LMAO Lucy!!! I have always thought they were cool looking, but I have never had a Leopard Slug in my yard before. Last night when the power was out, and the rain & lightning slowed a bit I went out to check out the damage..I had already cleaned up once yesterday and was dreading what I may find that time..well, since my yard was flooded I went out barefoot...I STEPPED ON THAT HUGE THING WITH MY BARE FEET!! It was dark, and I thought, O no, another brug bud flew off it's plant..Used the camera to get some light from the red eye reduction light..and saw THAT! O man, he was huge! I stepped on him so hard, I hurt him internally and he died 2 hours later. Of course I wasnt carrying that thing into the back porch in my hand, he was just toooo big, so I grabbed a plate from under a plant to bring him in to show the kids. NO we do NOT eat off the slug plate, and nor will we EVER! LMAO!! Thats my son's hand in the pic, he pretended to kiss it and I dang near puked! I knew there was something big living in the garden, I have had really big half dollar sized holes in some of the brug leaves. Giant chunks missing from the edges. I hope he was the only one..yeah, I know, but a girl can hope! thanks Siam :)

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

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.

mlkbskt (Margie, right?) I am cheating a little to get these pics. Got a tip about five years ago (from a really good photographer) to get better pics of the Blues if you offer mealworms, to put a branch or something they can land on before going to the feeder. So I used to find a nice large branch in our woods and pound a fence post in next to the deck and attach the branch to it so they would land on there before going into the feeder. My mealworm feeder is a wooden jailhouse style one that my husband made (this keeps other larger birds like BlueJays and Robins from eating all the mealworms) and it is clamped onto a wooden 3step ladder. I used to set it just on the deck but the Robins figured out if they pushed really hard they could get into the feeder, with it being on the ladder they cannot do this anymore. This year I decided to do things a little different and put the branches in large flowerpots with vining plants in the pots then I just went from there and came up with this.... I really like this on the deck. All the flowers make the ugly feeder look much better. So in my pictures the birds have landed on these branches on the deck. The feeder is out about 16 feet from my dining room window so I just stay in the house and snap away. Donna