Thank you all so much for your kind comments. I haven't visited the Gallery for a couple of months to see them before today. Kitty, so far canes on my Fawn are horizonal. It's interesting to see how yours has put some height on. How old is it? It's a wonderful rose, isn't it? Probably most of you have read that I'm downzing sizing the garden as to the number of roses grown. I'll have to admit it made me a tiny bit sad to look at the rose photos from this spring as well as see how the roses in the garden are covered with buds again after my cutting the buds off when chilli thrips were found to be stunting their growth. But nothing stays the same. That's the nature of this world. I'll still be gardening -- just less intensely ... maybe :-)

California poppies have been blooming here for five weeks and continue. Shirley poppies first noticed April 11; they last just a tad longer than the peony poppies, spread over about 3 weeks. California poppies finally go to seed and give up, but young plants last on and on to bloom the second year. They won't bloom when the nights get hot. The pale pink flowers are Bath's Pinks. The orange flowers are roses, Charisma on the left and Livin' Easy on the right.

Hi Ken, Your property is spectacular!! It must be great pleasure to live there! Thanks for showing all your conifer beds, I saw parts in your posts on the conifer forum. But I thought that you planted many hostas in rows away from the trees, but they must be under the trees. Since the neighbor's lots are barren, they probably are not interested to see your landscape either? It all depends what a homeowner makes of his/her property. It is great luxury having 5 acres to develop. I only have 1/2 acre, but still have 40 kinds of dwarf conifers and 30 or so kinds of hostas besides other plants. Bernd

Coll, I think your garden is just stunning! You mention the garden is fairly small, and you have about 125 hostas, and also that you have a bathroom area for your dogs. How big is your yard and garden, actually? I posted some photos of some of my hostas the other day, and am going to add a couple of wider angle photos to show how the yard sits (size, arrangement, etc). Would you maybe be able to do the same? I'd love to see the total overall effect. You said that in the photos you put up, we just couldn't see the weeds, failures, etc, and I have to admit that I tried to avoid those in my first photos as well, but I'm going to go for it and lay the whole thing out there for all to see! LOL! I'm hoping you'll do the same :-)