Robert, you're as cute as your dog. :) LOL! and I meant that in a good way. (blush) I am "SO" not doing any more plant shopping. I've run out of pots and need to figure out how I'm going to repot those 18 plants that just arrived from Logees on Weds. I did one plant so far - the tall rose-cactus was done this morning, and promptly moved outside onto the porch. Half a day of rain, and afternoon sun shouldn't hurt it any. 17 more to go.

Sometimes it just pays to stay up late and read the forum! Who cares if you're tired the next day? The hosta will forgive you if you get outdoors later in the morning, right? Mocc, you always say the kindest things.... glad you enjoyed the pics...then you had me laughing out loud about the comment re the bees standing on their heads trying to get at the uplifted flowers! LOL. That is just so funny trying to visualize that!...before that the turkeys...ahhh, so good to hear from you, thank you!!! YES, the hiding flowerscape on The Shining! It never got taller? Bummer...kind of hard to admire it when it's that shy! Lol. There are a couple more "shorties" around here too, like one last year...all weather related, methinks. Weird. S&S has one last scape on it (I removed the spent ones already) that is so short, it looks like I just put it there instead of it growing out of the plant. Odd but I will post a pic to show you all. It may be a short scape but the flowers are nothing to sneeze at. They are beautifully large. Thanks for the recall re Holy Mouse Ears - of course, it makes sense, doesn't it? Poor Baby Bunting is another forced one and is barely hanging on but I am determined that it makes it...although it's a day to day survival for the poor little thing...it's no bigger than a dime!...well, maybe a nickel.. Same goes for the gold sport of Frances Williams, 'Golden Sunburst'.... It put out those late shoots last fall, remember? This year the leaves are half their size..hard to believe it is the same plant. Used up too much energy last fall and petered itself out, didn't it? I hope it fares better next spring. It has been a very interesting growing season so far, and I'm sure there's more surprises/oddities before we are done for the season :-) Here's shorty-puff on S&S, lol

My favorites- Helleborus orientalis in pink and purple, part shade, does need some water in summer Pulmonarias- cobalt blue, purple, pink, red, white, tough as nails in semi-shade variegated foliage the rest of the year, some reseeding Lunaria biennial- heart-shaped leaves, purple or white flowers in spring, silver dollar dried luminescent seedheads for decoration, grows in our wet spring, seeds, then comes up in fall to bloom again next spring. Very well adapted to our climate, doesn't need supplemental water Irises- succession of bloom with dwarf, miniature, intermediate, border, tall bearded Species Tulips- T. batalinii, Spring Beauty, praestans Unicum- large for a species, bright red, variegated foliage, and trying this year- wilsoniana, vvedenskyi Tangerine Beauty?, Daphne odora, D. collina, D. caucasius "Summer Ice" Symphytum grandiflorum- tough invasive groundcover comfrey for difficult areas like dry shade, banks, under orchard trees, flowers go from pink to blue to white in spring Native flowering currant- pink flowers on a shrub, completely adapted so doesn't need watering Columbines- can be grown from seed, nice foliage, flower in spring from dwarf to tall, reseed so can be a weed problem, don't seem to need supplemental water

Thanks everybody for the feed back! I've got about 200 yards of a fence line that is on the edge of some woods that I'd like to slowly pull out the invasive exotics and replace with better plants. Background singers are important--if everything is a star nothing is a star. I have much use for a nice background singer that can take the mic for just a song or two then be unobtrusive for the rest of the season!