I learned something this season that I knew was coming down the pike but didn't know when, now I know when. For the first time in my gardening history I'll have to stop expanding the garden and start to shrink it next year. I've reached my upper limit on what I can successfully maintain and due to slowing down myself so goes the garden. Missing from next year's planting list will be Onions, Cantaloupes, and perhaps Butter beans. I'll still grow watermelons but on a smaller plot with smaller melon varieties, I just can't pick up those Big ones trying to tippy toe through vines without twisting my ankle or getting a hernia, ha. Will hold onto planting the main staples of the veggie world....as long as possible :)

Thanks everyone! I had ordered 2 Cutting Edges and 1 Lime Flair but the first Cutting Edge was a Lime Flair so I think I have 2 hopefully not 3 because I really wanted Cutting Edge. The 3rd bulb does appear different; thicker scape and larger bud so I will hold out hope that I get at least one!! Donna

@Deb... Little Business was one of my first hem purchases about 7 years ago along with Little Wine Cup, both have performed quite well and done a decent job of multiplying. LB is colorfast in full sun for 10+ hrs, but LWC can get quite ratty looking when it gets over 6 hours of direct sun. @Kay... Salieri surprised me with how dark it was. It wasnt blooming when I got it, and I wanted another dark hem to juxtapose with my mutiple clumps of Ed Murray. @Julia.. to the best of my knowledge Red Stella is an unregistered intro by an unknown hybridizer thats been sold at the big orange big box retailer. @Rita... Being a Depeche Mode fan I saw Route 66 and had to have it and Chicago Apache is an awesome big red bloom. Daring Deception, I am on the fence about, because the pic on the tag was obviously tweaked. The actual bloom matches with the registered color description, whereas what was pictured on the tag was pinky purple with the dark purple eyezone and picotee edge... so I'll give it another season or two to see how it shapes up.

Yours are so pretty, Kate, especially Easter Basket. There's something so sweet about roses with those colours. My season has gone well in some ways and has really gotten away from me in others. My first flush was truly everything I could have wished for when I started restoring my original beds and focusing on roses. Sometimes I'd walk outside and pinch myself it was so beautiful to me. Knowing it passes made the experience even more special, especially with the iris and peonies interspersed with the roses. It was, for once, exactly as I had imagined it. Once that passed I realized what a chore it was to dead-head thousands of flowers and am still catching up on New Dawn! She went ahead and sent out huge laterals anyway, but her rebloom is not as good in places where I miss cutting her back. I'm only now weeding and putting down cardboard and thick mulch as I started on a new project of planting all my pot pets in the front yard. This has been very gratifying even if it's not the look I imagined for this area, wanting to keep it more trees and bushes, but it's hard to let full sun and rich soil go to waste! 40 bushes later and I'm almost done! : )) I'm happiest with how well everything seems to be adjusting to being in the ground. Duh!!! I know!, but the difference still amazed me. Many I thought were BS stinkers have shaped right up, although Zaide is again doing it. I think she needs fertilizing well after blooming as she must wear herself out. Maybe by the fall I'll have that area finished, meaning all the grass removed and mulched. I have to remove the rest of an old oak, I think before putting in the brick path. Many rose from my "fountain" beds have been transplanted to the front as they were not doing well. I'm moving towards shrubs for the back of these beds and roses just in front of them. My lower hill area won't be done this year except maybe planting the Chestnut Rose, Repeating Swamp Rose and maybe a couple of Hybrid Musks. It too crazy down there and I need to get rid everything before planting roses. We'll see. There's still time. My favorite newly planted roses are Pink Pet, Zaide and Clotilde Soupert, which never stops blooming. LOVE this rose. I was also thrilled to find something that liked my shady wall... Ghislaine de Feligonde. What a beauty. No repeat yet, but it's her first full season. She climbs like a weed. I can't wait to see my front beds next spring!