Amy, I know I've commented on your garden before. It's just perfect. Exactly what I want the front of my house to look like. I have the river birch, dwarf evergreen, iris, tree peony, ferns, hostas, lavender, coral bells, sedum, azalea, hydrangea, , korean lilac, frothergilla, hardy geraniums, balloon flowers, coneflowers, holly, chelone, liatris, lillies, rose and boxwood. I wintersowed Sweet William, Lauren poppies and sea holly that should bloom this year. My problem is I can't get it in my head how many plants it takes to fill in the space. I think I am putting in a lot, but then it still looks bare. The garden is going on its fifth year. I should have my act together by now. I'll try to post some spring shots later. I'm down with the flu on the laptop and the pictures are on the office computer. Thanks for sharing again!

Also on the deck, coming up by the stairs, is 'Reine des Violettes' which continues "blueing" after opening its blooms. Thanks to "tweaking", I captured the color as it is right now on these three-day-old blooms. 'Tamora' opened her first bloom, and a few others are almost opened. But at the moment, she's a bit lost in this. The deep pink blooms belong to another long, arching cane on 'Mme de Sevigne' coming from the right of this pic. The white in the lower right corner is pegged 'Botzaris'. The white against the fence is 'Bubble Bath'. And the purple in the center of the right edge is 'Purple Skyliner. Clematis blooming on the fence, from left to right, are 'Red Star', 'Lasurstern', and 'Blue Light'. Same area as above, but closer to the front. You can see 'Botzaris' pegged in the center, with Dianthus 'Bath's Pink' to its right, and 'Mme Dore' to the right of that, with 'Monsieur Boncenne' behind her. See all the deep pink Bourbon blooms in the upper center of the pic? That's all 'Mme de Sevigne', arching up and over the others. She put out a few fat, tall, arching canes which I held in place with tree branches. This rose is really more of a climber, growing like 'Mme Isaac Pereire', perhaps even more so. But its canes seem rather self-supporting -- until the buds form, which is when I had to prop them up a bit. Near the short path in the bed to the garage window is 'Clotilde Soupert' still slowly opening its blooms. To its right is 'The Prince', which looks like it's going to have a rather stingy first-flush this year, just as it did last year. But then it blooms more often during Summer and into Autumn. Odd, right? When a rose has as many petals as 'Clotilde Soupert' has, it takes a while for them to open. I kept saying "any day now" for over a week. Notice there's no balling -- while we had some rather cool days this Spring, it's been unusually dry. CS balls for me only when cool and wet -- cool and dry, or warm and wet, I don't see balling. And I'll finish up with areas that still need further attention -- and roses. This area gets full-sun during the hottest parts of the day, so I'm going to think about Chinas and Teas which may work in a narrow bed against the neighbors' house. Here's 'Perle d'Or' which is still rather tiny, but came as one rooted twig two years ago. Despite my tweaking, I can't capture its apricot tints. To be continued.... :-) ~Christopher

fig_insanity - The largest hollyhocks are plants which came back from the roots after dying completely down the previous Fall - I did not know they do that. Both fig leaf and the old style (which have huge round leaves larger than a dinner plate) do that - you can see a fig leaf one behind and on the right of the old style one in the pic above. Of course we also have practically al lawn of seedlings coming up - I have to get my gardeners to pull them up, or we there would be nothing but hollyhocks anywhere. Vaporvac - would love to see pics of your garden - with or without weeds. Jackie

Mantis, Pink Tarantula is back in top blooming form. Last year was an outlier for some reason with moderate blooming. Curisoity Cat is a nice bloomer and I enjoy it for the form and the colr. Thanks, Kate...I am glad Crazy Kate is going to bloom. It is a nice big pretty bloom. Glad blue Dolphin is giving you blooms too. Nice spots in a rough year. Thank you, Julia. I hope your Bob Marley gives you nice clumps, It is a great color. I always like to see garden photos and I don't know how much longer there will be great blooms. kay