'Colossus' is one of those obscure roses from Texas growers that show up in the spring as potted grafted roses at some nurseries. I bought 'Colossus' early in '07, but shovel-pruned it this year. For me, it grew quite tall and had a peculiar growth habit: It grew long sturdy canes, along which it threw a few very short, bloom-bearing 'laterals' (for lack of a better term). These weren't grandiflora-like candelabra, but widely spaced, stubby-stemmed roses. Perhaps if I had invested more time in disbudding this rose, that characteristic wouldn't have been such an irritant. It had moderate fragrance, faded rather quickly in my heat and, if my memory is correct, it didn't last long on the bush. Bear in mind that I'm one gardener who grew a single bush of 'Colossus' for a relatively short period of time (2 seasons). Perhaps your experience will be more favorable. I hope so.

Cindy- I was walking around today looking at all the lilies I have in soooo many areas of the garden. Have been adding them for years here and it really looks to be paying off this year. They just barely started. And I love all the different types, Asiatic, Oriental and all the many hybreds. Best Seller is an AT hybred like Red Alert is and it (Best Seller) is one of the early bloomers here. But then the trumpets and the various OT hybreds and orientpets start up much later I think. Julia- Lots of scapes starting to show up here so bloom season should be good. At least I hope so. We had rain last night which was good because that means I did not have to water anything.

Aunt Jen my long lost retro soul sister :) That big chill fridge in your delicious picture is the second half of the first kitchen picture I posted with the lime laminate counters and vintage stove. I love that whole kitchen, it makes me smile :) Powermuffin .. yay, another cool chair aficionado! :) I'm going through a cute chair phase in life it seems, every vintage chair I find IRL .. I day dream new cute fabric on it. :D Still looking for the perfect pair of chairs to bring home to send to the reupholsters.

The white sands you see, Terrene, are sand bars on the other side of the river. There's a small sand bar on my side. According to most everybody, it doesn't flood on the high bluff where my land is located. The soil appears to be just sand, so it beats me how the Passiflora lutea could grow so much bigger than it did on my other, inland woods, where the soil appeared to be so much better. There are some plants that I've always wanted to have that only grow on the sandy bluffs of the rivers and creeks. If you try to grow them on heavy or even good, loamy soil, they'll die. I closed today! It was kind of sad, because the wife of the couple that I bought it from told me her husband had cancer all over and wouldn't live long. She said they were selling the land, because they wanted to use the money to enjoy what time he had left. But on a happy note, the previous owners told me the woods across the river from my property would never be built on, because it's a wildlife sanctuary! Sherry