Shelly, it is your fault if I short out my computer from drooling! Wow, you have some absolutely gorgeous daylilies. Kansas Kitten is a new one to me, but to me it had perfect form and a satiny texture on the petals. Love its shape. I have never seen Portofino, but love the edge and color. I recognized Wild Irish right away. From the several pictures posted here, it seems to be quite consistent in its performance. Please keep posting your pictures - I enjoy them so much. Ann

to answer some of your comments/questions... Nope not in California, try southwest Wisconsin! Brutally cold in winter and hot and humid in the summer. It is a challenge to find roses that do well in our zone, but it can be done. The roses are William Baffin and John Cabot interspersed with bittersweet. At one time the entire fence was roses but due to RRD some were removed and replaced with bittersweet vine. When the entire fence line was in bloom it was a sight to behold. But not wanting to replant every few years due to RRD we decided not to replace those we lost with roses. Too hard to train and attain privacy all over again. We live on a corner and this side yard was the only area we could landscape so as to have a somewhat private area. Therefore privacy was the main goal of the fence. The old bricks actually are over 100 years old. They are not really meant to be used they way we have, and some deteriorate, but I think that just adds to the flavor. We do have a stash of more bricks so that if they get too bad we can replace one here and there. So happy that everyone is enjoying the pictures! :-) Wish I could have you all over for a cup of tea or soda. (I'm a soda person...sorry) :-)

Carolyn and MIke, benguetensis is one of my favorites as well I especially like this photo from today because of the spider web in the background. Not sure what kind of spider it is and don't care to know as i'm TERRIFIED of them but the pic is cool!! We have some sort of little spider here that comes out a night and weaves it's web in open areas to catch night flying insects. In the morning it destroys it's own web and retreats back to where ever it goes during the daytime,leaving partial webs all over the place and that's how this one came to be. Mike thanks for posting that link to hoya griffithii. Everyone can actually see now what the real plant looks like. There's a couple of U.S. growers who are making big $$$ selling sp India IML 1598 as griffithii and at lest one doing so knowingly. I have 2 small plants of the IML 1856 (true griffithii) and they have proven to be very slow growers. I also have the yellow/gold flowering clone from Botonova and it seems to grow just a bit faster than the white flowering one.I have 2 peduncles on the yellow one but so far no flowers!!

We ran into a bit of a snag last night when trying to hook up our components--somehow the installers must have blasted our outlets as now none of them are working. Arguh!!!! We had our regular contractor out last week to move the plug for the charging station and he had to add a junction box. The wires were all pushed back in the wall so we have a sick feeling the installers must've nicked one with a screw. Luckily we've not made the second payment yet for the cabinets (odd they've not asked yet) so we do have some leverage to get a resolution. Who do you think would be responsible for the electrical fee to get it fixed? I'm just hoping they don't have to pull any cabinets off the wall to fix it. As for the rug/floor protector as much as I like this rug when I tried to scoot on and off a rug with my desk chair it was a PITA. I looked at the floor protectors and don't like them. I'd need two and I just don't see it working with the angled seating--unless I were to have one custom made and then there would be plastic over 1/2 the floor and first thing I see when I enter the room. Now I am thinking of using two wooden desk chairs with upholstered seats with no casters and just the felt bumpers on the bottom of the legs. I was originally thinking I'd need the wheeled chairs since we'd need to scoot out of the way to access the center drawers, but it's really not that bad and the felt bottoms allow for some slide without the scratching. So if I go that route, anyone have some suggestions for chairs? Should I look for an unfinished maple chair and see if the custom folks will stain them to match? I'm completely open to other ideas. saraschlos: Yes, I am shameless about copying good ideas and that shredder idea is a good one!