Ken 3rd year back fairly normal. Mid April for things to stir here and by mid May transformation all but in. Deep moisture is good. In fact I am still transplanting since its so cool and for the most part cultivars are still dormant. Snow to move in about mid morning. Dax...The Sham obtusa, I called it, was replaced with Cedrus libani var.atlantica 'Horstmann'. I tried Sham twice and died both times. This conifer in B&B plus 6 ft. in height will not support itself ,that big, with 90% of its root base gone. !-2 ft. potted versions will survive.but I am not going back there. Dave

Hope you're ready for tonight, Pam. Batten down the hatches for another wild ride! What kind of rose is that? Love the dainty leaves and how it covers the ground. The storm beat many of the petals off my Ispahan roses, darn it. Since it only blooms for me once a year, it is such a disappointment. It usually blooms for about 4 weeks and the fragrance is like none other. Fills the whole back yard with a strong, myrrh-like scent. If you like large pink roses, I will root you a cutting of my Belinda's Dream shrub rose. It loves full sun - thrives in it. (I got mine from an anonymous giver, a sweet little Sally from Texas, who BTW I haven't seen posting on here yet this spring. Hope she is okay.). It roots easily. I now have two roses and in just the first year! Both bloomed the first year. This year the blooms are even bigger. Blooms are huge, many petaled, and tight and they last and last and keep making more. It has the most delicious fragrance. It really is a DREAM rose. I like pink and orange flowers together, so I think it would look beautiful with all your oranges. Let me know via email. ~Annie

Omar, the silvery thing is one of the Mountain Mints Pyncnantheum muticum. It's very nice and does well in a monrning shade afternoon sun spot which is always hard IMO. Roselee, I got the original Tithonia at the Texas Discovery Gardens. Last year I had it and one of the cultivars and spider mites really ate up the cultivar and the specied did fine. The ones this year are from seed I collected so I could share seed again this fall. It's a heat lover so I started the seeds in the spring. I like the little pitcher clematis as well, I just hope next year it has more than three flowers! RC-as for rain it's been weird. Wet Dec-April, not a drop in May and then random pop-up showers in June. I've been lucky and been underneath several of those pop-ups. Temps are at least 10 degrees lower than last year as well.

How precious!! I just spent the day with my 16 month old grandson putting our tree together...tomorrow he's gonna come back and help me hang ornaments...to see the world thru their eyes is such a beautiful thing...