I'm honored by your appreciation of my garden. It means a lot to me. Juliet, thank you for your comment about Cottage Rose. After a year of not pruning I pruned it last winter and it seemed to like it. Audrey, my Cottage Rose came from Chamblee's in Texas. I don't know what conditions you have but in my hot, dry garden it's done very well. Not many people grow this old Austin any more but I'm quite fond of it. By the way, I also have more pictures on the discussion side, where I started this thread and then thought it would be too long if I posted all the pictures. Ingrid

ibheri, if I can grow it here I think you may have a good chance at succeeding too. Mulch is extremely important, and water of course, and some alfalfa meal would be welcome, although I haven't fertilized this rose since last year. As mentioned frequently, the teas take a while to build up. I think mine is probably at least four years old, but even when they're younger it's still enjoyable to see those beautiful flowers. I'm having a great time hovering over the bands that I received from Vintage and a few other nurseries recently, and seeing that first bloom is always so exciting. After that I force myself to disbud most of them to encourage growth. Ingrid

Thank you so much for all the lovely compliments. It's a pleasure to post pictures for such an appreciative audience. Holleygarden, the blue flower is statice, also known as sea lavender. The only drawback is that snails consider this plant a deluxe accommodation. Sherry and Sanju, Wild Blue Yonder has big, fragrant flowers but at least for me it's a tall, gangly plant no matter how viciously I cut it back. The pink plant along the driveway is more lavender in real life and is called, quite appropriately, Lavender Dream. It's grown a lot since last year. The few rather blown flowers in the left part of the picture are Mrs. Wood's Lavender Pink Noisette, which is a really pretty rose. The pink blobs below the boulders are three plants of Le Vesuve. The front garden looks rather bare since we took out Julia Child and moved her to our little cutting garden. Many of the plants are small bands, since I had to discard plants like Ebb Tide, Route 66, Lady Hillingdon, Centennaire de Lourdes, Felicia etc. etc. for one reason or another. It really sets you back when you have to start all over again. Hopefully I've made better choices this time. Ingrid

Wonderful garden! Good rock work too! I'm only an hour away and hope to see your garden some day in person. Cher, the leaves appear to have come from Arbutus menziesii. They normally shed during the summer, beginning in June. It's nature's way of dealing with our dry summers. AKA Madrona, a broadleaf evergreen tree with peeling, reddish bark. We have several weeks before we see the real Fall. Mike