Of the crocus that seemed to be absent, I found one under the litter that poked through the soil. I have also found four tulips (in two different spots) on the shady left side. This confirms that bulbs on the shady side will in fact grow, but not at the same speed as the ones on the right side. This is great news, because this means the total blooming period will be stretched by a few weeks, maybe even a month, so I will have a longer spring bloom than most of my neighbours, who have similar conditions on both sides of their entrance. In short, I will have tulips when the neighbour's tulips will be long gone. Thanks for your encouragement! P.S.: I just found out that last year's daffodils (which will bloom for the second time this year) will have on average three times as many blooms. Of the few that are already lush and leafy, most have three flower stems with juicy buds rather than the one each they had last year. About 25% of them already have babies, too, because some of the new growth is a couple of inches further from the mother. They are planted close enough together that they will form a uniform patch of happy flowers, but not close enough that I would have to lift them just yet. Not all daffodils are created equal and I know not all naturalize and increase over time, but this one is really fast. If you are looking for white daffodils that will increase rapidly without much help (they didn't get shrooms, I only added a bit of peat moss to their planting hole to sweeten the clay and only gave them one shooter of liquid fish emulsion after they were done blooming), look no further: Mount Hood daffodils are most satisfying. They are also huge (three inch diameter flowers, close to 1.5 foot high) compared to other daffs. Oh, and these daffs were bought at the worst place for bulbs - at a big box renovation store! Just sayin'!

i usually change the gamma and/or brightness .... since my 69 dollar camera isn't the best .... on some pix, this seems to make the blues incredible .... do they look like that in the yard ... only for about 10 to 15 minutes, just after sunset, when the sky turns pink .... you HAVE TO go to the hosta after dinner, at dusk .... INCREDIBLE ... i NORMALLY DO NOT mess with color unless it is so out of whack that it is necessary .. and i don't feel like running back out .. or it got too dark .. cuz i didn't start taking pix until after sunset.. lol ... in my pix .. i suggest that you focus on the hosta named in the picture... and don't fixate on others around it.. i have manipulated the named hosta to be as close to what i see in the garden as possible.. subject to my monitor of course ... one trick to adjusting it all .. monitor included .. is to get a picture of your hand ... and then hold your hand next to the monitor .... and then adjust it accordingly .... usually the monitor adjustments are right on your monitor ... then open the picture in your photo editor.. and make further adjustments if necessary ... i wonder if i should put this in a new thread.. maybe later ... ken

Yes it is the red cord handle that attracts them to the garage entrance so painting a different color would help. I have had hummers fly in but they always just fly back out. My garage attic is closed off and my ceiling is not high so I think that cuts them off, anyway never had a problem with hummers getting trapped in the garage.

OK, this is kind of embarassing... Dh and his band buddies were planning a photo shoot and I picked up a few items of clothing with an 'edgier' look. One being a black tone-on-tone cut velvet shirt. The fabric looks kind of like this All went well with the shoot. A few months later he wore the shirt to work with a pair of gray pinstripe pants. He looked great and I told him that as he left in the morning. He comes home that evening and asks "Do you see a woman on my shirt?" I'm like Huh??? I look closely and to my surprise (horror!) see the scroll pattern in the shirt was created using this silhouette: One of the guys at work mentioned how much he liked the shirt and the girls in the shirt. Dh and I had no idea they were in there. When I think about it months later I still laugh.