It seems like I get an idea..and I have to brood and think about it for weeks. That is part of the fun. I have been thinking I really need to downscale my plans..and when I went outside and really looked at my new rose garden..I have lots of room to grow. Plus I can use pots for more. I have ordered a Mystic Beauty rose, Bolero (for a pot) 2 Double Delights from Roses Unlimited...and I have a Pickering order..I can't even remember what I ordered! I have a Glamis Castle, Parole, Gemini and a Golden Budda to plant. I believe Gemini and Golden Budda are going in pots. I have plans for 2 John Pauls..with maybe a climbing pink and white in between (havent decided yet) I also have a baby Darlow's Enigma that is going to the back of my property. Today I planted some Calla Lillies, and Oriental Lillies near my roses. I have nothing combined in the garden yet to go with the roses. I found a really cool orange Calla that I planted with my Vavoom..I don't know how this is all going to work..but that's the fun right? Oh yah..I bought 3 ceramic pots today for the Double Delights. Since they are so picky..I am putting them away from the other roses..so if I need to spray them alot I can. I am trying not to use to many chemicals. This was my way to get fragrance in my garden. I have to try and pick easier roses to grow..and I don't always get fragrance.

Congratulations, MrGary.....you've done an outstanding job. I am saving your post to my clippings so I can go back to it easily for reference. I think the one you cannot remember might be Alex Summers. It sure looks like mine. I won't picture it here, but mine is about the same age as yours....I'm just a sophomore with hosta myself, so our plants are "of an age." I'm pleased to see you are growing Banyai's Dancing Girl. It looks almost like Blue Cadet, and it is a very inexpensive choice to mass plant. Van Wade suggests it as an edger if you ever need such a feature. I edge with liriope here in zone 9a. But I am making a collection of the smaller blue hosta such as BC and BDGirl since I don't like being redundant and I like variety. Things such as Drummer Boy, Dear Hearts, Happy Hearts, Cheatin Heart (golden), Golden Tiara, Grand Tiara, Twist of Lime, Lemon Lime, Feather Boa....well, I fibbed, I just like the smaller mounding hosta blue or gold or green! Thanks for treating us to a beautiful garden.

Jammie, My purple podded beans have produced sporadically in little waves. Beans are affected by the extreme heat too, just like tomatoes. I tried extra hard to get my bush beans in the ground on time this past spring (I tend to focus too much on tomatoes and then everything else gets planted only after the tomatoes are in) and it paid off. I think last year I planted them a touch too late and it got hot before they produced too much. Then the grasshoppers showed up and ate them down to the ground. For your girls, you need to plant Tanya's Pink Pod Bush Beans. The pods actually do turn pink, and the beans are tasty as well as pretty. (When you cook them, they do turn green just like the purple ones do.) Last year and this year, Tanya's Pink Pod have produced better in the heat than any other bush bean. You know, for the girls, y'all could put in a pink bed or a purple bed. Think of all the veggies that come in those colors: eggplant comes in both pinkish-violet and purple, there's pink tomatoes (including a pink bite-sized one called Sweet Treats) and purple tomatoes, pink podded bush beans, purple podded bush beans, purple podded pole beans, purplehull pinkeye southern peas, purple carrots, purple broccoli, purple cauliflower. I bet there's more pinks, but now that I'm trying to think of one, I can't. Oh, I am pretty sure there's pink popcorn and there is a pink kale, but it is ornamental and not edible. There's a pink swiss chard and, of course, pink-fleshed watermelons. I think y'all could have a whole bed or row of pink or purple plants or plants that produce either pink or purple foliage, flowers, fruit or veggies. Another fun thing with kids is to dye easter eggs using plants for natural dyes. For a couple of years I planted a "rainbow garden" in my veggie bed, where every raised bed was one color, and I had a bed in every color of the rainbow, in the same order as the colors in the rainbow. It was a lot of fun, even though it was quite a challenge to find fine some things in some colors. Every bed had a mix of veggies, herbs and flowers in that bed's designated color. Another fun thing we did when our son and nieces and nephews were younger was to plant them sunflower houses and also big teepees covered in a mix of pole beans, ornamental gourds and mini pumpkins. The kids could play in the sunflower house or teepees like they were playhouses or forts. For a sunflower house, you plant your sunflowers in a square box shape so the flowers form the 4 walls. After your 'walls' are 3 or 4' tall, you plant morning glories or black-eyed-susan vines or any other annual vine to climb the sunflowers' stalks. By the time the sunflowers are 5 or 6' tall, you can run twine back and forth from sunflower to sunflower like roof rafters, and then your vines creep along the twine and form a room over the house. It is the cutest thing. Just be sure to leave a 'doorway' area so the kids can go in and out. Gardening with kids is tons of fun! I grew up in a gardening family, so always have been a gardener. When I went to college, I majored in business....and even laughed about the fact that our local community college had a horticulture program. I remember joking about "who would want to major in horticulture?". lol To me, horticulture was just something "everyone" did, and I couldn't imagine anyone would want to make a living at it. I shake my head now and imagine that studying horticulture would have been right up my alley. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Tanya's Pink Pod Bean at SESE

Kate -- I do not know much about Akebono. I recently became interested in Japanese roses after falling for Mikado and looking into the history of the hybridizer. (even though Akebono and Mikado have different hybridizers) That's one thing I just love about roses, all have a story and there is so much to learn. I looked up the minis on the Kordes site (the label said it was a Kordes rose) and I think it is Pink Poetry Kordana. Lothlin -- Yeah, George Burns makes quite a statement! Grimaldi is loaded with blooms, so even though the opened form isn't my favorite, the splashes of color make it a keeper! Sara-Ann -- thank you! I was surprised at how nice the Dick Clark bush looked on only it's second year. Jim -- thanks! I am a huge fan of the striped roses. They always put on such a show!