Glad you're all liking the photos. Posting more soon in a new thread.. Kippy, you must get Buff Beauty. I love this rose and have 4 of them even with my limited space. The fragrance is wonderful. OK in part shade. Takes a few years to get going so be patient. Carol, I've got 2 Penelopes. Also a great shade rose. Ingrid and Carol, not ready for wide shots yet as much of the garden is also pot ghettos until bands get established so it's all rather crazy here. mzstitch, I purchased Belle Isis from Rogue Valley Roses as a huge 1 gallon plant. The blooms start out pinker than fade to white. It's a once blooming rose. Flowers last a few days. Pamela, thanks for the warning. You'd helped me decide where to plant it. Belle Isis will go into one of the new 25 gallon above ground pots in the new front garden area that's my solution to the invading cypress roots and she can sucker to her heart's content then I'll have suckers to give away. Jeri, I really love Alika and am glad my conditions are allowing me to grow Gallicas. I'd be sad without them. But you can grow the Teas which stick their tongues out at me and shrivel away. I had hopes for the Lady Roberts from Sac Cemetery but she's sulking and her blooms don't open well. Thanks again for everyone's compliments, Diane

I can tell you right now, no one will know what you mean by pine bark fines. Most retail personnel barely know what they have in stock, and you'll get a lot of blank stares at the mention of pine bark fines, or turface... it's not what they're used to selling as medium ingredients. I actually found the pine bark in the pet section of Meijer's, which is kind of like WalMart or Target. It's labeled ReptiBark reptile bedding. It's roughly $5 for 4 dry quarts. An alternative is soil conditioner, which it turns out is pine bark, though it may need to be screened for dust and size... I've heard they sell it at Lowe's, but haven't found it there. The granite chips were located at Rural King, which is kind of like Blain's Farm & Fleet, a large farm oriented store. It's actually labeled Manna Pro Poultry Grit, granite chips, and it's in a blue and yellow bag. Perlite is available almost everywhere garden stuff is sold. There's some really great information on where to locate all the ingredients to make this medium over at the Container Gardening Forum. If you can't find posts about what you're looking for, just ask... those guys are great, and they definitely have the knowledge.

Really enjoyed the article along with the Conifer Kingdom site. Lots of original material to read and see in both cases. I'm surprised to have missed them in the past, it might not be a stretch to place them in the top five American conifer websites.

Kendra, not much! There was a little of the hen scratch and BOSS mix left in the cup. I filled the feeder right after so now she will feed out at the Elm tree.