Hi Everyonewow , am I behind or what ? I was going to cook enchiladas tonight, but its too hot out to consider turning on the oven so its shrimp cocktail (I love, love, love shrimp) and fresh farmers market veggies for me tonight. So, since Im not cooking an opportunity to try to catch up here-such a lot going on with the Idylls ! Ive loved reading of everyones plants purchases this weekend- Ive bought a ridiculous amount of plants in the last month. Glad to see Im not alone Sue, interesting that you cant find a Salvia leucantha; that plant is ubiquitous here . Arent salvias great ? I only have about 6 or 7 different varieties, some of my favorites get so huge, I just dont have room. This week I bought 4 Salvia sinolensis , which is a small (1 ft ) very tender salvia with bronze foliage and bright blue flowers. Im also trying to decide what to do about my S. Argentinean Skies , which is proving to be somewhat invasive. I guess I could dig it up and put it in a pot, which is what I had to do with the damn Cape Fuchsia.. Cant wait to see the pics of your Caribbean shed Deanne, no partying till the wee hours for me either ! That happened when I became a serious gardener- I like to get up early. My climbing Hydrangea has fallen on hard times..not quite the same issue as D had ; mine is water related, because of where it lives its very dependent on my hose-dragging , and I forget about it. This week it got up to 100 degrees plus , and the poor thing got scorched. Its hardly grown 6 inches since I got it last year. Chelone, you are one industrious lady- what a lot you have going on at the compound .I enjoyed your garage pics ! It was interesting to see the foundation and how different it looks from one here- our building codes are very earthquake oriented and there is lots of rebar involved in foundation work. Re: lawn mowing ..I have a miniscule bit of lawn left-I retired the trusty Snapper power mower and bought a Great States reel mower. I love the sound it makes ! It takes me less time to mow than it did to gas up and empty the bag on my Snapper. There is a movement away from lawns out here since we get no rain in summer and they guzzle lots of water. Cynthia, good job-you prevailed over the window box brackets ! I hear you on the 50 is closer to retirement thing ! Im thinking 60 , and then a totally mindless retirement job to pay for the health care premiums. Hope all your canine kids are doing well Nice of you to stop by Phyl.. Saucy, Brenda, Michelle, bug, eden, Wendy, Mary,Martie etc ..hi to all..and T, V, Honey, Babs??? Time to whip up that shrimp cocktail Kathy in Napa

I don't remember the name of my JM, however, it does have a pet name and it is "My Easter Dress"! Let me bore you with the story behind that name. :) Several years ago, my DH was somewhere in Florida on a job, and me and our daughter were here at home in early spring just prior to Easter. He sent Alyssa some cute things for Easter, and sent me some "special money" to buy myself a new Easter dress. Well, as you've probably already guessed, I bought the JM instead. LOL I'm not a big spender when it comes to buying clothes, but I do love my plants, and anyway, if I'd have gotten that dress, it would have been long forgotten by now and I can admire and love my JM everyday, still. :) Here's a close up photo of the summer color of my JM's leaves, and it will turn a beautiful red soon. Laurel, here's a photo of my JM seedlings, they do have the broader leaves and a pretty green summer color. I don't know yet, what their spring and fall colors are. And here are some more photos of pretty fall colors in my garden now. A Burning Bush: Some trees" This was taken from my porch: Jan

Hey, I just saw that this nursery does carry 'Gold Coin', I'm just not sure I saw it. I'll admit to not perusing the pine section much since I presumed (inappropriately) that they'd all be too big. Perhaps I need to re-evaluate this one. Ken, did you recommend this one because it better fits the size requirement? I saw a Silberloche tonight on a garden tour... it looked pretty ratty. This garden is probably similar to mine in that it probably gets some decent wind thru it in winter. Not sure how much sun that little tree got, but about 2/3 of its branches had needles that looked very very dry and maybe, in total, had 3 branches with needles the way they're supposed to look. Wonder what gives on that one? I've seen it in another garden and it was fantastic top-to-bottom, but this garden was more city and was very very protected, to the point of jap maps being able to overwinter just fine. The not-so-great looking Silberloche is at a property adjacent to the MN Arboretum, so it sounds like I might need to take a trip there. Ginkogonut... This nursery does cary some Pinus parviflora selections, including Goldilocks. They also carry Pinus cordata 'Taylor's Sunburst', though it's much more pricy than other selections I was considering and the size is listed as 15-20' wide.... might be an issue. Who knew this would be such a tough decision. The nursery where I shopped is a very large local nursery. Because they're a supplier to so many tradesfolk, I'd be surprised if the continued to carry an evergreen that wasn't at least a decent performer here. Nonetheless, I'll inquire about the koreanas.

Well, darn. I like the lacy-leafed varieties. I guess I won't waste my money. Or rather, if I do plant one, I'll have it in a large container and wheel it indoors over the winter. Or plant it somewhere very protected and realize that I may not have it for a long time. Another really interesting maple I saw at the Denver Botanic Garden is the paperbark maple (Acer griseum). I'm definitely going to include that for my gardening project whether or not I try any Japanese maples. The leaf shapes aren't as attractive to me as the Japanese maples. But the bark is very cool and they do seem to have colorful leaves in the fall. Also, they are more cold hardy than Japanese maples. It looks like they too might need some protection from wind and some attention to their moisture requirements. Since we had an extended period of temps below -15F this winter with under -20F overnight, I definitely consider us to be a solid zone 5.