Sorry to hear that you won't have any pears or plums this season. I hope we don't get a late freeze that kills the fruit tree blooms. It happens occasionally. My peach blooms are almost ready to pop. I did cut back some branches and forced them inside. The flowers are so pretty and the daffs and quince are blooming so it's starting to look like spring but I'm going back to FL at the end of the week anyway. lol It's still not warm enough here for me. Does anyone know of a good nursery in the West Palm area? Butterfly World has a decent selection of passiflora vines and other butterfly host plants but I'd like to find a nursery instead of paying $25 to get in just to shop. I was there 3 weeks ago but it was still too cold to ship plants home at that time. I love the gardens, butterflies and birds but don't need to see them again so soon. Once a year is enough. lol

Outdoor dreams??? Well, let's start with the 200,000 dollar + dream backyard/oasis. In ground pool, diving rock, grotto, lazy river, hot tub, etc with the beautifully landscaped yard surrounding it with raised gardens, accent lighting and the gardener/pool boy to maintain it all. More realistic (not NECESSARILY requiring a huge lottery win) would be replacing the chain link fence with a privacy fence for the backyard (8,000-10,0000) and finish having the driveway poured. Our current driveway is mostly gravel with only a small portion of it concrete. We sit on a corner lot and our property is higher than the roads. Our driveway curves from one road to the other, I.e. very long, and expensive to pour. Since our driveway is uphill from all directions, during the winter there are times we can't get up our driveway. Once we reach the concrete, we have the traction to reach the house. The issue is literally timing and gunning the engine at the entrance to the driveway at just the right moment in order to make it from the road to the concrete. I'm hoping that in the next year or two that we can at least finish the concrete to the road on the garage side entrance so we don't have to leave our vehicles in the snow drift on the road and hike to the house. Did I mention that my new stove and fridge are coming on Friday? I will post a picture when they arrive. I'm so excited to finally have new appliances (a first for me) AND they are what I wanted and picked out!!

Thank you, for looking and commenting. Sam, we very rarely have snow here and when any is forecast, the bread and milk "magically" disappear from the shelves; I suppose they make milk sandwiches. It gets very hot very early here. We have to enjoy our very brief springs because they are so short and summer is so long. Here, as a result of the temps, all glads are hardy. I have some that have been planted for fifteen years and still come up faithfully. But we can't grow a lot of beauties. Kate, the snowballs are much more white and open on the other side, but I wanted to get a bit od the azaleas in the photo too. I hope the winds are over-forecast and your bushes are unharmed. Heather, I love the look of Monshod buy am afraid to try it because of how poisonous it is. Purple is always a favorite of mine. (Of course, I have foxgloves and they are not a bit harmless) . I am still weeding as much as I can but a good part of the back is still untouched. Even worse, I have to continue weeding where I already have done the weeding; I have some unused mulch but not nearly enough to do most of the beds....I should be able to finsh the rest of the front with a bit left if I am lucky. kay

Sylvia, it's a "Found" rose, and we don't really know WHAT it is. Not a Bourbon. Closer to a Hybrid Perpetual, perhaps. There have been suggested identities, but nothing that can be confirmed. It is, as you see, changeable as to color, and in a climate like yours and mine, it blooms year 'round. You can prune it like a Hybrid Tea --- or perhaps a Grandiflora. Or you can espalier it like a Climber. Or you can just let it "do its own thing."