Ha, postage size yards... that would be me. I live in New York City, proper, so this is a big yard comparatively. It's roughly 30x30 feet in the back. We have about 16 roses in the back, and 3 on the side. This is their 3rd year in the ground, so just starting to get to a good size. I do a 2 step cleanup for the roses, the first cut is usually late November. Just enough for good measure for winter, usually once most of the leaves have dropped, and I'll do another shaping in early march. I put mulch on after I've done any requisite fall bulbs. But we have such a small space, I garden very intensly, I've dug a lot of organics in, made somewhat of a raised bed with rocks I dug out of the ground, so the point in relation to the pruning, is that in a good year, these roses get gigantic, even though it's North facing (in summer it gets full sun 12 hours a day). Most are hybrid Teas or similar high maintenance, particularly because they are so close and get drip irrigation, there's always plenty of moisture. The first cleanup takes about 3 big garbage bags after I've tied up the stems and cinched them tight in burlap so they won't cut through the bags. It takes me most of the day with other various cleanup tasks. We're looking to start a family and get a larger house with yard, so I'd be taking most of these with me, and revert it back to grass or similar low maintenance plants. I love the roses, but I need more space for them. You can see the progression over a year in the pictures below. Each picture links to a collection you can see more pictures at that time of year. The pictures are "roughly" March, May, June, September. Each link goes to the collection. I've ommitted the July-August picture, because honestly with the veggies, you can't even see the roses! It's so overgrown... June is the prettiest month, nothing else has caught up yet.

Here is my list of favorites from my garden of about 250. I have several new ones that may join the list soon, but I decided to just list the tried and true. Most are very healthy, bloom a lot and are fragrant. ROUGE ROYALE- This Romantica blooms frequently with huge, fragrant, dark red blooms on strong stems. It is a consistent winner of the Decorative Rose class at shows. SCENTED MEMORY - This rose is very similar to the above, but is an apricot blend. It has huge scented blooms with an old-fashioned multi-petaled form. FIREFIGHTER - To me, this rose should get the Gamble Award for Fragrance. And, in addition to it's wonderful damask fragrance, it has beautiful, velvety dark red blooms. I have two, which in my garden means I love it! SPELLBOUND - This coral rose has exquisite form. It doesn't have much scent, but it is really beautiful. I have two of this one, too! TAHITIAN SUNSET - This is an amazing rose. It is huge in my garden (on fortuniana rootstock) and has huge yellow blend, scented blooms. ELLE - Elle is another constant bloomer with lovely pink blend blooms with a delicious scent. She is a feminine as her name. QUIETNESS - Another very feminine rose of a lovely pale pink and great scent. It is very healthy. NIMBUS - This mauve blend floribunda is has the loveliest color blooms - hard to describe. It has great scent, too. PRETTY LADY - The name says it all! This white and pink floribunda is constantly blooming and seems to be immune to blackspot. PASSIONATE KISSES - Another lovely floribunda in constant bloom with big candy pink blooms. BLACK CHERRY - This is my favorite floribunda. It truly never seems to stop putting out tons of dark red blooms and is extremly healthy. I have Preference, too, and it is very hard to tell the difference. Black Cherry is a little darker red. OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE - Another matchless floribunda that blooms all the time with beautiful pink blooms with nice form. It is very healthy also. Whew! That was hard! I love a lot of others that people mentioned but decided to list the ones I really would grow if I could only have twelve. That actually could happen when I grow to old to take care of all the ones I have (That could happen any time!)

I live in a rural area near the Ellisville Harbor State Park, and a road runs right by the salt marsh. At low tide the mudbanks butt up to the road and a few years ago I took this photo. At the time I knew almost nothing about ducks, and noticed the strange looking mallards in the mud. My philosophy is always shoot first and ask questions later, so I shot and went home to check the references. I didn't even know Green-winged Teal existed. At that distance my Canon Powershot S5IS with a 12X zoom can handle it, although I don't get that nice feather detail. Some day I'll get better equipment, but not right now. Claire

I'm far from an expert of ruby crowned kinglets, seen them only on very rare occasion myself. One place, when I was walking along about 2-3 miles of trail I saw a small handful of them though, which is more than I have seen at any other time/place but they were all singular individuals seen at different times along that trail rather than a "flock," seen all at once. I would venture to guess they are more solitary.