Oh Carol, how lovely. But, Cambridsge botanics has a miserably neglected rose garden so I will have a think because there are much nicer fellows gardens in the colleges (and you are always welcome to come and visit my allotment). Nonetheless, Cambridge is a lovely town and worth a visit but gardenwise, I think you can do better than the botanics. Beth Chatto - well this is another garden I am familiar with but you will not be seeing many roses - gorgeous woodland and gravel gardens but roses, nada. However, if you are heading Eastwards, then Peter Beales at Attleborough is standoutand is in the same(ish) area as Bressingham (but again, grasses and perennials but not exactly roses. You absolutely have to take in Mottisfont though. Finally, Wisley, which does have a decent rose display, is absolutely fabulous, for just about the best in horticultural excellence. Are you planning on using public transport. Are you in a group? I will check in the yellow book (this is a list of local gardens open to the public and include some very grand gardens as well as entire villages, when a whole bunch of little private gardens are open on certain days). There are a couple of jewels near Cambridge (Docwras Manor springs to mind, in Shelford. Such a perfect time of year to visit the UK.

Oooh, there's that blue flax again! Looks even better this year! Love the shizanthus! It all looks great. I'm hoping to get my stuff planted out this weekend - I better, or I'll still be waiting on tomatoes and flowers in December! PV

Very nice pics everyone! I always love these threads and decided I should start chipping in this year. My morden and prairie joy roses, poppies, flax and peonies are all finished blooming. I didn't take pics of the rambler red and baffin roses that are still blooming but here are my pics so far of what's in bloom this week in the far far north of Minnesota: Chinese Delphinium Clarkia has started to bloom this week: Datura-devils trumpet Echinacea paradox hollyhocks (fig var.) My new mock orange--MN snowflake planted last fall. It was in tough shape when I bought it...but it made it and came back this year with a few blooms even! Delphs have been at it full force for the last week or more: After a neighbor suggested that I should make my garden bigger I put in a new bed. I had been thinking of turning my back yard into a courtyard....so this is as far as I got so far this summer. My back sure paid for this effort. Moved 1.5 cubic yards of dirt by hand (not including the compost I had made last year), removed and turned about 80 sq feet of sod, cut about 40 landscape timbers.....and still I have half of this project to do yet. But the back can't take it, so I think I will be patient and just bump off the rest of the sod with the lasagna method. I put lots of annuals planted in here along with the perennials. So there will be some color soon--some zinnia buds have opened and the calendula buds are about to open.

Howdy Neighbors! Thought I'd pop in from Oklahoma to see how y'all are doing over there. From ceresone's comments, I gather that some of y'all are not having a lot of rain? Well, you can have ours if you can figure out how to get it from here to there. I dearly wish we could send you the rain that is tormenting our state. It is flooding all over the place and many Oklahoma gardeners are deeply depressed as the continuing rain has wiped out many veggie gardens and is making normal gardening chores impossible to accomplish. While the rain has been beneficial in many ways....like refilling the aquifers after the 2005-2006 drought and, of course, refilling ponds and causing trees, shrubs, groundcovers, etc. to grow like crazy.....it has been harmful in others, including the flooding of agricultural fields, loss of crops, widespread fungal and bacterial disease, etc. etc. After the big wildfires of '05-'06, we all swore we wouldn't whine about too much rain ever again, but we've already had as much rain here in Love County as what we get in an average year (over 30" and more rain is falling right now), and the Red River is flooding. Vickie, I had never heard of the Rainbow people. How fascinating that some hippies are still around. When I was a child in the 1960s, we had hippies living in a local park near our house in Fort Worth. They were very peaceable and quiet, but law enforcement ran them off....saying public parks were not living places. And, I didn't know you had bears....but I haven't visited this forum in a long time. I am not terribly afraid of wildlife (we have panthers and mountain lions pass through our property occasionally and they DO scare me a bit, especially when they roar, growl or snarl at me) but I think I would lose it if I ever walked outside and saw a bear! In southern Oklahoma the plums and peaches have been wonderful, having barely squeaked by and survived the late freezes. The further north you go in Oklahoma, the greater the losses of fruit to those same late freezes in April. A lot of gardeners are having trouble with their tomato plants. Too much rain is waterlogging roots, even in normally well-drained soil, foliar diseases are much more prevalent than usual, and the darned green tomatoes just won't ripen for many people due to the constant clouds and a lack of sunshine all this growing season. My tomatoes are doing better than most, but I am very far south and may have had a bit more sun than most. Ceresone, I hope you get the rain you are praying for. Your garden sounds terrific, though, in spite of all the weather and wildlife. It was a great onion year here for us since they like all the moisture. Dawn