You did some walking. I am in Redlands Cal for 10 days..I hope to get some photos and post later if time permits. Is that Acer japonicum 'Ogurayama' the one I sent you 2 years ago. I thought you said it suffered some damage at one time...sure looks good now

It's such a pleasure to see your gardens, Rodger. They are truly wonderful. I'm far away (though not so far as Flora in the UK) yet by your skillful photography, the Internet and Garden Web, I get to have a visit with you. Thanks. Jim

Thanks everyone! I love purple (and red and orange and yellow and white/cream!) :o) Coronation Day is one I got as a bonus a couple of years ago and almost lost two winters ago in a pot - it went down to one fan. I got it into the ground last year. I really like Early Shirley - it's finally had a couple of years to settle in here in the ground, after being in a pot for a couple of years. Good branching and budcount I think, and the bud placement seems good too. The nepeta is a creeper, but it is easy enough to contain (not as easy as monarda though) - I haven't had a problem with it being too aggressive. I have several clumps of it around for the hummingbirds and it is a long bloomer too. The clump in the picture is pretty huge and started flopping last year, I need to downsize it some and possibly try to use a peony hoop or two on it next year before it gets too tall. This is the one I have, originally bought from Bluestone Perennials way back when, Nepeta sibirica 'Souvenir d'André Chaudron': http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=t170

Indeed, the hemlock wooly adelgid is a terrible evil. Those tags look nice! I've considered getting some, but they'd be more for the infrequent guests than myself. @Paul, how many references would you like that flat out state eradication efforts directed at black currants were part of federal and state efforts? I can understand that it's something that wouldn't be as prominent knowledge in the west, but so much information is available to us, I most definitely don't appreciate your claim you "can't find anything to support" that and I seem to be detecting some attitude which is so unfortunate! eradication- the complete destruction of something From a nursery: http://www.twisted-tree.net/white-pine-blister-rust-and-ribes From Missouri Department of Conservation: https://nature.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/american-black-currant UofMA: https://ag.umass.edu/landscape/fact-sheets/white-pine-blister-rust-ribes-species http://landsteward.org/page.cfm/8886 There are plenty of references that cite the fact that state and federal government were involved in the planned eradication of ALL Ribes species in the east. CANADA did not participate in the madness from what I've gathered. Also, just in case these other facts are needed for an educated opinion: Ribes are NATIVE to my area and if I wish to grow natives in the interests of the natural ecosystem because I want to, I will. White Pine are native, but NOT naturally occurring in my area but exist only as ornamental plantings (too far south). These efforts were more to protect an industry that brought this disaster than to protect the magnificent Pinus strobus itself. This isn't about being "that guy" erroneously "railing" against anything in a self-idealized notion of what I've imagined. What you've done in my mind's eye currently is equal to telling someone they're directly responsible for a RRD infection happening because they planted a Knock Out despite feral R. multiflora all around (and it's not even responsible itself!) and that's tragic to me. I'm sorry. Steven