Saturday and alls well, went to work at 6 this morning(had to drive an hour away) and got back home about 3:30. Not to bad for an inventory day. Tomorrow I go back but probably will only be a ½ day situation. V, my best wishes to your Cubs. Ive always had a soft spot for them and will most likely root for them in the playoffs . Bet the poor old Brewskies though they had it dialed into after holding the lead for most of the season. What strength of character you show Denise-resisting the urge to pilfer an agave pup. I would suspect that no one at that shopping center gives a rats a*** for that agave and that your theft would go unnoticed-however you didnt hear it from me ! (Betcha if you called the property manager you could get permission !) Well, I must say that even at my worst I never caught my hair on fire lol ! I did have my share of experiences in and around Sunset Blvd though. Do you remember Wallachs Music City on Sunset and Vine??? I will be sure to take the Idylls house-hunting with me ! Hey , did you ask about noisettes? The only one I have right now is Boule de Neige , and will absolutely have Madame Alfred Carriere one day. If I had to pick. Mme Alfred would win the day. Martie, I have Star of Yelta which is quite similar to Grandpa Ott, and it re-seeds like mad. This year I was not diligent enough in my thinning and it has engulfed Sombrieuil and one of my Rudbeckias. I agree that I need to be careful with how I spend my house sale prep bucks. My house will list in the 675k range. 2 to 5k is a drop in the bucket. I expect to spend 10, mostly in plumbing issues and kitchen and window upgrades. Hiya Brenda-glad you checked in..sounds like you are a busy lady-its that harvest thing. The harvest season is quite intense here in Napa, and the company I work for furnishes many supplies to the vineyard folk. Eden, Im all for Reed listening to Cinderella , especially the Rogers and Hammerstein version- I did not discriminate gender wise and my son is even more into show tunes now than DD. When we did car trips in their younger days the soundtracks were a great way to keep them entertained. Oklahoma was definitely a favorite ! The address for Creepy Guy has been sent. I am pondering his visit . (oh, and my kids were also very fond of a video I taped of Sweeney Todd with Angela in her glory-I edited out the gory stuff. !) Ok everyone, I have some chores to do and some baseball to watch. Catch yall later ! Kathy in Napa

Thanks again all. Have not yet had time to look at bed-of-nails, but I appreciate the link. Yes, novelty plays large in this biz. For purposes of having the ability to alternate color schemes within one site, I'd like to have the ability to have, say, magenta or similar color tone in one planter (with accompanying plants), and a blue or purple Buddleia with its accompaniments in every other pot............something like that. Who will speak up for a blue to purple flowering Buddleia with the vibrancy of either the 'Buzz' series or the 'Miss Molly' cultivar? 'Ellen's Blue'? 'Blue Micro Chip'? Any others? For whatever reasons, I'm a horticulturist for whom roses do nothing for me. It's the classic plant where, lens focused in tight against a blosom, the catalog pic looks great, but the actual plant out in the landscape-well that's another story: The rabbits finished off what winter didn't kill, then a late freeze finishes off the rest. I guess for me, they're just not all that. I need lots of color, not one or two exquisitely detailed rose blossom here, another one over there. Maybe I'm just a poor rosarian, but 'Knockout' makes me want to run in the other direction, I'm so sick of that look. May as well throw in the Russian sage and the feather reed grass and call it a day! No, I'm not a fan of any of those things. There is something about plants with inflorescences like Buddleia, that exact flowering habit, which lends itself well to my "frozen explosions" which are how I like to think of the designs we work up. Perfect for that! +oM

So a little over a year ago 2 new hoyas ( pubicalyx "Black Dragon" and "White Dragon") hit the market and had everyone going nuts to get them. They were on EVERYBODY'S wish list including mine. I can recall how anxious I was to get them and couldn't wait for them to arrive once they finally hit the mainland as they were coming in from the Philippines. I've been waiting patiently all this time to see them bloom and finally both have buds. The "Black Dragon" has opened and I have to admit that I am just a wee bit disappointed. I've been growing hoyas long enough now to know that growing conditions can cause variations in the color of the flowers but in my opinion this one just didn't live up to it's name as I see nothing black in this flower at all and it's not even remotely close to being the color of the flowers that i've seen in any picture of "Black Dragon" yet. Maybe i'll move it to a new location and see if that'll change the color at all but right now all I see is just another muddy red flower. After actually seeing it bloom in person I have to say that it hasn't left me feeling really that impressed!!!! Don't get me wrong I love the pubicalyx hoyas but has anyone seen one yet that is NOT this color????? This is one of those cases (with the pub's) where you could easily say "if you've seen one,you've seen em' all"!!!! Maybe when the white one blooms it'll leave me with a difference of opinion !!! H. kanyakumariana. This is one of my favorite little hoyas!!! This is a hoya that I acquired a few years ago from a Swedish grower. It's H. macgregorii and it makes the neatest, compact, perfect little balls of flowers of any hoya that i've seen. They smell good too!!!!

I agree about the hummer in the serviceberry. Beautiful. I like that hummer feeder; what make is it? I have a glass bottle feeder. It's easy to clean and is domed so it keeps the bees out, but I had to fashion (not the right word as it's clunky) an ant moat (that would hold water for more than a day) from a plastic cup. I glue gunned some straightened paper clip and copper wire for a perch, but seems like Hum doesn't like it -- perhaps not thick enough. Last year I looked up to see a hummingbird on one branch of a tall oak and a few feet away, on another branch of the same tree a (?red tailed) hawk. I got some lo res video when the hummer was flying about, but it is difficult to see. I envy you folks w high def cameras and video cams. It's great to see the detail! You are very accomplished. A few weeks ago, during the long dry spell, I was misting my 'Heritage' raspberries and a hummer came over and was flitting around the leafed out canes. The raspberries were not in flower. The hummer was just enjoying the fine mint. I am always amazed at how confident these small characters can be. This year I didn't get to witness the acrobatic mating display ;( which is so interesting. The young lady watches from a nearby perch. What's the human equivalent? Motorcycle wheelies? Bungie jumping?