How nice that you were able to use so many of the seeds and plants and statuary from your mother's garden for her memorial bed. I also like that you added the canna, one of her wishes. Do you use all those herbs in your cooking? Some of the ones I grow are just for their aroma. I loved my 2nd year ws Verbascum violette. Am deadheading for more flowers. Had many 2nd year columbines blooming and all were lovely but no Orgami though Songbird looks similiar.

Thanks all, I'm really excited about it, so I really appreciate your comments! Thanks. Definitely post pics of yours when they bloom Kevin and raimeiken! We'd love to see! I bought my cuttings as leafless pencil-like stems that I rooted in plain water. I left a small jar of water uncovered overnight to let the chlorine evaporate off and then used that to change the water of the rooting jar, every day until the roots were about an inch long and then I moved them into potting soil. I rooted a few mid-summer this summer from soft, green, leafy stems and they rooted fine in water too. Really a fun plant. Definitely get the 'butterfly rose' (Rosa mutabilis) pagan, I've grown it in several gardens including my last Scottsdale garden and really loved it. Pretty, color changing blooms and a nice light rose scent. Seeing a big bush with multiple blooms in different colors is quite a treat! Happy gardening everyone! Grant

Thanks for the compliments and plant ID. Ok so it is a siberian iris? Thanks, I don't need to know the particular one, I just wanted to know the type because I like the foliage even when it isn't in bloom and I may buy more of this type. Would you believe these ones were free, I just dug up a clump that was growing along the road a few years ago. Shawn

ostrich, My 'Homigo' hedge runs about 30' so the shrubs receive varying degrees of sun/shade. Oddly, enough...it's the ones that get the most sun that produce the fewest blooms. Go figure?! Actually, I probably know the answer to that question. Those two shrubs also are the most exposed to the elements (in my case, winds coming off Long Island Sound). This is my shrubs' fourth growing season. I had a couple tiny flowers their first year in the ground. The second year - they were loaded. Their third year (2006) they bloomed but not as well as 2005. This year (4th season) they are pushing buds faster than I can count them! I'm going to have well over 100 flowers from this hedge just from last season's wood...then, later on I'll get more from new wood. 2007 is a bonanza year for my 'Homigos'! Frankly, I think it was grower error with some of my hydrangea problems before I got the 'Homigos'. I've learned from this season that it takes a long time in the spring for the, what for all the world looks like dead sticks, to begin leafing out. They are still leafing out now from last year's wood. The sticks look dead, feel dead, sound dead...but, they are not! It was just this year that I've had flowers on last season's wood. I've always assumed the old wood was dead & cut it off in early May. This year, we had a lousy spring & I didn't get to them. By the time I got around to cutting them down it was obvious they were alive. So, I waited, waited, waited some more. Now, I have FLOWERS!! Yippee. OTOH, it could have absolutely nothing to do with me & be a weather phenonemon because I also didn't cut down my variegated hydrangeas interspered throughout the 'Homigos' for foliage interest. They also are full of buds from last season's wood. I've never had them flower before since they don't bud on new wood. Again, it could be because I didn't cut them down this spring; or, it could be because we had a very warm fall & early winter. I've taken copious notes & will compare next spring. I live right on Mystic Cove in Mystic Harbor. So, I've got a little micro-climate here that may also have some bearing on my success with 'Homigo'. The water moderates our weather all four seasons. Even 1/2 mile inland, the weather's much different. Tricia PS I'm a Master Gardener & should now the difference between dead & alive wood. I'm telling ya - those sticks looked DEAD as doornails! They were not.