To answer a few questions, I got my Summer Songs from Hortico and Palatine Nurseries in Canada when they offered them. I have three plants of them on two different rootstocks. The two on multiflora seem to do better, but location in the yard may be a factor. As for orange Austins, I would pick the winner as Lady of Shalott. As for bright orange color in the shrub class, I think Kordes' Brillant is the winner. As for my location, I think I need to clarify a thing or two. The Squire, Eglantyne, Symphony, and Happy Child have all been blooming, but not as much as they have this year. Except for The Squire, the others have had as many flowers in their spring flush this year as they have been having for a whole growing season up until now. All the plants did flower their first year, but not with much. So, I was surprised to see such a showing of buds and flowers this year in spite of the fact that we had some late freezes that set some plants back. Last year we had a warm stretch in April followed by a freeze and snowstorm in May. Because of the weather anomalies, one of my tree peonies that has bright red flowers has not flowered in two years. Poor thing. We have a well-established history of having roller coaster temperature swings during spring in this section of the country. It is not particularly good for rose growing, and you see who the sturdy varieties really are fairly soon.

A great big THANK YOU to all who looked and commented. It's nice to know you all are still sticking around! To answer questions..... I have many raised beds, all built up with native granite rocks I collected. They are all free-form, nothing fancy, just what I stack up and then fill with wheelbarrow loads of purchased loam. I cannot plant directly into my soil here. My yard was all woods and once I took down the trees the roots remained as well as many rocks.....New Hampshire is called 'The Granite State' for a reason! I probably have about 10 raised beds and borders with these stacked rocks.,...and yes, I built them all myself. The bed you are asking about is too long to fit it all in the photo....it must be at least 25 feet long....so lots of rocks!! I refuse to buy rocks, even though the landscaping rocks you buy are prettier and make a more professional-looking wall than these dug out of the ground....lol. It is bad enough that I have to buy soil. The blue clematis is 'Perle d' Azur'. The watering cans hanging on the trellis started out being functional but now they're just decorative. This summer we actually got some rain so I never used them. Then someone commented that they liked them hanging there so I left them. The pale daylily in the lower left in photo #8 is Cerulean Fringe. Last Lama is unfortunately planted in a less than optimal spot in partial shade and I think the bud count would be more in full sun....it is almost all bloomed out now but it had at least 15 buds per scape. Nancy, YES...goldfinches do enjoy eating the sunflower seeds fresh on the flower. They literally flock to my yard since I have way more sunflowers than pictured here. I also notice them on the coneflowers and liatris. Funniest thing I saw today was a chipmunk hanging off the sunflower head, stuffing his cheeks with seeds....haha. Celeste

I have been enjoying everyones gorgeous gardens and fabulous flower pictures. We finally have warm weather here in Wisconsin. Tulips, daffodills and other early spring flowers have come and gone. Roses,peonies and others are not blooming yet.My flowering trees were a week to 10 days later than normal but as you can see by this one. It was worth the wait.

They are usually called "big round" bales. We used to bale this way, but we have gone to "big square" bales, as they are easier to stack high. We also bale regular square bales - those are the smaller ones that you can pick up by hand. My 16 year old DD does the small square baling! We also bale brome hay. When it is cut is called "swathing" or "mowing". It is layed in "windrows" by the swather. The baler moves over these and rolls it up into bales, or packs it into squares. In our big square bales, the hay is actually cut into small pieces as it is baled up. That way we can break the bale open and put it in a feed mixer wagon with corn, corn silage, and protein, to make a "ration" to feed cattle with. We also bale some alfalfa. You get several "cuttings" from alfalfa. Alfalfa is a high protein hay. It is usually a 99% guarantee that if you have hay down - it will rain, LOL! If it rains on it or it is very damp out, we "rake" the hay. It rolls the windrows over so they can dry better. I rake hay sometimes.