Agree with goblugal.........they do look like annual asters. There are probably a hundred different varieties of them available by seed, so I can't even begin to tell you which those are. I used to grow them as a spring potted plant (powder puff) but I don't remember them doing particularly well in ground with any longevity to bloom. I think they are considered a cool weather plant and most people plant them for fall bloom. Make nice cuts if you get the right variety.

I'm especially glad to have rain in my garden! :) GaAlan, that is gorgeous! It must be especially welcome in a gray landscape like today's. The foliage on my thunbergias was for a few days a significantly less vibrant (but still very pretty) version. I do have to try some Sparkleberries where they can be seen from the house with sun behind them; I saw a picture yesterday of a well-tended pair that had me hyperventilating. Georgia Rose, I've planted some spring-blooming spireas that show no signs of being invasive--VanHoutte, Reeves, and thunbergia. Our neighbors across the street, however, do have a very upright bridalwreath-type one that does seed about pretty lavishly; I don't know what species. I love the ones I have, though. On strolling about the other day, I found another glad-to-have: a compact form of winter honeysuckle, Lonicera purpusii. It won't be blooming for another few weeks, but I'm glad now because, even thoug deciduous here, it's still green in a gray landscape (surprisingly with our drop to 8 degrees). Actually dots of green--a grader last August mistook my directions and scraped my nice clump away, burying the whole thing under a foot and a half of earth. I dug and dragged it back out (NOT easy!), hurriedly sawed the root ball apart into a number of pieces, and shoved them in shallow holes I scraped in baking soil. Today they're all alive, scrawny tattered relics of their former self, but this time next year the bigger ones should (almost) be handsome arching (green) mounds once again, getting ready to cover themselves with fragrant winter flowers.

awww......so sweet! I love baby animals! Penny

What a fun "memory lane" to travel. I went to Europe the summer before my last semester in college. Several people in our group thought they were foot washers! I grew up in a small town in South Texas. When some people built a house that had a bidet in the master bath, it was the talk of the town. I think it is still the only one in town.