LOL..................I have rocks, & more rocks, and rocks galore here...............my landlord told me to eliminate the stones/rocks that surrounded/delineated the beds. Plus.... some driftwood pieces people would kill for! Now then...........I have 35 Hutchinsia planted and I'm confident the landlord would have a heart attack with the idea. I will however hope for the best; if they grow in rocks maybe sand won't decimate them; the ants will be ecstatic with the foundation material tho. Thanks TONS for your response, & time for me Hemnancy. Enjoy the rest of the weekend. I have a glass of wine in hand, after working with a computer tech for the last 1hr. 45min. He was however a peach, patient, and not foreign in language. Good Nite, Jaemy

Many botanical gardens offer classes for both children and families. Bay and I are taking our first one together next week... "Wooden tree sculpture". We will take a long walk on the grounds of the garden and learn the names of all the different trees, then go inside to build a sculpture. There were several other classes offered this spring and more offered in the summer catalog. Although they're not free, they do support a good cause. Holly

Hi John 1931, I am a quilter too, so laying out blocks is a nice puzzle. A picture is worth a thousand words, But here's a try. Maybe some index cards or dominoes, Lego bricks, etc would be helpful to fidget with (I used index cards). Lay out a square pattern to show the corners of the first tier, with the blocks making a kind of circle, like this. N N N D B O O D B O O D B H H H (3 letters make a block, the O's are just dirt.) If you now flip that layer over D N N N D O O B D O O B K K K B it will sit on top of the first layer perfectly, and stagger all the joints. Of course you can stretch the sides by adding blocks, but with this corner pattern reversed for each layer, you should need no partial blocks and the joints would always stagger. Just avoid the symmetrical layout: N N N H O H H O H H O H N N N That gets you in trouble on the next tier. Hope this made sense!

plantloverkat, Thank you for helping. At this point, I am waiting for more blooms. I left the hip on from the first bloom to develop in case that helps. The rose looked more cupped and pink than Pierre from the HMF photos. Time will tell. Another beside Cupid might be Belle Portugaise. I'd like to figure it out before it goes in the ground. As the rose develops I'll keep posting. The foliage is quite distinctive.