Cath, I think 'Ice Follies' does well everywhere: it grew here for years until overwhelmed by a prostrate ceanothus, and was one of my major survivors in Washington too. As my taste has developed I've become less impressed with its looks, though. The trumpets I find a bit surprising, though I don't know why; the feral daffodils one runs across here are mostly of that same type. 'Ice Wings' is another Triandrus hybrid, I notice it has received the RHS's Award of Garden Merit. I'm getting fond of Triandrus daffodils. Bart, good luck! Who knows, your cedar may perform wonderfully. I can only report about trees growing in local conditions, and those can be summed up in one word: clay. Ingrid, Gardening is certainly a tempering experience. No sane person would want to deal with the conditions you're fighting now, but they're forcing you to keep on thinking and planning. I wonder what the native California flora might have to offer you? principles of desert gardening as developed in the Middle East, northern Africa, Spain? Here we're still waiting for fall to arrive. It was downright hot yesterday, and sticky, with the sun finally visible after nine days of clouds and rain. Temperatures are supposed to drop this coming week, the sky to clear entirely, and I should think the humidity level will drop as well, and thank goodness. I'm still getting chigger bites and have allergy symptoms. We finished filling in the 70-80 holes we had dug, stuffing them with hay and the dirt that had been removed. It was a heavy job. Last week's rain watered everything nicely, and when it gets a bit cooler we'll be able to begin planting the rooted roses, with my attention particularly focused on those grown from suckers I collected last winter. These are once-blooming European OGRs, mostly Gallicas and Damasks. We have some warm climate roses to get in the ground too, but their holes still need to be prepared, and it's going to be a slow business. And there are a lot more chores. The (mostly) OGR varieties I propagated from suckers are the following: 'Agar' 'La Ville de Bruxelles' 'Petite Orleannaise' 'Duchesse de Berry' 'Nouvelle Pivoine' 'Incomparable' R. gallica 'Splendens' 'Gloire de France' 'Miranda' 'Belle de Crecy' 'Kazanlik' 'Winchester Cathedral' 'Mme. Zoetmans' 'Celsiana' Celestial' 'Nuits de Young' 'Nestor' (?) 'Elisa Rovella' 'Leda' R. foetida 'Persian Yellow' 'Austrian Copper' Of the Petrovic order from two years ago we may have lost as many as a quarter of the total (I think that tends high: I haven't checked the whole line yet), which still leaves us with sixty-odd new varieties. I'm still back-filling holes to bury the grafts deeper, digging out the occasional cursed rootstock sucker, and cleaning around the plants. They'll need to be nursed along for at least a couple of years yet, but they're on their way. Our losses were mostly in two low areas of the bed, which we found out were low when we got the wettest winter imaginable after planting the roses. In these areas we've been building up the planting sites and trenching around them, always amending generously with old hay. The grass and clover this fall are wonderful. Melissa

A garden report, eh? Let's see. It seems all my obsessing over the front garden has truly paid off. All but Mons Tillier is doing really well, still blooming strong. MT had a real problem with healthy young canes going black, so I took him out - a giant 6x6 bush in 2 years. When I was digging out the stump, I saw that the amended soil didn't even go down a foot deep, and this after I struggled digging out the crappy native limey sand. Either I didn't dig as deeply as I thought or the bad stuff is migrating up. MT's roots were well down into that awful gray stuff, and I have to believe it was causing some sort of deficiency that was detrimental to cane health. So again I dug out the native sand, this time to about 3' by 5x5. "Stay away from my baby's toesies!!", I say! Now Mme Lombard has a nice place to live. I had wanted to place a Sky Pencil Japanese Holly on each side of the circle, thinking they would give real classy structure to the garden, but they need soil that is quite acidic so sadly I had to pass on that purchase, but with the roses now gaining some of their renowned height maybe I won't need the two spikes of green which might have gotten lost anyway. Maybe the garden will show me if it needs some other "architecture". Also, I'm beginning to take a more experimental attitude toward my Hermosas. I'm thinking with they're being part Bourbon maybe they need more trimming and "forcing" than teas and chinas, so that's the path I'm on with them. They've always been scrawny plants, so maybe this practice will make them bushier. Their gorgeous bold pink blossoms guarantee their place in the garden. I'm now on my second go-round with Duchesse de Brabant, considering the two beautiful plants I now have from my own cuttings, but one of them needs a home. Alexander Hill Gray is replacing Rosette Delizy who had a similar problem to Mons Tillier. And speaking of giant Maman Cochet climbers, I gave away my Climbing White Maman Cochet to a home with much more real estate. That leaves Reve d'Or and Cl Maman Cochet on that side. RdO, I think, is manageable due to her lax canes (though unmanaged at this point), but I had "SP" thoughts about MC. Her canes have bumped into my kitchen windows, made a u-turn and grown about 6 more feet the other way. So you tell me, is this sane? She is sooooo huge as to be ridiculous. Even my attempt to force her UP INTO THE AIR is proving naive since what goes UP must come DOWN. I, too, have another bed to finish, but I'm not jumping on it with the zeal of previous efforts. I'd give it up were it not such an ugly mess now AND in the front. I learned something about Mrs B R Cant. She was a gangly, sprawling, thick-caned, poorly foliated mess in her summer shade position. Regretting her, I started lopping and wound up with a good 5x4 shape - with about 3 leaves left. Well, two weeks later in her autumn sun position she's sprouting growth all over the place, and I think she'll be a pretty bush that may not mind the shade for a few months in the heat, and next year I'll do her summer pruning when I'm supposed to in August. Louis Philippe has become huge! Ingrid is right about the small Bourbons. Two of mine are sizable now, so I'm truly excited anticipating the maturity of the other three. They are wonderful roses bushes. Last item to report is that I must be more diligent in checking my irrigation system which from time to time pops off micro heads at the instigation of the squirrels. That adds to my water bill and denies roses the water they need. I will say that my water bill is not exorbitant, and the roses are loving the constantly damp soil in their beds. Without my micro system I would have far fewer or NO roses. However, for all the roses I've removed lately I still have more than 90. How I'd love to have less than 90 - just on general principles. I think I would feel less tired and be less behind in my chores. Or maybe I could do away with the office job...guess not. Sherry

Hi, Skybird is right! You put them in a pie crust with some sugar, almond flavoring and a little flour with dots of butter and make wonderful pies. You could make a "crisp" or upside cake or put biscuit batter on top of them (with sugar and almond flavoring or cinnamon, too). There are many ways to use them, and while the birds deserve a few, I wouldn't give them all up! I came from the midwest where the soil was black and the humidity high. Learning to garden here was very interesting (and at times a lesson in humility, too). I've found that we've had better luck (although not great) growing melons in Parker than in Aurora (just 10 miles south of where we were). I'm inclined to think just minor differences in climate and soil make a pretty big difference, and every time I plant (transplant) a melon (usually pretty-good sized, in June and after it has been acclimated for nearly a week), I regard it as more of a challenge and never a sure-thing. Over the years we've had few or no problems growing squash, tomatoes, pumpkins, peppers, green beans, onions, garlic and radishes (veggies with which I suppose nearly everyone in this area has success). Then we always try a couple of other things--for the heck of it. But because we start out with the easier things which nearly always succeed, the failed crops seem like minor problems. I took the same approach with my flowers, too. I began with wildflowers which were bound to succeed and then, as I learned about the particulars of gardening in this soil and this climate, I've added more complex situations. Learning to use compost, and, in particular, mushroom compost which is easier to haul around and available at bargain price really helped move things forward. Also, plying my beds with leaves in the fall sprinkled with powder fertilizer and water and then covered with soil improved my success. Starting with "sure-things" helped me to feel fairly successful while learning and adapting. Over the years, I've had a lot of "crop failures," but the successes have been memorable enough to override the negatives. I don't know if any of this helps--but I have felt much empathy with your issues living near yucky neighbors and trying to make a go of your gardening. Many of us have been there and gone on to something better, as you will, too!

The 2015 season was a different one for me this year. This is the 6th year I've grown tomatoes in my little backyard here in Tulsa. The first 4 years, I only grew in containers. For the 2014 season, I built two 4' X 10' raised beds, and also had a couple of containers. But I switched from 18 gal. plastic containers to 20 gal. Smart Pots. My strategy from my first year was to mostly grow one plant of 12-15 different varieties to try as many different ones as I could. 2015 was different for me in a couple of ways. First, I started growing from seed. And second, I decided to grow tomatoes that I already knew I liked, and to grow 2 plants each. I started seeds for Brandy Boy, Big Beef, Black Cherry, Yellow 1884 Pinkheart, Jaune Flamme, Break O'Day, and what I thought was Sun Sugar, and Super Sweet 100. Those last 2 ended up not being true to seed. I was bummed about this, as Sun Sugar is my favorite. Whatever seed I got that was supposed to be Sun Sugar was a small red cherry instead. It was decent, but not Sun Sugar. Whatever was supposed to be Super Sweet 100 seed, was instead a golf ball size red that was mealy and bland all season. I started my seeds on Feb. 14, and they did fantastic. I moved them out to my "temporary" greenhouse (8' x 8') around March 10. By the time I planted on April 8, most of my plants were 18-24" tall and thriving. I planted a little early for Tulsa. It helps being a Meteorologist and knowing what the likely weather will be for the next couple of weeks. ;-) My plants were thriving until the rains came......and came.....and came some more. We didn't have it as bad as Dawn did down south, but we still had way too much. I started getting the first ripening fruit on a few of them the week before Memorial Day. Jaune Flamme, Break O'Day and Yellow 1884 were the first to ripen. The other varieties started ripening the next week. All of the fruit that ripened before June 6th or so were very watery. We had that dry spell during the first couple of weeks of June, and that helped a lot. I also tried a little experiment with my cherries this year. I said I had 2 plants of all of my varieties, so I decided to do one of each cherry in the raised bed and one in a Smart Pot to see if there was a difference in taste. I can report that there was not a significant difference in taste for Black Cherry, not-Sun Sugar, and not-Super Sweet 100. They all tasted the same whether from the Smart pot or the bed. The only difference in the cherries was the Black Cherry in the Smart Pot succumbed to Gray Mold about 3 weeks quicker than the one in the raised bed. Like I'm sure most of you experienced, the disease pressure was much higher this year than normal, due to the heavy rain. I normally get Gray Mold on any of the Blacks I've tried. And I usually eventually get Early Blight to some degree on all the others. It was quite a bit faster this year. And to top it all off, around July 4th, my neighbor behind me decided to use Round Up all over his backyard to kill his bermuda and do some landscaping. My tomato plants did not like this one bit. They all died within a week. I was pretty mad at first, but luckily, they were mostly played out by then. So the loses weren't too bad. I didn't have too many fruit left. It would have been a different story if it was June 4, instead. I guess that's the risk you take when you garden in the middle of town. BRANDY BOY - This one was my only new variety. These did well overall, but I probably will not grow again. I know this sounds crazy, but I'm just not a huge fan of the Brandywine taste. Call me crazy, I know. I grew a Brandywine back in 2012 in a container and they all tasted watery and bland to me. And it got Early Blight quicker than others that year. On a whim, I decided to try Brandy Boy this year in the bed. Both plants produced about 20 good-sized beefsteaks. I still just wasn't crazy about the taste. If you like Brandywine, these may be worth a try. Definitely had better disease resistance than Brandywine, at least in my case. BIG BEEF - These did great for me, and I plan to always grow this one. The taste isn't "knock your socks off", but it's very good for a hybrid. And they produce like crazy. This was my second year growing it. Every year, each plant has pumped out at least 35 fruit. Most were in the 8-16 oz. range. And for what it's worth, these 2 plants were the last to die from the Round Up accident. BREAK O'DAY - This variety is probably my favorite pink. There's something about the "zing" in the flavor that my wife and I both really like. I've grown this one all 6 years and will continue. It's a little bit smaller plant (4'), but it pumps out the tomatoes. I've always had at least 30 from every plant. In 2012, I got over 60 from one plant before it finally gave out. BLACK CHERRY - Another staple that I've grown every year. I love this cherry tomato. Not much to say about this one. It's a very popular tomato, and it always lives up to its reputation for me. The only negative about these is they are susceptible to Gray Mold, typical for Black Tomatoes. I had hundreds of fruit from each plant before they died. Both plants were huge, as usual. YELLOW 1884 PINKHEART - This is a creation from The Tomatoman here in Tulsa, and I think it is only available through The Tomatoman's Daughter. It's another tomato that I grow every year. It typically produces 8-16 oz. yellow beefsteaks with pink in the middle when fully ripe. This is my favorite beefsteak. It's flavor is hard to describe, maybe creamy-sweet, almost buttery. I know it sounds weird, but it is oh so good. Every person I've given one to has commented on how good it tastes. The first few this year were watery, but after that, they were fantastic. I got about 25 from each plant. I had 2 huge fruit this year, too, which was new. One was 21.9 oz. and another was 20.7. Lisa (the Tomatoman's Daughter) said she'd never heard of ones that big. JAUNE FLAMME - This one is an orange, golf ball size tomato that is very juicy, sweet and tangy. I've grown this one every year. When I grew them in containers, they had quite a bit of blossom end rot. I haven't had that problem in the raised beds. These are early and very productive. I lost count on these this year, but I think each plant produced at least 75. I'm not going to go into the not-Sun Sugar and not-Super Sweet 100. I took a chance and ordered the not-Sun Sugar seed from Amazon. That was a mistake that I will not make again. The not-Super Sweet 100 seed actually came from Burpee. They emailed me about a month ago saying there was a mistake in their production of Super Sweet 100 seeds this year, and offered to send me new seeds early next year. I'll give those another try, but will likely not order from them again. I've got a Black Cherry, 4th of July OP, Jaune Flamme, Green Zebra, Break O'Day, Yellow 1884 PH, and Johnny Joe's going in the garden for Fall. I planted out on July 10. I've already had a couple ripen, and have several fruit growing on all of them. I had worms really bad on these in late July. I sprayed a couple of rounds of Bt, and haven't seen any since. Hopefully I'll get some good production before our first freeze. So overall, it was a decent year. It wasn't my best year for sure, but I guess it could have been worse. The rain was too much and lead to more disease than normal. And the Round Up incident lead to a premature end to my season. But I grew from seed for the first time this year, and successfully, I might add. So I'm going to say this season was a success. I look forward to seeing other reports, too. Lee