Thanks everyone! Betty Boop is really coming into her own this year, she's covered in buds with a just a few starting to open. I love picoteed roses, and the she is an especially pretty one. I love yellow and blue flower combos of all kinds, usually the ceanothus are winding down by the time the roses get started by they are overlapping well this year. Gruss an Aachen is a three year old band, and it's giving us our first really good show this year. Still in a pot though, so I need to find a good place for it too. The rose circle was a solution to two problems - a spot behind the compost bin that didn't do well as a tomato garden last year and too many potted roses. I was looking through garden inspiration photos and saw some neat wheel gardens so I decided to make one. The roses in it are: Glendora, Poulsen's Pearl, Marchesa Boccella, Lemon Spice, Marchioness of Lorne, Le Pactole, Ulrich Brunner fils, Poulsen's Yellow, and Rose de Rescht. I think I'll wait till fall and plant narcissus and alliums as companions, I want to avoid things that spread too much and whatever I plant has to be gopher resistant (the roses are all in cages.) I've been doing my best to keep up with weeding while completing a couple of extra projects along the way, once I have things more up to snuff I'll post more garden shots. Right now the weeds are kind of embarrassing. I have a tendency to print out lots of graph paper and plan new gardens when it's too rainy to work outside, most of them stay as plans but a few have been completed. I want to add companion plants to the hot color bed, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. You can bet I'll be posting lots of pictures when the arbor is covered, yellow climbing roses on arbors are one of my absolute favorite things. Thanks everyone, I'll post more later when different roses are blooming.

It is very common to see those white marks on newly laid eggs; it occurs during the formation of the egg. Usually, it will go away as the female incubates, and moisture from her body will dissolve those white marks. Less common is a bit of blood on the eggs; which will likely also go away as the mother bird incubates. Bet has some technical explanations of such things, even runt eggs, double shelled eggs, etc. on her web site. "Bloodspots on chicken eggs are caused by a rupture of one or more small blood vessels in the yolk follicle at the time of ovulation." Bluebars Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.sialis.org/weirdeggs.htm

shimolee its spanish moss, Hawaiians call this Pele's hair, for it supposedly resembles the hair of the Hawaiian volcano and lava goddess Pele. thanks Lyka, i want more pods, and make new generation out of them :) thanks horrie, yes i got tons of lizards and green geckos here they love to hang out in my plants, i just wish they eat the aphids also lol.

Beverly, I ordered it and a few others to keep it company a few hours ago. Another suggestion was American Choo Choo likewise a sport of Choo Choo Train. Anyway it's had it's label removed and been sent in disgrace to the new hosta bed I'm creating underneath a stand of trees. It looks pretty good but don't tell the imposter that! Dave