I'm loving Dicentra 'Goldheart' And all the emerging hosta. Way to go guys! Spring's here. Heuchera. My heuchera is looking really good in all the gardens, particularily H. 'Encore' and 'Marmalade.' However, in my front garden is an old seeded variety called 'Oakleaf,' well over 15 years old, grown in direct sun. It has exceptionally ruffled, deep purple leaves and never scorches. It gets bigger and better every year. I replant it about every 10 years, when foliage becomes sparse. I have a lot of the new villosa hybrids, which I like very much indeed, but right now, I have to say that 'Oakleaf' is remarkably beautiful. Hellebores - all of them. Any of them. All the time. Mertensia virginiana- (Virginia Bluebells) is just opening, and remarkably late at that, but those soft blue-green leaves and true blue flowers make my heart beat stronger. Tulips and daffodils. Maybe the weather has been horrible, but like hellebores, these plants just look better and better when conditions are cold and wet. Trilliums. Our trilliums were at least two weeks late this year, but my goodness, what a proliferation. Their blossoms are huge and expanded, and the forest floor is a carpet of white. Even better, the much more rare (in my forest) red Trillium erectum has decided to spread. There are clumps of it all through the forest, and its bloom season has been prolonged. I also discovered a huge, showy patch of Dicentra cucullaria (Dutchman's Breeches) in the forest. I have never seen it before. The flowers are just fading now. It's a charming plant, and although I've been on the lookout for it for years, never found it before. Fritillaria. I have a good fritillaria collection, and the bulbs have spread and bloomed admirably, lasting a nice long time during the recent nasty weather. I'm enjoying them particularily this year because I know that the dreaded Lily Beetle is very close to my gardens, and I expect we will be infested sooner than later. Euphorbia 'Bonfire'. Just get this plant. It is beautiful all spring, summer and fall, but is at its most fetching right now with glowing chartreuse flower bracts and purple foliage. Glaucidium palmatum. Google this, if you don't know what it is. I have a pink one, with several flowers blooming now, but all of a sudden, a white one has emerged in my back shade garden. It just glows. Curiously, I planted the white one in that place about five years ago, and it promptly died, only to emerge now in all its triumphant splendour. There's more, but I have taken enough time. There is also less, with the depredations of the deer, rabbits and ants, but today, finally, the sun is shining, the rain has stopped, and it's bad karma to worry about the imperfections.

About growing Zone7 roses in Zone3b. Even in the cool north, we have higher zones and even within our own plots our zones could jump from 4-7 etc. I'm in 5b, but I'm on an hill. Had to give away my 4 Hick's Yew due to too much winter die-back and they're now in a garden doing exactly what I wanted them to do for me. In the same official garden zone. But for some reason, the roses have always fared well for me, however, with little die-back. My sister is in 4B. She has a great garden terrace with the wall of her house blocking the north west wind. Her roses there are stupendous. We've come to call it her hot wall. I don't have one of those. :) The point is, we can only try as Canadian Rose says. For me, a good rule to buying roses for any location, is in knowing the where those roses were produced. I'm in Ontario, and I'd never buy a rose from England or California. While it may be the same named variety, it isn't the same in it's ability to withstand an extreme climate. Roses are funny like that.

Troyers, the squirrels didn't bother mine either for the first couple of years. And it really depends on how & where you have it hanging. Mine is on a shepherd's hook type thing. It's away from an area where the squirrels could jump to it, but I've watched them climb the pole. Last year I put vaseline on it for a while and that helped, but it's messy. Every day I have to put the plastic flowers back in. I'm probably going to have to move it and perhaps hang it on the porch, but I didn't really want to get it too close to the house as we've occasionally had some bird strikes on our french doors on the porch.

Hey Slub! Great to hear from you!! Hope your chickens are doing well. The mosaic table is just 1/2 glass rounds from the $$ store on plywood. Can't go in the rain or anything and the glass is starting to fall off a bit. It's quite a few years old. The base has a story. That was my very first piece of 50's wire furniture, from a thrift store for a dollar. I had to carry it home about 5 miles walking in downtown Toronto in about 1989 because the street car driver wouldn't let me on "with furniture" lol. It was just the frame. Oddly it was the only piece of furniture in my apartment for many years...I just had floor pillows and a futon on the floor for a bed at that point! So it's a memento from my bachelor gal days!!