ok the about 50 years ago mention above makes me feel right at home here..yup..we did the silhouettes, funny, I've been seeing them coming back into "vogue" lately too, even some new family and decorating magazines have been having articles on them..go figure. Happy Birthday Abe and George, I prefer George's birthday as it usually is accompannied by cherry pie..i LOVE cherry pie and live very near the National Cherry Festival.. Give me liberty or give me cherries.

Hi Carla! Thank you for the beautiful rose photo (looks like one of the rugosas, whose fragrance I just love). It was a great birthday down in Costa Rica, today is my last day there, I'm in our hotel for the night before we fly out early tomorrow a.m. I had a great birthday in a wonderful place called the Osa Peninsula, one of the last Pacific Lowland rainforests still quite intact. I got to see incredible birds, butterflies, flowers and countryside, plus had a great birthday lunch and dinner at an amazing resort! Sue: It was a complete step away from cares and worries, and a great birthday, thank you! What is that yellow rose? Rosefolly: I think I recognize that peony! Thank you for the birthday wishes, and I do look forward to a wonderful year ahead. Joanne: Great photo of Mme Boll, but you know that no one on earth can beat your Baklava! But, I did have a fantastic meal at a wonderful resort! Hoovb: Thank you so much! What a beautiful clematis, I'll have to see about getting that one! Olga: Thank you! I love the photos of your garden and roses, and I'll never forget that one of your Abraham Darby, you got the most spectacular one I've ever seen! Peachiekean:Thanks for the other thread for my birthday! Beautiful photo of that DA rose (is it Graham Thomas, it looks perfect!). Carol:Thank you! Yep, I definitely recognize both of those photos, I'm glad you got to see the FDY in bloom! Luanne:Someday I'm going to see that garden of yours, but that photo makes a nice substitute! You're a pretty great gardener yourself, as your photos testify! Thank you so much for the b-day wishes. Patricia:One of the most poetic people I've ever known! Thank you for the words that are such a pleasure to my ears and put such a smile on my face. Thank you everyone, this one was a truly wonderful birthday, and such nice icing on the cake to see these birthday wishes! --Ron

Thanks Suzanne! Bee balm would be great. I totally forgot about Bee Balm. I'm trying to get more plant for bees, butterflies, etc. I probably wont put in another rose into this bed unless it is short. I think I have enough tall ones and there is maybe 1 space that I could squeeze a short rose into the front on the left. I will have to see if all the other ones I put in make it okay lol. Does LD Braithwaite stay small in warm zones? Thanks to Lisa's enabling photos of PCdM, I have two in the ground and another in a pot! With the 3 Abe Darbys I will be full of peachy apricot sherberty goodness all summer long lol! I totally envy everyone that can griw poppies. I haven't had much luck here with them. I can get them started but they pout when they get in the garden. Perhaps the humidity.. My Crown Princess Margareta improves every year. She definitely takes her time. I almost tossed her the first year. Ugly fugly blooms like the grossest washed out orange yellow ever. Barely double and tiny. I have 2 and they both looked the same way. The next year they were much bigger and better. Last year they actually looked half decent. I think she likes colder winters than I have. She likes to be pruned hard in early spring. She grows like a big climber here. One is climbing my fig tree. The other is espalier near the fig tree. She is full of buds right now so hopefully they will be nice! Last year ~Sjn

"There's no OP variety that I know that's crack free, and many have the radial and concentric cracks at the stem end..." Thanks for the reply, and I also know this to be true, but I definitely noticed some varieties crack more than others, hoping to find some which are a little more "crack resistant" and keep a little better. Oh, and some the reviews I saw on this variety were on Dave's Plant Files, which looks like mostly individual reviews and I've definitely seen some negative reviews on that tomatoes there - so I just took what I read with a grain of salt and figured it was worth a gamble. I also own a copy of your book on heirlooms for the American garden and picked a few of the varieties you mentioned, and I appreciate the realistic pictures of each variety - for years I thought I was doing everything wrong because my tomatoes would have concentric or radial cracks. To find out it's mostly genetic made me a feel a little better. The thing I don't get is how I see all these pictures of certain varieties online and they look flawless; How do they get those fruits? Luck? To be honest, I wouldn't mind the cracks at all if they didn't get infected and or chewed on by slugs (and whatever else). They don't look as nice, sure, but they still taste good. I just hate watching tomatoes grow, get almost full ripe, and then crack and potentially go to waste. In any event, I've already got this variety sprouted so I'll give it a shot, I'll be more than happy to report on my experiences - but as well all know, it's relative, subjective, etc. P.S. - Oh, and thanks for the new varieties, I'm saving them for list of trials for next year :)