Here are a few more from today to tantalize you! Conquest Quay Sparticus Adorned is probably my favorite purple. Not as fancy as others, but a real workshorse - unbothered by aphids or thrips. ATLANTA FRINGE BENEFIT AGE OF AQUARIUS and UNINHIBITED trying to hold hands in the Circle Bed. LACE SAMPLER backed by HERBGIRLS CHERRY MOONSHINE DENA MARIE'S SISTER TRUE NORTH Debra

I'm so envious of all these beautiful blooms! I'm sort of in a dead season now that the daffodils and alliums are long gone, and the Iris too is past. Only a few early daylilies are staring to open, but it will be a month before they and the tall phlox are in full bloom. Annual marigolds and geraniums and gerbera daisies in pots are my only flowers until then. I'll just have to get vicarious enjoyment from everyone else's photos until late July when I can post my own. Gardenweed, I love the golden Chinese globeflower and the dark purple (almost black) sweet William and the beautiful pink mountain laurel. Digging, that bright pink peony is simply gorgeous. I really need to figure out where to plant some peonies. I love them, esp the more intense pinks, and I believe peonies do well in colder climates so they should thrive here. Wispfox, such amazing foliage!! I guess I would share your concerns about the weight on the garage roof, but I would also hate to see that greenery, and the privacy it must afford, go. Pixie, I love your pot with the sunflower motif. It really makes your front step setting. Lschibley, your peaceful little nook with the garden bench beside the brick walkway leading to your porch is wonderful with or without anything blooming.

Well, if we don't stop eating the few jalapenos I picked and so many of the tomatoes, I may not make salsa. I have lots more of both to pick though, so I think the canning starts tomorrow or the next day. I've been pleased with how well the pepper and tomato plants have been producing despite being in severe to extreme drought for pretty much all of their lives. Today was the first time I'd crossed the Red River via I-35 since the rain fell early last week, and guess what? There is water in the river, and it is flowing downstream. That's such a big improvement over the poor, pitiful river channel lost among all the sand bars in the river bed the last few years. You couldn't even see the sand bars today! Yay! I hope this means we'll see some continued improvement in the lake levels at Lake Texoma too. Ric, I was just thinking to myself a couple of days ago that I'd better have the shade cloth handy and ready to drag out of the garage. Even with cooler weather, I intend to use it to shield the peppers from some of the heat and sunlight. I probably won't shade the tomato plants. I have a lot of plants and I want to do a lot of canning over about a 4-6 week period, and then I don't care what the plants do after that as long as we have a few ripe maters here and there. I don't know if our region's drought will improve any more than it already has or if it will continue to worsen, so I am staying flexible on the idea of either watering the tomatoes to keep them going all summer or not. If the drought doesn't improve, I'll likely let the tomato plants go and save the irrigation water for the okra, melons, squash and southern peas. There's only so much you can do with irrigation water when you're in Extreme Drought, and I don't even want to think about your county and mine going into Exceptional Drought, but it is creeping towards us. Larry, Does it ever not rain there? Actually, I do remember years you've had to irrigate a lot. I have not watered my tomatoes as much as I should, but we are getting some really large ones anyhow. The rain earlier in the week helped a great deal with that. At some point, I let the garden get too dry within the last 2 or 3 weeks, and a couple of fruit on a couple of plants got BER, but it was just a handful of fruit so it was not any sort of big deal. I corrected it before it affected many fruit, because smaller fruit that set after the BER-affected ones were fine. Bon, I am at the wrong end of the state because it was not moist here (though it was humid enough to give us a heat index a few degrees higher than our actual temperature) and it tried to get warm---hitting 93 degrees at our house this afternoon, but 93 beats 103 any day of the week. Kim and Mary, I was wondering if you Texans would recognize green plants once everything started greening up after the rainfall. (grin) Y'all have been brown for so long there that it must be nice to look out and see beautiful, beautiful green. We drove down to the D-FW metroplex today, and I was surprised at how brown the fields are between Gainesville and Denton. I am assuming most of that brown is cool-season plants that are not, of course, going to green up again and that maybe there's short warm-season plants greening up that you just cannot see yet from the highway because we saw lots and lots of brown fields. Our forecast looks exactly average, in terms of temperatures, for the rest of the week, and I think average temperatures will be really nice. I hope we get to have average for a while, before it creeps up to "above average". It would be okay with me if we have average or below-average temperatures all summer long, but I doubt we'll be that lucky. Dawn

Sue, i love how the lime hydrangea leaves contrast with the house. I'm currently really interested in the designing something that contrasts well with my house. Yours look fantastic. And the containers is beautiful! It's amazing how many beautiful gardens are on this forum. Thyme, the deer ate my rhododendron buds, not squirrels. Thank goodness squirrels leave them alone! Usually by now something has eaten my astilbe buds, as well, but so far I'm in for 100% flowering this year. Unbelievable! Was considering removing them if all I ever saw were munched stems. I agree with you on the Mt Laurel. Good thing you already have a husband, or surely some single gardener would agree and woo you just to get to see that every other year! Does you husband ever get jealous of the laurel? ;-) Again, so many beautiful roses. Claire, I'm always amazed at what you've managed to fit into your property. Not only is it amazing diversity, but it ll looks like every single plant is in the perfect spot. NHBabs, you have the patience of Job with your voles. I thought I had tons of voles but i've come to find out i have far more moles. I am glad as it seems they are not doing the damage voles would! There are some voles, but I don't have the damage you and others have. I wish the dianthus has lived for you. Always a delight to see your many clematis! prairiemoon, i LOVE fragrance. i have about twelve peonies planted together, and in that mass they create good fragrance. mock orange is going on the list to plant so i can enjoy the smell. After about three days of good rain, I expect my soil is rejuvenated quite deeply now. We had rain on May 18, and one downpour in early June of which I am sure some just ran off and didn't soak in, but I was still grateful. This long soaking rain was beautiful to see. Everybody I met here talked about how happy they were to see rain! Welcome, July!