This spot that I put the rose garden on has a tragic history. I had it plowed, to be a giant veggie/flower garden. Next, I got a hundred lilacs, to go along the fence. I came home, and the neighbor had planted caragana along there. I put the lilacs in the far end of the garden, planning to move them later. 15 years later, they're still there. It became a great place to hide the junk. This garden was divided in half by a gravel path, which became a great place to dump rock. The other half of the garden was equally tragic. We went and got the free city compost. Did they compost grass and leaves? No. We introduced every nasty, vicious thug with deep taproots that occurs. The worst are the thistles. You can't actually find anything that kills thistles commercially. There's a product called Torgon, but you have to have a license to get it. Half of this half of the garden went back to grass, to choke out the thistles. It has a crabapple tree and a hedge. So the other half became a rose garden, and me and the thistles and roses co-exist. Canadian bull thistle grows massive amounts of underground runners. I've tried 2-4D, vinegar, boiling water, gasoline, etc. AND they're back. So I just dig them up. After all, roses have thorns, too. This part of the garden has an arch with a gate, and a little cement path to a small pond with a solar powered fountain. These are Chinese junk. I'm on my third one. I did finally read about the Oase solar water fountain for $369, which might be the ticket, If I ever have the dough. Another vicious self seeder I planted there was saponaria. Now, I love this plant, but now I have thirty. The nicest thing that came out of the city compost was wild verbena, which I let happen until I was sorry. That's interesting, how mulching could keep the rain out: another dilemma.

Just wanted to add my thanks to everyone on the forum. I went to Austin for Thanksgiving and missed Faith's message. I'm glad you're aboard, Faith. Thanks for all the ID's, MissSherry, and thanks for sharing your contest, Mike. Michelle, thanks for making the trade for us, and thanks for the info, Tdogmom. EVERYONE else that I didn't name specifically, thanks for making the BF forum a great place to learn and share! Linda, just wanted to say a personal thanks also. I brought back a Gregg's Mist Flower from the great state of TX, so I'm ready for next year! I plan to make a trip to Fredricksburg next spring, so before I go, I'll take requests from the OK bunch for seeds and as many plants as my little car can hold. Sandy

Thanks Joan. If it qualifies as any kind of art, it would definitely fall on the abstract end. The backstory is that its a reflection of fall foliage from Bur oaks trees in my bird bath. The reason its so squiggly (?) was because the wind was making waves even in the bird bath. You have to give it to the wind out here when even the bird bath has waves.

You should look on the underside of the leaves. Looks like the leaves were eaten by rose slugs. They are small green caterpillars type insects. You should squish them or knock them off the leaves. When you see one small hole, then look on the underside of the leaf, and squish the bug. I usually use a small rock or squish the leaf over the insect and squish. Carol