I will be helping out at Cliff's on Sunday, May 8 for: (I'll be wearing a rabbit patch on my shirt if you have time to say hi) Note: the nursery will also be open the previous day, Sat. May 7, same times, if you cannot make the Mother's Day event. ************* Please join us for our Fourth Annual & Last Mother's Day Open Garden and Final Sale of Rare & Historically Important Roses EuroDesert Rose Garden Corner of Sundown Trail & Oregon Trail, Morongo Valley Sunday, May 8, 2011 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The EuroDesert Rose Garden has been forced to close. Don't miss this final chance to stroll through our five-acre rose garden with over 5,000 roses - one of the largest and most diverse rose gardens in the United States - and this istoric sale of the remaining roses, garden art, structures and miscellaneous garden related materials at lowest ever prices. Everything must be sold! Roses available in pots up to 15 gallons in size as well as a "dig your own program" for roses from the garden. No admission charge For further information contact cliffofthedesert@yahoo.com Directions: Highway 62 (29 Palms Highway) to Bella Vista. Right on Bella Vista, which dead ends into Canyon. Turn left on Canyon and immediately turn right on Sundown Trail. Street address is: 9878 Sundown Trail. Note: Do not take Sundown Trail off Highway 62 or you will be on the wrong side of 62.

Yes, Permanent Wave is indeed unique in its leaf display, and bloom. It becomes quite showy and large with age. It was a seedling that Mom gave away to a close friend, Jim Langhammer of Royal Oak (thanks Jim for all the garden memories!) who several years later brought it back to her and said it was worthy of registration and a neat name, even though it was all green. She was not a fan of all green hosta unless they had uniqueness. After receiving the plant back into her garden, she wracked her brain (and mine!)for a suitable name. Mom was getting her Saturday hair fixed and as she sat under the hair dryer at the hair salon, her eyes fell on a poster for selling some "Permanent Wave", and thus the name was found. John Kulpa of course is a fantastic hosta hybridizer in his own right - but Whirlwind was a chance find in the trade. There has been a writeup on it and its progeny recently in the AHS Hosta Journal. Thanks, John for the great plants! Bruce

For Mother's Day Weekend I worked at my local garden center. It was packed non-stop customers Fri. Sat. and Sun. It is such a wonderful festive weekend at the nursery, live music and free hotdogs. What I especially enjoy is the wonderful crowd that comes through.. everyone is in a great mood, happy and smiling. I did get a few small windows of opportunity to tweak my waterfall/ pond which continues to leak.. I just might have to tear the waterfall apart, again, and find that leak.. it's enough of a leak so that I have to top off my pond every three days.. fortunately the leak leads into my bog garden, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.. might just leave the repairs for the end of summer, cause I have spent way too much time on the waterfall and it's now time to get to the plants!!! I put in a raised veggie bed earlier in the week and was able to plant some veggies. Bought my veggie plants and hope to have them in within the week. So it's been a garden/ plant filled weekend with work around my yard and at the garden center.

I hope everyone had a fabulous Mother’s Day! My girls and I got out into the yard- I planted 3 of the four Austin’s, finished mulching the main beds and fertilizing, and got the Barden Bed half weeded, so I feel quite accomplished. Still have more weeding, mulching, and edging but things are getting there! Lily planted her first plant- a tiny boxwood that came free with my polyantha order.