Calliope & Marda, I LOVE your photos! Thank you for sharing! I'm mesmerized! We are very very soggy. I can't complain though. 45 minutes North of us, Lake Delton has vanished. It jumped it's banks, drained into the Wisconsin River, and ripped out houses and roads that stood in its way. This is the lake at the heart of the Wisconsin Dells, and now it's gone. For those of you who don't know, this is a major regional tourist attraction (trap?) and this lake was at the heart of it... Here's some video. This is a view out my back window earlier this week. You're looking at the very corner of my yard in the lower left corner, and seeing my mulch being swept into my neighbor's yard by a very deep stream that isn't ordinarily there. The swingset & everything past it belongs to my neighbor. See that big lake several houses down (above the deck)? That house has a storm sewer drain in the middle of their backyard, and when there's exceptional flooding, their backyard becomes a temporary lake. At least our basements stay dry. Only bummer is, the house that had the new lake was also having a real estate open house during the worst of it. In that photo, you'll also notice the damage wrought by my husband. I'd asked him not to spray poison on the lawn, but he thought I might not notice if he sprayed the clover with some weedkiller... too bad he accidentally grabbed the Round Up instead! Naturally, I've been very adult about the whole thing... Who am I kidding? I've teased him unabashedly about it. Our lilacs and bearded iris are finished for the year. My spring-blooming bleeding hearts are holding on to their last flowers, but I expect them to be knocked off in the next couple hours (severe t-storms, tornado warnings, all that jazz). My perennials are all up, but so far only the Jupiter's Beard, daisies, coral bells, knautia, dianthus, astilbe, ever-blooming bleeding hearts, tradescantia, false indigo, lamnium (less a perennial than a #@%* weed, if you ask me!), hardy geraniums, clematis, and a few others whose names I don't know, are actually blooming. Oh, and a buttload (actual unit of measurement) of annuals, but they don't tell the story of the season. Here's Jaz smiling from between a couple hydrangea. Oh, and my peonies out back are still going strong, but they're about to be pelted to death, so I cut them. Apparently, they reached out and grabbed Kotex's head and ate it. I know my kitty wouldn't be naughty enough to jump on the table, so I'm pretty sure that's how it went down. Good thing I was there to rescue her! I got the ultimate compliment today! I went across the street to introduce myself to the new neighbors and deliver a homemade frozen meal to help ease them in to the neighborhood and the Mrs. told me she was hoping to get the number of whoever did my plantings and garden design. While I can't take credit on the hard scape or the trees, 90% of the plant materials and everything to which she was referring was stuff I'd done. I like her already. ;o) Anyone want some mushrooms? I doubt they're edible, but I seem to have quite the bumper crop...

Oh.. i didn't know they would get big. My mom has a tub a bit bigger than mine and she actually had a few survive last winter.. i do not know how. We have 4 tanks in the house for fish.. one is our recovery tank, although we rarely use it. I was going to put them in that for the winter. The lady at the fish store told me they stayed litte! Thanks for telling me otherwise. How would 2 shabunkins do in there? Or maybe just 3 little comets.. and i'll give the rest to someone else. Also.. how do i winterize the plants? We should be all done tomorrow with everything (hubby has the rest of the week off from work). I'm so excited! Oh, the "crooked house".. my daughters birthday is May 28, so that was me, my hubby and my father's weekend project. We did it in 2 days from scratch. He is a master carpenter (log homes and such.. beautiful work, and lots of spare materials) so we had him a little cockeyed having to build something crooked from plywood lol!

Euro-Desert Roses. Yes, he had some in his last round of propagation. I didn't get that, because I have it, but the roses Cliff sent out were among the best we've ever received. It's a wonderful rose for us here, beautiful color and disease-free for us. It's one of only two modern HTs remaining here, and it is here to stay. Jeri Here is a link that might be useful: Euro-Desert Roses -- Cliff Orent

Straw: I would rate the climate of Amman close to 9a or 8b of USDA standards with few big differences. It has cool and wet winters with lot of rains and some snow and warm (but not very hot) summers with no rains. I think this aspect also plays an important role in the size of roses here. The roses grow huge in the Northern Areas of Pakistan as well and it also has cool summers with almost no rains along with very cold and wet winters. Additionally, the ground bed naturally has little soil in Amman area as it is mostly composed of limestone rock. Most soil put in the gardens for growing roses / other plants is brought from other places and looks like a fertile well drained soil to me. best regards to