Once the weather cooled down some everything just exploded, lol. I wish I live in a milder climate I can only dream of what my gardens would look like, lol. I spit out my coffee when I saw you thought I had 2 platypus. You been into juice early I think, roflamo. The striped one is a canna but doesn't look so hot. I am gonna plant it directly in the pond next spring and see if it keeps the leaves from burning. Right now its in mud like the lotus. The one I planted in potting soil rotted. Go figure, lol. The plumies are about 5 years old out back. The ones by the front pond are one year olds. I am going to plant some low growing things around the ponds and make sure I leave room to get in there to do maintenance, lol. I can only plant hardy things. The plummies are just stuck inside that wall in pots to keep them from blowing over in the wind. I am going to make a wall like that along the fence in the back yard for them next year. They blow over easily its so windy here and I can stick the pots behind something like that and weigh the down without it looking so ugly. I have sand bags and bricks around the bottoms of the larger ones. Yes, thats the lake I fish at. The pic with the wildflowers is up the creek. Its really pretty up there. I used to have the skinks in Louisiana and the boys would try to catch them and the tails would fall off in their hands. Some kind of defense mechanism. It was gross, lol.

Thanks everyone for your comments. It really is helpful in deciding what to keep. A few seem to be the favorites. Jean, Celeste, Avedon--Wish I could send you all some rain. We've been pretty lucky this year--especially considering what so many of you are going through. I've only had to drag the hoses out a couple of times. mantis, I think the cross on the first one is America's Most Wanted x Spacecoast Starburst, but the marker seems to have disappeared. Val

Wow!! The color, sheen and texture on your KnockoutXOklahoma is fantastic. I really like it. The petals look so velvety. Your Peace really speaks to me to!! Lovely! Carol

You have some nice ones and quite a collection. Regarding your thunderstorm, did you have any once-bloomers in flower, and were they beat up by the rain? Was it classed as a severe thunderstorm? I get that happening here. When it does, it is basically over for them for the year. I like your Fame. It looks good everywhere I have seen it. It appears to be a good variety. I'm just not growing it. The Golden Freelander looks interesting, but it does not look colorfast. It looks like it fades judging from the way the petals are shaded. Your Hollywood Star looks nice. Mine hasn't bloomed yet. I think that all the others in my Sheldon collection suffer badly from late, hard freezes. They are not reliably cane hardy here. This year is the first time my Strawberry Romance has had a flower since the big Easter freeze of 07. Late freezes this year took their toll on Hopie Girl, O'Rilla, and Golden Age. They all died back severely, but are trying to come back. I have Summer Love, but it isn't open yet. I'll compare mine with yours. I appreciate and enjoy all your pictures. Thanks for posting. I know it takes a lot of time to do it.