Jean, so far the deer don't touch the peonies. But... I was just out perusing the yard a couple hours ago, still broad daylight.... I went into the backyard to turn on one of the sprinklers... DAGNABBIT!! Those frickin' deer (two does) were chowing on my DA's!! I screamed at them and they flew over the side fence and away! Had to spend the last hour or more spraying my deer repellent. My hands and arms are killing me! I had to spray 3 gallons this time because the roses are so big this yr! Yeah Leslie, I think that color change on GYPSY LANTERN must be the temps. We'll see with the next blooms! Rainbow, I'm just glad the Japanese maples are so expensive, or I'd have tons more of them!! LOL Redsox, the tree peonies are a good 5yrs old now and they seem to have peaked out at anywhere from 3-4½ft tall. I just love them! These are all in part shade and they sure do lean towards the sunniest area! I wonder if they'd be even bigger in full sun?? Aprille, I got my tree peonies at the store where I work. I ordered the bulbs from Van Borgondien. VB has a retail website under its affiliate, Van Dycks. They have all the ones we had ordered yrs ago. I just discovered a tag on this magenta peony, and it's name is "SHIMADAIJIN." Here is a link that might be useful: Van Dycks

Hey everybody! Thanks so much for the well-wishes. Much appreciated! It's been hairy the last week here, but things did work out. My husband did get another job, thankfully. Same field unfortunately, just in the next town with his old company (Waste Management). It'll be easier we think and less stressful than where he was at. It'll be 90 days til we get the 401k and medical back, but that's better than collecting unemployment. Thanks Kate! The weather got really chilly yesterday, but now it's up there close to the 90's. Hopefully it will burn off the powdery mildew and B/S now. I heard it was supposed to get in the triple digits anytime now. Yikes! Rainbow, yes my husband did hate the job. We thought it was "THE JOB"... but he's now feeling it was the "new" company that caused the stress. And the trucks at WM are so much safer than the new company's. Thanks Jean! You really need to get BROWN VELVET! It's a good bloomer and good repeater! Florence, thank you! The DELANY SISTERS rose is a grandiflora. In my garden it peaks out about 5+ft. Gets these monstrously-fat canes and big beautiful blooms. Got mine form Hortico. Oh Carla, you need them all!! LOL I guess ANTIGUA isn't all that easy to find anymore. Not sure who carries it now. Thank you Kathy! Bgrose, you're so right. The roses (and irises) did help me thru the first few days last week. Just looking at their beauty and glory just sorta made everything kinda fade away for a bit!! That CITY OF WELLAND bloom peaked out at about 6"! Thanks Judy. Now that you mention the winds.... geez... we had some real heavy ones yesterday. My windchimes were slapping against the posts and the house most of the day. Luckily no damage to anything other than many of the taller irises falling over to the ground. I ran out of stakes! Snowheather I thought last yr was the worst yr of my life with so much crap that happened to us. I never thought THIS yr could get worse. But then, I'm not much of an optimist (get that from my dad) and I think things are only going to get worse and worse before they get truly "better." But at least my husband did get a job pretty quickly. Might be a couple weeks before he starts, but that's ok. We can handle that. Thanks again everyone for the support!!

Thanks Sunnyrose! Bustopher, I think this is going to be a longer season for a lot of us. I can't recall having this many decent blooms this late into fall ever at this house. Usually it's just a few here and there. At the old place where we lived in the mobile home park down the hill, the elevation was a lot lower and was a good 10º warmer, and I had all my roses in pots there. I would always have blooms up into January! When we moved up into the lower Sierras, my growing season became a good month or so less. So this is a real treat to be able to have all these blooms so late. I always have a handful or so that do bloom up into January here, but I think I might end up with a lot more this season!! We've already had one light frost, and it didn't affect them much at all. Iris gal, I've had INCENSE INDIGO for a few yrs now, and it's doing pretty darn well. It peaked out over 4ft and bloomed pretty good all season. The color is extremely difficult to photograph accurately. It's definitely a bit more purple than it shows here, at least on my monitor. I'm really enojoying it. I have BLACKBERRY NIP nearby, and they go together really well. Thanks Harold! I am really liking MASQUERADE. It started off being kind of a dud, but it's turning into a really nice rose. That cluster is at over 6ft. It's a really tall plant.

Thanks again guys! Judy, I nearly lost CHIC a few yrs ago. So glad I didn't tho. I love the weird color. Brittie, watch out with those irises. They are as addicting as the roses. I finally had to quit ordering more of them. They can become invasive if you don't keep on top of them! But there are some really beautiful and unusual ones out there. Bayarea girl, The spots on CATHEDRAL are indeed Black spot! Unfortunately, I get tons of B/S in the early spring. But it "burns off" when the high temps roll in.