Beth, I noticed an outbreak of similarly coloured petunias appearing all over the UK (gold and maroon) which caused me to literally avert my eyes on walking past. As a rule, I am a lover of bright colours (no beige in my house or wardrobe) but am strictly old school when it comes to roses - white or pink (or palest yellow at a pinch). Course, that does not apply to the dahlia beds, nor the many rows of cutting gladioli or luridly coloured annuals (apart from said petunias) in my allotment. Particularly enjoying a combo of orange, purple, deep red and acid green.......just not in the roses. And yeah, striped roses, not even pink and white, really do it for me but I was agog at the variety available in the US.

Here is the information from Bamboo Gardens website. Portland Bamboo Festival Saturday July 16 at the Hoyt Arboretum Bamboo Sale will be from 9:00AM to 3:00PM at the picnic shelter Rare Bamboo Auction will be 11:00 AM also at the picnic shelter This year we will have Three Presentations in the classroom with digital slide presentation. 10:00 AM "Bamboo Culture for the Home Gardener" by Dain Sansome of Bamboo Garden Nursery North Plains, and Bamboo Valley Authority, Albany Oregon. 12:30 PM "European garden design bamboo" by Ian Connor, Past President of the "American Bamboo Society." 2:00 PM "Bamboo in Japan" by Dain Sansome Here is a link that might be useful: PNW bamboo news

I moved to Portland, Oregon in 1984 from Philadelphia (with a four year stop at a university in Utah). A roommate in college took me home to Oregon at Christmas and I fell in love with the countryside. We are wet and green in the winter, which is FINE with me because hate the extreme cold and snow, and our summers are usually predictably sunny but not too hot. I remember back in Philly when you planned an outing in the summertime, there was always a good chance it would be rained out. It rains once in a while during the summer in Portland, but not commonly. I have spent every baseball season, the whole season, under an umbrella--the first half because it is rainy, and the second hald because it is sunny and I am a melanoma surviver and don't do sun. We have our four seasons here, but wetness aside, none are severe. I love it. We have experienced a huge growth over the last twenty years, which disgusts my native Oregonian husband plenty--especially the Californians! I remember a time when the Oregon state line had a welcome sign which said, "Welcome to Oregon! Enjoy your visit!" After receiving a lot of flak for that, the state now has a sign which says something along the lines of just "Welcome to Oregon." I am a transplant, so I cannot complain about our surging population, but some of our native Oregonians sure do! I have a son who now lives in Seattle and I love to visit him there. It seems like almost everyone has some sort of garden in their yard--everyone makes an effort to put a cheerful face on their front yards, even if it is only a feeble one. Seattle is rainy all winter and sunny all summer, but it has this lovely breeze in the summer that comes off the lakes and the ocean, so it never seems hot to me in Seattle during the summer months. There are not too many roadblocks to having a spectacular garden in the Pacific NW if you want to--if you have plenty of money, plenty of acreage, plenty of time, plenty of energy, and plenty of imagination. Temperate weather and availability of plant life and knowledgeable resources abound. That said, it took me many years to discover why my own gardens did not always do so well. My garden beds are oh, so slightly recessed or sunken, and water sort of just pools there over the rainy winter. Once I figured that out, I have been trying to build up my beds with good dirt and compost to make them higher and provide sharper drainage, but this is harder to do with established beds. I have SO many new plants this year because I had to almost start from scratch (landscaper pulled most of my good plants in an effort yo help me clean up my beds), so I can't wait to see what does well for me over the winter. AND I still have lots of bulbs to put in and I am placing a big order with Select Seeds!!! :-) It is also iteresting to observe our many microclimates, here and everywhere else. Something rhat does well in my yard can do so poorly in my friend's yard across the street. It is one of many things I find fascinating about gardening! Oops! I am sorry to run on so much! Thanks for listening to me ramble about something I love.

Hiya guys.. Just letting you know that I have been posting a lot of nice dahlia tubers on eBay. I do not buy my tubers in bulk and re-sell them hoping that they will be true to type when they sell it (like a few of the eBay sellers out there). I actually grow these dahlia tubers myself, properly label and store them and to inspect them to see if they are worthy or not to sell. I sell nice plump and healthy tubers that are properly labeled, and I do not sell those 'field clumps' like you would commonly see sold at stores or from bulk re-sellers. I am a member of the Portland Dahlia Society and the American Dahlia Society and I grow dahlias for cut-flower sales and showing them professionally. I am also into hybridizing dahlias to come up with new varieties for everyone to enjoy. I am also a webmaster for several dahlia gardeners and work really hard trying to maintain an excellent gardening site for my customers. eBay page: http://www.ebay.com/usr/dahliasuppliers My website: http://www.dahliasuppliers.com