It looks like y'all had such fun! Isn't it fun to meet people in "real life?" I haven't met any Garden Junkers but I have met other friends from the internet. Some are my best friends now. I loved seeing the Barton & Leire gardens and calamity_j's wonderful mosaic creations! I think purplemoon and I would have been fighting over that bunny! he-he Hopefully we will have many more junker meets in the future!

My mind took a little trip with you when you described it. I know it was a special place for you, and I know you were relieved to find it still beautiful and a special place for somebody else. I always was ambivalent about going back to see an old home with memories, for fear of what I'd find. I have anyway, and in some cases it's heartbreaking, and in others I came away like you did. Relieved. The people who bought my house when I married have kept it well tended and loved, and I go by it several times a year on my way south. I detour off the highway to the little village where it stands and drive by it and I see my children sitting in the tree or riding their horse in my mind's eye. Makes me feel like a time traveler.

Thanks for this write-up, Woody. It was great having you here. A great start for a day otherwise filled with painting a room. Which is why I have time to reply only now ;-). Heritage is I think my favourite Austin rose, despite its tendency for the blooms to scatter in the heat. It is also a sentimental favourite, I wrote the story halfway this thread: http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3503314/forgiven?n=12 Your picture of Munstead Wood captures the colour so well, the lack of focus is no problem. The first blooms are not very big, but look at this one from September last year. It was bigger than my hand, and the colour was like in your picture. My phone just could not capture it. The fragrance is heavy and deep old rose: I got the Deinanthe from Lost Horizons last year. Then it had one flower head, now there are three. They had several of them in the gardens at LH, some were big clumps, but I saw no running tendencies. I have heavy alkaline clay soil. I may have put some wet peat deep in the planting hole, as a water reservoir, but that will not really do much to acidify the soil. I find that some acid lovers do unexpectedly well for me, like Kirengeshoma palmata too. But I have never ventured into azaleas. People in the neighbourhood supply proof that it can't be done ;-). Carefree Delight was at its greatest glory in 2015. It was so heavy, it threatened to bring the neighbor's fence down. So with bleeding heart I cut it back and finished literally minutes before a violent thunderstorm. It will never be like that again, but I still dream of letting it loose once more: And my Tali, hunter of everything that moves. I will have to introduce her to JBs!

Deanna, one time we did a faux finish on a small room that required a lot of taping off. It didn't turn out like I expected. Right color but bad faux technique. Patient and practical husband agreed to start over. We loved the second result but alone I would have been very discouraged. He did all the taping. I'm a decorative artist so have taken some color theory classes. It's still hard to apply to practice. Right now I love the combination of a dark raspberry daylily next to a dark pink yarrow (apple spice, I think) plus some echinacae all blooming at the same time. But the neighboring shastas are too tall and on the other side of the circular bed is a dead zone. On the north side I am supposed to have a small hosta with very yellow foliage but it has been snacked on by deer. The nicely contrasting pale yellow day lilies want to look south instead of pointing north. Our view of the bed is from the north side. The deer see the prettiest side. I have planted some annuals. The tall phlox seem at least a foot shorter this year. I think it gets hard to figure in height and bloom times as well as color. A narrow border along the walkway to a porch is just a mess. A tall yellow daylily and southernwood are at one end. Lady's mantle, hosta and astilbe fighting for space with each other, at the other end, and a jumble in the middle. I have considered planting the whole bed to zinnias and still might. I think Danielle and her sister have a real gift. Danielle does a lot with hosta and conifers. Her sister just does everything amazingly well and is more flamboyant with colorDeanne's garden. I know one of my first mistakes years ago was refusing to recognize how little sun my garden got. I was reluctant to use hosta because I was used to seeing boring hosta borders. Link to Danielle's sister's garden photos from circa 2008.