I am lucky to get 6 ripe tomatoes off of a Sudduth Brandywine (and maybe only 3 or 4 in a bad year), but I will get at least 3 times that many fruit, and often quite a lot more, from each Brandy Boy plant. In the years since Brandy Boy debuted, Burpee brought out quite a few other tomatoes that actually seem to have been bred for flavor instead of grocery store shelf longevity. From this group of maybe a dozen tomatoes, the ones I've tried and decided were "keepers" are "Bucks County", "Little Brandywine" and "Porterhouse". This is my first year to try "Burpee's Big Mama", which is an indeterminate paste type that has long, large tomatoes whose shape kind of reminds me of Jersey Devil. I haven't eaten enough of them yet to decide if the flavor makes them a keeper, though. They are huge monster of plants and are prolific producers. Dawn