Hey Annie, Thank you for the compliments, just got done looking are your roses and I would have to say the same! I got the carnations at Lowes I think a few years ago. I love them! They are my birthday flower and I was so excited to find them as I didn't think they would do well down here but then again those places tend to buy things that don't do well for the area. Turns out they have done wonderfully. I do remember you telling me about your daughter living in Columbia and your someday visit down here which I am still looking forward to! :O) Yes, it is too bad she doesn't live closer as I would love to help her out. Mabe when you do end up coming to visit her we can all meet up at the zoo. Then you could come down to visit Charleston. I have a membership to Magnolia Garden and Plantation and I could show you around there and have a picnic there perhaps, I love it there. Maybe you could bring your daughter too and we could have a nice time. July and August are hot and humid though so be prepared. So far it really hasn't been too bad heat wise. We have actually had a nice long cool spring with a few hot days lately but not too bad. Looking forward to your visit! Congratulations grandma! ~Meghan

Thanks everybody for all the nice comments! After having lost a lot of pics from a hard drive crash, I've decided I want to share more pictures instead of letting them sit in files. The kind words here will encourage me to post more! Moccasinlanding, I do grow my own seedlings. Back before I was interested in names and such, I owned two minis. Since I wanted more, the logical thing to do was cross pollinate them and keep the littlest seedlings. Out of that first batch of about 100 seeds, I ended up keeping about 30! The second year I started nearly a thousand seeds and culled most of them at the end of the season, that was kind of traumatizing for me so now I stick to just a couple of crosses a year. I'll do a thread on my seedlings after they're fully leafed out and I get all those maple seeds cleaned up. Jeanne

Lykaon, What a beautiful yard you have...it makes me realize I should really spruce up my edges...mine is way more "rustic", so to speak. I say "YES" to your idea on future hosta beds, you have such an excellent backdrop there for beds. What are your flowering shrubs, Viburnum? Not sure on the Thunderbolt question, it doesn't look quite like mine that I can remember (I lost mine.)....I think mine were more blue, but someone else may have a better thought. Thank you for sharing! Your beds are beautiful! I finally bought Regal Splendor last year after having it on the wishlist year after year...can't wait to see it furl out now! (Eyes are only just now popping up this week here.)

LOL ... I should have included a few pics of the total meltdowns ... just for Karma balance. There's a few of them here. Thinderbolt went from pristine to gone in about a week. Right in front of the ADG is an Island Charm with leaves like netting and if you look closely you'll see that the Lungwort has a few leaf holes. (Not all from slugs) I've used one bottle of Sluggo in two years ... but plenty of ammonia spray. Regal Splendor & a baby Francee are actually the two best preserved still but they're in a spot that the Honeysuckle vine thats overhead makes it difficult to get a good pic. The birds with nests under the overhang have 'fertilized' everything underneath them this summer. That area needs a makeover badly. One of the downsides to hybridizing is the messy look of the scapes not being trimmed back. Hopefully there will be a good bout of Indian Summer before frost and I can make a little extra garden time. Move a few and freshen things. And like you said .... whatever doesn't get done will have to hold til next spring. Curtis/m2wm