Thanks for looking/commenting Kevin and all. I love that 'Monterrey Frost' agave too, so nice and impervious to the recent cold. Yay. My 'Hercules' aloe definitely has tip damage too. It's been in the ground for six years and has grown a ton--I'm excited to see the blooms and to see that it's finally branching. I'm sure yours will do the same too. Now for something that looks (looked!) bad, and then good. I'm tired of the "dwarf" oleander around part of my covered patio, so this weekend I ripped them out (big job) and replaced them with fifteen rosemary plants, and added 1000 lbs of gravel mulch. I cleaned up the arbor too and planted honeysuckle, which is thriving on a trellis nearby, and I finally added some pavers underneath the arch too. I'm embarrassed about the "before" pic, but with the holidays, a month of houseguests, this awful weather and my work things just got nasty, hah! It took all weekend but now it looks better. Not great, but better. Happy gardening all, keep the updates coming! BEFORE: tired, sickly, abused "dwarf" oleanders and an orange that unlike my others never looked good. Not the open soil under the archway. Shame shame on me, hah! AFTER: not perfect, but better. I removed the sickly citrus, and the oleanders and replaced them with rosemary which does so well here, and has great scent and blooms and color. I also added pavers under the archway and planted two honeysuckles (Lonicera japonica) at each side. Last year I had all sorts of different vines on there--quite a mess. The recent cold snap took care of that so out they went, plus I cleaned up the remaining twigs (tsk tsk tsk).

Hi saponaria,..i really love that Pulmonaria,..its the first to flower in my garden each year then there is the benefit of those lovely enlarged leaves when the plants have finished blooming. As i mentioned elsewhere i live on what used to be a walled in park and church grounds,.. it was all the property of the church for a few hundred years,..the only connection i have with the church is i supply them with flowers for the altar,..there are always plenty of blooms to spare. Yes it is nice to see the old stonework of the church and part of my garden wall is the same age,..three pictures below,..the church at night from my garden and some of my flowers on the altar plus a view from outside my house.

I'm blaming it on this thread, I seeded two flats of the 'Cowichan strain' primulas the beginning of the month in a seed starting mix covered with a bit of sand. These trays are also covered with clear plastic domes to keep the birds from scratching in them and also to keep the %$#@ slugs and snails off them. Since they like cool weather to germinate they are outside sitting on my potting bench in the lath house. One tray is seed with mixed colors, the other with just blues, I'm hoping at least one of the blues will be the same as the one that was stolen from my garden years ago, these will be moved to the greenhouse once they are up and growing. I noticed today they are starting to germinate, such tiny specks of green I went in and got the magnifying glass just to make sure, these old eyes aren't as sharp as they used to be. AGAIN yet another theft, someone has been in my greenhouse and pinched my very nice min/max thermometer, one you set manually, a Christmas gift from our oldest boy. Needless to say I was pissed off, sorry but that is the politest phrase I can think of at the moment, the greenhouse is now kept locked all the time which is also a pain you know where, especially when you're standing outside the door with arms full and remember the door is locked and the key is in the house. Camp, the cardiocrinum seed still has away to go before it's ready for harvesting but it's getting there :). Annette

I have always loved primroses...and spent far too much time and energy trying to grow them in arid East Anglia, in dry sandy soil...so unlike the lush peatiness of my childhood soils. So, inevitably, most are doomed to fail...but not all. For sure the Asiatic bog primulas (p.prolifera, wilsonii, bulleyana, beesianum etc etc.) are non-starters...but auriculas are positively thriving (and have a unique charm...and fragrance as well), while our native vulgaris, vieris and elatior, once established with a little bit of TLC, have spread and colonised parts of my allotment and also, my local cemetary (where I have been sowing various seeds). P.alpicola has survived for the last couple of years while I have sown p.secundiflora this year. In short, the primrose genus is large and varied, but auriculas are perfect little treasures - good for pot culture, a delight to grow and quick to proliferate. Vine weevils find them irresistible, but nematode treatments are available.