Hello, All: I use the Neil Sperry gardening calendar and have done for 2 decades. Neil is an A&M-trained horticulturist who has had a radio program for 30+ years in the DFW Meteroplex and now has a monthly newsletter for all of Texas as well as the calendars and magazines. He's our Texas guru - the university research antithesis of the local, but also popular organic 'Dirt Doctor'. The calendars have a square for each day where I pencil in the temps and rain or whatever and the item(s) I'm focusing on that day. Of course, on busy gardening days I have to use a sort of shorthand, and for detailed analysis, I use a writing tablet of some sort and I save those. I like to go back years later and read one of my monthly reports from a garden walk-around. When I do that, I just jot down everything that occurs to me as I walk whether it's an observation of a plant or a note to myself to do better next time. What I really like about using the garden calender is that I can pick up a calendar for whatever year I want to refer to and turn to that month and see what was happening and compare it to what's happening in the current year. I can see when the ice storms hit and what damage was done and I can see how long a drought lasted and what I did about it. I can see when I sprayed for nutgrass and when it's time to spray again or when I started using Ornamec on the bermuda that crept into the liriope. I note when I took a tree out and what difference it made and how well the plants did with more sun or whether I had to rearrange the plants or replace them. I make a note of what kind of mulch I use and when I order bulk compost and how much. I can look back and remind myself what varieties I tried and when I lost them. : ( My calendars turn out to be kind of a table like Kay uses, but w/o as much detail and organized by month and day instead of location in the garden. I started getting the calendars because they came with my N.S. Texas Gardens magazine subscription, but as years went by, the calendars have come to mean much more to me than the magazine. I now want more detailed info than I can get in the magazine, and it's so easy to locate it online. I keep intending to punch holes in the calendars and put them in a binder and make a kind of book. (They're all the same size so this would be possible.) I've saved a couple of oversized binders for this, but I never can decide if I want to order the book by month or by year. As soon as I decide that I want to order my book by months (like having chapters of Januarys or Februarys, etc.) so I can flip through and see what happened in all years in the winter or summer or spring, I then realize that I really like being able to grab a calendar and see the progress of the garden from month to month for that particular year. Oh well. At the bottom of each month of calendar squares, Neil lists must-do garden tasks for particular areas of Texas as well as cautions and other reminders. This is not so valuable now that I've grown as a gardener and don't need the reminders. Now I'd rather have more space to write. But all in all, I'm really glad I have the calendars and have kept records. Here's the location of the calendars - I put the info in as a link, but haven't done that before and don't know if I'm doing it right. http://www.neilsperry.com/store/neil-sperrys-texas-gardening-calendar/neil-sperrys-2012-texas-gardening-calendar.html I've enjoyed learning what you all do or don't do. It probably reflects our various personalities and the business of our lives, and I feel I know you a little better. Lou Here is a link that might be useful: Neil Sperry's Texas Gardening Calendar

There are many variations - but I suspect that yours may be starting slowly from too much heat. Can you arrange some shade/filtered sun using other plants nearby? If you started from seed, Allium can look like tiny grass the first year when it sprouts - so be careful not to pull grass-like seedlings in that area! Yes, for several years new seed and small bulbs will grow larger and be more rewarding each season. And if you cut (mince and eat like chives) the leaves about the point where they flop, you may find that your Allium begins to feed bulbs and multiply from the base. The flowers will throw seed - or you can collect the seed when it begins to dry - and perhaps begin seedlings indoors, or in shade before planting out, to minimize heat-struggle. Flowering Stalks should be firm - so provide mulch &/or Am water if possible. Once flowering begins, it is normal for leaves to flop and die back to feed bulbs. We have opposite problems. I recently moved massive droopy peonies that were not blooming enough, and some over-vigorous clumps of ornamental Allium (medium size purple-globes) to the sunny front garden, and took care - so that the ground does not parch in peak sun...as that is the only spot where that is a risk for me. I added compost and to help hold moisture, and bulbs are aided by a top moist mulch, and the variety of other plants all around for filtered shade at the base. I intend to eat most of the spicy leaves as I don't care for more Sword-play in my garden by late spring - after masses of tulips, narcissus, and hycinths have quit and the lillies and iris are taking over...and Crocosmia ileaves are waiting to join the dance. I'm adding a Dahlia border to the sword beds...and am excited that a Bachelor's button has already pushed thru the mass of swords to bloom cutely. All are worth growing - in their display seasons. Growth and dormant seasons is balanced with other Perennials and annuals. Adding sheer Dahlia foliage mass to existing Roses and monster Rhodies - and by gosh, there's not much dang subtlety about who rules each season in this section of the urban rain forest. Whoo-ah...now to get back to that rain-or-shine deadheading - or the jungle-look will rule. Having so much Spring rain in the PAC NW - we wind up with too much foliage & dense shade unless we deadhead, prune, pull, divide and hack back plants regularly. Wonder if I'll get the courage to prune that lush Magnolia this year - for more light?

I'm also a "clean lines" type of person who tidies up and arranges frequently. I like organizing, putting items in their place, not leaving piles of things sitting around. However, I tend to disregard dust, pet dander, and things of that nature. My house nearly always looks tidy, but there's definitely a slight layer of dust that I only care to tackle once or twice a week (or when having visitors). I'm horrible with floors, windows, and moldings. And it isn't that I'm blind to the dirt, I only know that once I get started on a tad of dusting or mopping that I'll be at it for hours. So I've learned to pick my battles and I "tidy as I go" instead of attempting to wash surfaces daily. I do manage to keep my kitchen counters and other surfaces clean, but all those other less used surfaces are usually a little dusty looking. I think I'm the ideal type of person to bring in a cleaning service, because I have zero problems with maintaining order but I could use some help with hosing the whole place down from time to time. When I visit friends I can sometimes tell they clean more often than I do, yet they often have large piles of miscellaneous stuff laying around everywhere. I focus on not focusing on it! Some cozy clutter can be comforting, but I really wonder why people don't have a place for all their junk. I think people have too much flotsam, really :) So I'll take some minor amount of dirt over scattered items laying about. It's easy enough for me to clean surfaces as needed, but if I let items be strewn about everywhere I think it would be a lot harder to put it all away. I'd like to be able to do both, but tidying up takes almost no time at all and scrubbing takes longer (for me at least).

Vesfl, what lovely comments - I appreciate your kind words, but do remember I've learned so much of what I know about roses from GardenWeb myself (well, that and making lots of mistakes of my own). Now you're here sharing your own expertise and every bit of that input makes this the lovely community that it is. I'm glad that RdV is happy and settled in your yard, and I'm sure she'll be lovely for you. That's interesting about Sydonie. Mine is the Dorisy/Vibert HP from Vintage in 2013, so I'm pretty sure it's accurate coming from Gregg Lowery. As I recall, their information listed both Dorisy and Vibert as breeders and/or distributors, so it may be that this is one of those roses that has mixed identification as a Portland or HP in different sources, or perhaps that there are two roses that have been confused over time. There may indeed be different versions circulating, as can happen with OGRs. Also, some folks might post about the mannerly nature of a given rose only to discover it hasn't gotten its legs under it yet for the sprint across the yard. Lisa, if you have a small space for this rose, it's undoubtedly going to get bigger in your zone than mine so caution is a good thing. However, this is a rose that is 12 inches high and 12 feet wide, so it could either ramble through another rose or potentially be encouraged to wind around some support. As I recall the canes are fairly flexible, and it's entirely cane hardy for me most years. I put in Soupert & Notting last year from Rogue Valley and it survived the winter fine, though not with any canes. I haven't seen much blooming yet from mine but it's in part shade and I don't really expect much till the third year from any rose. I'm looking forward to the funky blooming pattern you describe, Genevre. It's reassuring that the Pernet moss roses don't have the very tender nature of the Pernet HTs, since the latter are woefully wimpy over the winters in multiple tries. Salet has also survived quite well - cane hardy in my zone - and I had a few blooms this spring but again I don't expect much in its second year yet. I also have Fairmount Proserpine on my wish list for next spring, and High Country Gardens nearly always has roses that are nicely hardy in zone 5. Thanks for the suggestion Genevre! Cynthia