Beautiful pictures! You could print them and frame them for your home they are so interesting. We have had cool wet days here too. Not much work is going on in my garden. Connie

The green and white with Elegans is your run of the mill variegated hosta. It was here when we moved in... The only type of hosta that was here 6 yrs ago. I have not had the heart to replace them with something more interesting yet, since they fill in the space nicely where they are. I have interpolated some lilies with those two and its a struggle for the lilies to get taller than the hosta leaves in spring. Elegans swallowed one lily this year so it had to move across into the big bed. gabby, we are right over the MD line in PA and it usually gets into the teens for the coldest part of winter. Not this year of course!

I hate to inject a sour note about Heaven on Earth. I got mine the year it was released, and it bloomed and performed much as described by others here. Then one summer it began to spontaneously die back. This continued until it went dormant. The following spring it resumed dieback, so I removed it. This is the only rose that has ever had dieback in my garden, and left me very suspicious of the ultimate health of HOE. Any others out there having a similar experience? Diane

@ Roselee, Yes, I can see the Milky Way and I have some favorite lightning bug sightings that were down right jaw dropping and other worldly.. I am remembering one because the person I saw it with , died this week. We were down on the banks of the Pedernales. we spent a sunset swimming under Ol'Glory, a immense cypress that survived the big floods of the 30's and 50"s. It must be in a sweet spot. The many roots of dead Cypress structures created glorious Rorschach structures in the glassy still waters. we cooked our meals and watched the stars come out and there were millions of them in the moonless night. then the millions of lightning bugs came out all over the undergrowth of the opposite bank down to the river. All were reflected in the glassy waters , stars, bugs, all together, just a vague dividing line between the changing dimensions. It went on for hours. WE slowly waded in till thigh deep in the stars and dove into the reflected lightning bugs and then floated on our backs looking up into the convergence of the sparkling trees and stars like fat bloated water bugs, arms outstretch still and quiet. . This supplanted the last amazing sighting of watching one of those amazing multi-level towering Texas storms sprouting a constant hair of lightning from its upper levels , snaking in the convolutions of green cloud, lighting up like glow worms and snakes in the clouds depths. Out of the lower levels, tree lightning snaked outwards for miles above our head,. and again millions of lightning bugs answering their brethren of the skies. Also an amazing sighting. They definitely rank among the memories that I treasure that have made me forget to close my gaping mouth. Amazing things can be encompassed by "Golly miss Molly" Thank you guys for making me delve into the memory banks.