Last summer that bed consisted of one Osteospermum 'Symphony' Yellow, one Heuchera 'Bressingham', one cherry plum shrub and one mock orange shrub. The rest has all been done this year. Now I have to concentrate on placement a bit more. I have quite few things that are too tall for the front and need to be moved back. I based most of it on heights that I found in catalogues and books, but Oenothera Evening Primrose is said to be 9" - 12" in the catalogue. Why is mine 18" - 24" high and still growing? LOL But it is coming and I do feel like I accomplished a bit this year, so far. My sweet peas are two varieties. The first I planted was 'Fragrantissima' and it is the one that is flowering. But, I wasn't happy with how many germinated (about 10 out of 25 or so) so I put in some 'Spencer' and they now need to catch up. But they should be pretty when everything catches up. BTW, I'm not finding 'Fragrantissima' to be all that fragrant, compared to 'Spencer' or the 'Royal' series. The blooms of 'Fragrantissima' seem bigger, though, and there are some unusual color patterns developing. A bit of an experiment so we shall see what develops out of it. Just looking at my picture and I noticed a few "droopy" leaves. I'll have to go investigate what is going on there. I didn't notice them when I took the picture. Always something - LOL Shauna

Trefoil - Anything that can bloom into September sounds good. My lates started back at the end of June, so I'm happy with anything that makes it to August. Rita - Endless blooms are what we all want. Remembering Rose was hyrbridized there on Long Island by Betty Harwood. Kay - Zuzu was the one who got the terrible neck injury. He is just now growing fur back on one side of his neck. Maybe whatever happened to him was very traumatic, and that is why he's so scared of everything. Midnight is equally frightened. He's very babyish and doesn't want to stop nursing. The big straw hat I wear in the mornings seems to scare them. They are less timid in the evening when I don't wear a cap or hat. Debra

Friends of the Garden 2nd Annual Butterfly Festival Saturday, July 24, 10 am - 4 pm Sunday July 25, 11 am - 4 pm Close Memorial Gardens at Nathanael Greene Park In the Butterfly House The expanded Bill Roston Butterfly House lets you get an up-close look at native butterflies as they lay eggs and transform from egg to caterpillar, from caterpillar to chrysalis, and finally from chrysalis to butterfly! Our guides will help answer your butterfly questions. In the Butterfly Garden Explore a garden of host plants for caterpillars and butterflies. This garden showcases plants to attract an amazing variety of butterflies to the home landscape. Chase a butterfly or two and pick up some ideas to try at home! In the Park Take a tour of the botanical gardens! Get friendly with live animals at the Caterpillar Petting Zoo! Make your own Butterfly & Caterpillar Crafts! Learn about Butterflies and Butterfly Gardening! Shop for Butterfly Host Plants, Art, and Garden Accents! Free Tram Service Tram stops pick up from the main parking lot at the Rose Garden and the Dr. Bill Roston Butterfly House. The tram makes a loop around the northern edge of Lake Drummond, then east toward the Dr. Bill Roston Butterfly House. It continues along the northern edge of Close Park near the site of the new 4.3 million dollar Botanical Center, which will open in October 2010, and back toward the parking lot. Saturday, July 24 Festival Activities and Butterfly House Open 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Class Offerings 10:00 Butterfly Photography Pick up expert tips and tricks for your own butterfly photos. 11:00 Butterfly Identification Get to know your backyard visitors. 1:00 Gardening for Butterflies Learn to attract butterflies to your home landscape. 2:00 Butterfly Photography Pick up expert tips and tricks for your own butterfly photos. Sunday, July 25 Festival Activities and Butterfly House Open 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Class Offerings 1:00 Butterfly Identification Get to know your backyard visitors. 1:00 Butterfly Photography Pick up expert tips and tricks for your own butterfly photos. 2:30 Gardening for Butterflies Learn to attract butterflies to your home landscape. For more information visit: www.friendsofthegarden.org Location (see map below) Nathanael Greene Park & Close Memorial Gardens 2400 S. Scenic Ave Admission Butterfly Festival admission and all activities are free of charge. Directions Nathanael Greene and Close Memorial Parks are located at 2400 S. Scenic Avenue in Springfield, Missouri. Parking Parking is accessible from Scenic Avenue and is located on the west and north sides of the park. Follow signs and guides for festival parking. Tram service to the Butterfly House is available. Also in the Park The Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden is open FREE during the Butterfly Festival from 9:00 am-7:30 pm Participating Vendors: Design Specialties, LLC Earthworks Design and Creations  Gladewinds  Global Fayre Hand Painted Garden Accents by Debbie Cushing  Inspirations by Claudia  Naturally Photography  O'Quinn's Water Gardens  Peggy's Flowers  Springfield Hot Glass Studio  Wickman's Garden Village  The Botany Shop Special Thanks to: Missouri Department of Conservation  Springfield Public Works  Discovery Center of Springfield  Southwest Missouri Camera Club  Cherry Court Garden Club  Master Gardeners of Greene County  The Botanical Society of Southwest Missouri  Springfield Greene County Parks and Recreation  Gray-Campbell Farmstead  Theta Steinert and Steinert's Inc. Greenhouse and Gardens  Our Dedicated Volunteers Friends of the Garden is dedicated to establishing and facilitating the Botanical Center & Gardens at Close Memorial/Nathanael Greene Park to inspire the discovery, understanding, and appreciation of nature. Become a Friend of the Garden at friendsofthegarden.org

beng - yeah, I TOTALLY do not consider the Larix 100% reliable trees. In fact one I planted in a spot that gets the water from a gutter drain thinking, "surely this will be a goner, but this thing was cheap and I'm just experimenting". Well, it is now > 25' tall and I think if it can survive this hellish summer it can survive anything. That area cycled back and forth from bone dry to swamped with water. I can't remember where I got them that was a cheap source...oh wait I do...I think maybe the Dunkelds came from Musser Forest and the supposed pure kaempferis from the VA state tree nursery. Well, there must have been 5 of the latter and 8 of the former...and here I am left with 2. All the Dunkelds died w/in 3 years...they were absolutely crazy, a couple grew from 1' to 6' in a season! But then they could died of root rot practically overnight. So maybe I really have selected ones with better rot resistance. Hopefully. But I'm planning for the worse. The other, scarecrow one, for example, is shading some prized rhododendrons like 'Sky King', but I'm going to plant a 'back up' of a Taxodium ascendens nearby. NO worry about that dying of root rot! Besides deciduous conifers just make great garden trees, period, I've decided. Because the needles are such a non-event when they fall and they are clearly so storm resistant. BTW this scene of your garden is idyllic. The longleaf pine is far from home in the mountains of MD, but looks happy enough! Gardengal...not a huge fan of pink, myself, since it is kind of the 'lowest state of entropy' in flowering plants...BUT...there just aren't many plants that bloom the way Nerine/Amarines do, right up to the first freezes. It really gives a nice effect when the only other thing seen in 'regular gardens' are mums. Here at least, any Lycoris or Rhodophiala I've tried is much earlier. In the PNW, I would definitely try to get my hands on an 'Afterglow', which is a clear red N. bowdenii X sarniensis hybrid. Alas I 1) don't believe it would be hardy here, and 2) the one time I tried to order this from Cistus, it was the wrong color! It was a smoky pink, making me think it was another cross from that grex along the lines of 'Oberon'. Sean admitted to me there could have been a mix-up of some kind. In any case it tried to grow too much in the winter and died in the PVs. Which my plain bowdeniis survived only to be taken out by the slightly less cold but lacking snow cover PV3. (as I mentioned there was also the extenuating circumstances of have disturbed a plant known not to like disturbance LOL) I have a pure sarniensis that should be red, but it's proving incredibly hard to get it to bloom in a pot around here, which is not entirely unexpected. Summers probably too wet or something. I'm going to repot it in grit this year (possibly today) to try to 'reset' it. I bought it of course to try my hand at recreating the hybrids of Peter Smithers and Terry Jones, it would never be hardy here and is a challenge even in the PNW. Apparently a small # of such offspring inherit the ability to grow in summer from bowdenii, and thus have a chance of hardiness in ideal circumstances. Because they were bred for the cut flower market, I will say that these hybrid Amarines are lasting longer in the garden than Amaryllis belladonna or Nerine bowdenii. The petals just sit there for days and days, seemingly waiting for something LOL. (and btw, they do grow in summer here; my hardiest Amaryllis of all is 'willing' to stay green until well INTO summer, which is probably a reason it is still alive after almost 10 years. That might be the trait I actually selected for. Where winters are a little too cold for these South Africans, they need to store carbohydrates in the summer instead. That was the tragedy of the Brunsvigia grandiflora I tried to grow. When I dug it up after 5 years in a pot and almost 10 in the garden...I was expecting a huge bulb. Nope. It was barely the size of a large gum ball! I realized it could simply never get to flowering size around here and tossed it! No point being sentimental. Now I am trying 10 seedlings to screen for strong summer growing...but it's not looking good. They might have all been collected in a very mild area. I often think, around the world, a lot of people doing seed collection DO NOT want to climb into the coldest mountain areas LOL) Oh well gotta get going...already moved the most tender stuff into my garage, today's the day to do about 1/3 more of it...I'll let hardier stuff ride out one more mild spell we are supposed to have and then do the rest of the around Thanksgiving. On top of my ca. 250 potted plants, had to place an emergency "last call" order from Joy Creek, of course!