Sorry it has taken me a while to get back and check in. I was out of town for work and just got home. Thanks so much everyone for the compliments. It makes me feel good, I must admit. I always seem to see what needs to be done, and sometimes forget to look at what it is! I will try to answer everyone's questions. Hope I don't miss any. In no particular order... The lilies in the "big" picture are almost all daylilies. The lilies in the close-up pictures I am not sure. Just some bulbs I picked up, probably at a big box store or the local garden center? Sorry I don't have their names. The rose pictured in the 4th picture is Morden Belle. There are actually 3 bushes planted in that bed. I hope that is the rose you meant? Yes, I do have the courtyard of roses and yes they are blooming. However, many of the roses on the fence were taken down this year due to RRD. I have planted bittersweet in their place. Won't be the beautiful flowers, but will provide privacy that won't get RRD. As you can see from the picture below, the fence is now pretty bare looking on the side. I have decided that I will try to keep the roses on the fence across the end and around the corner. The need for privacy there is not so great, as the Wine and Roses weigela in the island bed does screen most of the garden from that end. Again, thank you everyone! I am so glad you enjoyed the pictures. It does help to make the aches and pains feel better! :-) Marylu

Thanks everyone! Jan - when you posted your NOID I immediately checked my pictures of SG. Thought it might be your dl, but the stamens weren't right. I am loving Serengeti Summer. This is a picture of it this morning. We have no sunshine today. Very cloudy and calling for rain later. I think this bloom is even better than the FFO. I planted this one in early May. I saw it blooming at Iron Gate last weekend when I visited. The height is the same, but my bloom isn't as large as their SG. It's registered as 6 inches and mine is close to that. The SG at Iron Gate had to be 7 1/2 inches! But nothing in my garden is blooming that big. I had to stand on my tiptoes just to see the face on their Wispy Rays. Mine is blooming down in the foliage. lol

Zéphirine Drouhin Burgundian Rose Sophie's Perpetual Anne-Marie de Montravel And now, to say goodbye to a friend. I've had Applejack four years, but it has gotten as big and healthy as it can in a container. Last year it repeatedly sent out roots from the bottom of the pot. So, yesterday it was off the the annual plant exchange we have here in Lawrence, I think he got a good home where he can truly stretch out and grow. and yes, I'll probably get another band of it fairly soon--the fragrance is pretty unique, and fragrance is my biggest priority with roses. And now, some of the new bands that have arrived this spring. This first one I posted a few pics of in another thread, but here it is all fully blown, blued and quilled. Remember, with Catalonia, bluing and quilling are _features_, not flaws. Mountain Music, another rose I had ordered several times previously and always got the wrong one until now...

SUNNY ABUNDANCE SUPERSTITION TATTOOED DAUGHTER And this is a goofy little juvenile brown towhee that somehow slipped and got its little self stuck down inside one of the columns of my metal pergola in the backyard. My son and I had to take the base off the column and lift it up in order to get her/him out. Not sure how long it was in there, but it was pretty exhausted and disoriented when it flew out the bottom... and or damn dog almost caught it twice, so we had to put her in the house til the poor birdie could recover from the ordeal and get away.