After blooming is over, Iris reticulata foliage elongates to about a foot, or a little taller. The foliage is, however, very thin. It is fairly noticeable if you have large patches of small iris as I do, but pretty much invisible if you only have a few bulbs. It takes awhile for this foliage to die back and it will look something like a thin covering of pine mulch when it dies down. Since it is an early bloomer it is gone by the time most of my daylilies in these areas are starting to put on some good foliage, or they mingle together and I can't see it any longer. The anemone foliage is attractive and I sort of wish it would stay around a little longer. It disappears pretty quickly.

Living in western PA my whole life, the worst weather that I had to deal with was a bad thunderstorm or a lot of snow. When I moved out here to Philadelphia 4 years ago I never thought in a million years I would be sitting smack dab in the middle of a hurricane. When I left work on Friday Oct 26th we had an email to all employees that due to the coming storm we might have to close on Monday Oct 29th. Well sure enough on Sunday night they updated the email and advised that the stock market will be closed. So Monday I sat at home all day watching what would be the worst storm I have ever seen in my life. I am only 27 years old, so I have not seen a lot of what life can offer yet, but I will tell you this storm is something I never want to have to live through again. It was horrifying to listen to 80+ mile an hour winds smack against the house. Everything outside was blowing around like we were in the chamber of a vacuum cleaner. BF and I live in a heavily suburban area elven miles north of the city proper. It is a lovely place with old architecture and lots of trees. But those trees ended up being our downfall. Our bedroom is on the third floor so I was almost in the canopy watching the tops bend almost in half to then stand straight back up and be blown the other direction. It truly is amazing how strong trees are and how much they can take before they give out. But sure enough we did have one give out. A piece of the neighbor's spruce tree snapped in half and fell flat in our front yard taking with it the power and cable lines. By the grace of God it missed the house. Amazingly we had enough slack (according to BF) so that the power wasn't knocked out. But now we had a downed tree with live wires under it to contend with when we went outside the next day. Scary stuff :( Now we are almost a week past the storm and the streets around here are still a mess. A lot of roads are blocked off due to either power lines being down or just whole trees lying in the middle of the street. Some people are just now getting their electricity back after almost a full week. We were fortunate enough not to loose power but I was without internet for almost the whole week. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers. We are safe and slowly coming “back to life”. This truly was one for the history books and something I sure as hell never want to have to deal with again. Here are some of the pics I took for home owner's insurance. Not as pretty as a hosta but testament that mother nature is not to be trifled with. Thank you again everyone, your thoughts and prayers made the difference. Ludi Elegans did sustain some “smashing” damage but she was on her way to sleep for the winter so I'm pretty sure she didn't mind :p

Hi Debbie, Try not to worry that your Blues aren't coming now. I really think this is normal. They know where your nesting box is... and they won't forget where they get their worms. They leave us missing them for awhile, but they should be back. And btw, we usually let the Carolina Wrens and the Nuthatches take a few worms. We love them too and always delight to see them up close. Our Blues always get the majority of them. :) We use 2 little bowls mainly: One is for suet nuggets which we leave out most of the day. All our Bluebirds stop by for 1 or 2 nuggets at various times of day, and several other desireable birds (Mockers, Wrens, Nuthatches etc) also grab these. The other bowl is for mealworms which we feed 2 or 3 times daily. It's rare not to see our Blues come at these times, but we're not seeing them all at each feeding now like we did earlier in the season. We're preparing to miss them for awhile soon. Oh, there is a 3rd bowl which we fill randomly with suet, seed, fruit, peanuts or whatever... ha it's a Today's Special kinda thing. Hope you see yours again soon, and often. Kenn Here is a link that might be useful: Year-round Bluebirds

BlueberryBundtCake, I missed your post too - weird how it didn't seem to be there earlier! Yes, we've had branches (actually, more accurately large limbs) break off and then decide to literally hang out in the upper branches. Such a pain! I've grown Striped Roman in the past and liked them - taste good and look nice! Do try again with the Cherokee Purple. I think they are worth it. I have some this year and as a matter of fact a couple of sliced ones were my lunch today! Yes, there are many shade plants that need a lot of moisture (astilbe I'm looking at you!) but I find that in these hot days, when I have to water the sun garden and veggie garden, I don't always have to water the shade - I never actually noted it, but I can probably do the shade garden every other time. Sometimes I will pour a bit of water on the astilbes or heucheras, but honestly I've been so busy trying to keep my no-longer-in-shade-newly-in-sun bed going, especially the poor hostas there, so they get the attention first. I empty my dehumidifiers twice a day and make the trek from the basement to the garden to empty the water on the hostas. Ah well, I guess Roseanne Rosannadanna must have been a gardener - it's always something lol! :) Dee