Kathy - I'm glad someone got the reference to song. I was humming Singing In the Rain while I was photographing. LOL Glad I could bring you a smile. Earlier this week, a lady stopped her car, rolled down her window and said she just wanted to tell me how much she loved my gardens. Here's what she said: "Whenever I've had a bad day at work, and I come around this corner and see all those flowers, it just makes me smile and forget my troubles." So, daylilies are good theraphy and much cheaper than a psychiatrist! Debra

Susan, It sounds like you have a lot going on, both with the butterflies and the flowers. I know that you are loving all the butterfly activity in your yard right now. I love Mexican Flame Vine (Senecio confus) but I don't see how it can be reliably winter-hardy in the ground in zone 7 Oklahoma since it is a zone 9 plant. In the D-FW metroplex, which is mostly zone 8, some people do overwinter it in pots in their insulated garages or in greenhouses, but I don't know of anyone who overwinters it in the ground. So, if you are able to overwinter it in the ground here, let us know how you do it. If I thought I could keep it alive in the ground, I would plant several of them. I love the flowers and the butterflies love them even more than I do. My Western Ironweed and Joe Pye weed have just begun blooming the last couple of days, and the native cassia is blooming, although I can't take any credit for it since it is native and grows without any assistance from us. :) The morning glories and hyacinth bean vines are blooming more and more every day now that they are receiving lots of sunlight consistently. Sandy, I bet the butterflies are all over your tithonia. I love tithonia, but hate waiting half the summer for it to start blooming! Gayle, So, this year the surprise lilies really DID surprise you by blooming early! We haven't had that really hot spell either. I just let the cats go out onto the front porch at about 5 a.m., and the thermometer on the porch shows 66 degrees! How's that for a lovely early morning temperature in late July? I'm starting to wonder if we will see any 100-degree days here this year. We haven't had one yet this year, although we have had a heat index over 100 on several days. We're expecting it to be dry, clear, sunny and warm the next couple of days, but not hot....and then the rain may return. Dawn

A Navajo Star Myth Coyote According tho the Navajo mythology, the Milky Way was created by the misbehavior of the mischievous deity, Coyote. When the world was created, the Holy People gathered around Black God to place the stars in the sky according to a rational order related to the seasons. But Coyote grew annoyed by the slowness of the creation process. He first chose with anger a red star, called Ma'iio, that he placed in the south to symbolize himself. Ma'iio is a name often given to Coyote, which means 'the one who roams'. This star, of which we do not know the precise identification, appears for only a short period of time during the year, and it is said to announce trouble. Thereafter, Coyote took the bag full of stars not yet placed and threw it over his head forming the Milky Way. Since the stars of the Milky Way could not be properly placed, they could not be named. Coyote was a trickster, and would often use this to get what he wanted. In one story, Coyote turned a hero into a coyote, and in turn became the man. He went to the hero's home and slept with his wife. Coyote smelled very bad. When the wife visited her mother, she smelled the Coyote on the wife. They then knew that Coyote had tricked them. In yet another story, Coyote falls in love with a beautiful woman. In order to marry her, he had to kill the giant, Gray Big Ye'i. Afterwards, the woman attempts to kill Coyote four times, but each time he hides his vital organs so he could come back to life. The woman eventually marries him. Later we find that coyote is killed while hunting with the wife's brothers. Coyote's wife turns into a bear and kills all but one of the brothers. The last brother kills her, and brings his brothers back to life. This story explains why bears are often considered the female counterparts of coyotes. Kathy

Well, my tulips have just opened, finally!!! I live in a small town in central montana. Not even a stop light in town. I like it! I work for a steel manufacturer that makes steel cooking griddles. so I run the equipment, do sales, and the packaging. My husband and I just got married 4 years ago. I moved to the larger city where he lived, till my dad was diagnosed with cancer then we did the mad dash to fix and sell the house and move back to my old town. We got to spend a month with dad before he pased. We've been here 9 months now and have moved twice. When my rental came empty it was an absolute disaster! So.....from Nov on we did nothing but work on the house. Since we were doing so much work we decided to fix it nice and move into it-- about 1/2 acre of yard nice views but an ugly yard with nothing in it. I am in zone 4 and in on the plains so the biggest problem I have is the constant wind here in the winter, it seems to kill everything! OH, and the alkaline soil sucks too! I like Iris, peonies and daylilies they do well here as well as most clematis. Poppies are my favorite. At this time I think I have at least 20 varieties. I have been trading like crazy and I recognize a few people I have already traded with. Hello to poisondartfrog,seashellpcola, and amyinms!!! AMYINMS, ARE THOSE MY TOMATO PLANTS THAT HAVE TOMATOES ON THEM ALREADY??!! (GIGGLE)