hey sara.. he marches to his own drummer ... unfortunately no one else hears the drummer.. and wonders what the heck he is doing in his yard .. lol ... with all that stomping around ... post where you want dude.. i dont care ... ken https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0dWo31hwpI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLJ8ILIE780

R. californica 'First Dawn' first flower of the year. Purchased at a Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden plant sale, grown by Suncrest Nurseries and their own selection of the species. This is an extremely fragrant rose--a super wafter actually. It blooms in great trusses and when the plant is covered in flowers the whole garden is perfumed. Bees are mighty happy! Nearly every flower results in a hip. This is the most floriferous and rapid reblooming of any selection of R. californica I have ever encountered. Gets tall, around 12 to 15 feet with support, it does want to climb. Has some thorns but not to the extent of many of its brethren. Moderately suckers (which I count as a positive as I like this rose so much). Has the second tastiest rose hips in my garden (to R. canina 'Laxa'). These are small and chewy. Birds like them. Reine des Violettes showing her true color growing amongst many neighbors in my wild pot ghetto (she's in the ground though). Last month when she started to bloom her flowers were more pinkish, but as the weather warmed and the sun hit her flowers, voila violettes! Reine des Violettes, own root from Greenmantle Nursery. Planted in the root zone of an 80+ foot ash tree in very sandy loam soil that is somewhat depleted in nutrients. Fed this year with E. B. Stone organic fertilizer (5-5-5). Watered with very alkaline city water. Zero soil amendments. RDV with Cantabrigensis. Cantabrigensis. Flowers open pale yellow and rapidly turn white in the sun. I hadn't checked the foliage before for scent, but since there are multiple other roses, as it as turned out, that I put in this area that happen to have fragrant foliage, I was curious. Yep, fragrant, and very much like the scent of R. primula, just not quite as strong. Own root from Colvos Creek. R. canina 'Laxa' still just teasing me with a few flowers. It is gearing up for a huge bloom period where the entire plant will be covered. It has a long period of bloom compared to many once-bloomers. Best tasting rose hips in my garden. Supposed to be very high in vitamin c. Own root from Greenmantle. Stanwell Perpetual. Own root from Heirloom. R. borissovae, from Eurodesert. Appeared to be grafted but is now suckering, escaping the bonds of graftdom. Autumn Damask, own root from Greenmantle. Sorry the bloom is a little past its prime. I put this plant in a spot near its relations--R. fedschenkoana and Quatre Saisons Blanc Mousseux.

I couldn't add my list to the original post, it was too long, so here goes again. ;) Autumn Frost Blue Vision Minnesota Wild Goodness Gracious Great Escape Gone with the Wind Golden Meadow Sutter's Mill Magic Island Midas Touch Fat Cat Fragrant Dream Hadspen Blue Invincible Irish Luck Krossa Regal Lakeside Coal Miner Liberty Reptilian Sweet Sunshine Wolverine

Thanks, bostedo. After ragna's comment, I started to wonder where this photo limit is stated. And realizing file size might be an issue, I usually grab screenshots of my larger images. I just don't want to annoy everyone with a notification every time I post a separate pic. I'll try again: will limit to four pics and see if that works. Yup, Omar warned me about the P. caerulea. :) Here pictured with a little ol' bat face cuphea I purchased as a 4" plant last year -- I've since taken cuttings and have 8-10 more in the front yard, HOA be darned. I ended up removing the esperanza, which reliably ended up with very bad rust issues over the past few years. I've planted a wafer ash (started from seeds) in its place, and it's doing very well so far. I didn't get too much traffic on the blue porterweed, but the hummingbirds and butterflies went to town on my red porterweed: And my A. elegans (host to pipevine swallowtails) really took off starting last autumn, after spending most of the year as a spindly, 2' long, sparsely-leafed vine.