The wisteria was planted there in 2001. The blooms only last about a week or so - they usually finish by June 1. It was late to flower this year, probably because of the cold so I'm not sure if it might last a bit longer this year. The young Japanese wisteria tree though is just getting ready to bloom - this is its second year to bloom (planted in 2007) so it'll take over the show. The Chinese one does a smaller secondary bloom in July triggered by pruning the new foliage growth that is emerging now.

Lisa, Well, even though it didn't overflow it sounds like you had good rain. It might be overflowing by the time the high pressure builds back in next week and the rain drops off. Leslie, I don't blame you. I wouldn't have been doing any gardening in your part of the state in the hot summer months either. We had a much better year in Love County this year than last year. In 2011, we'd had just under 12" of rain by the end of August, and ended the year with a little over 23". However, our average rainfall is almost 39" a year, so we were still far below average. In 2012, we had almost 24" by the end of August so it was a much better year. However, last year we started getting lots of rain in September, and this year our September rainfall has been skimpy. While many others in OK are seeing improvement in their drought conditions, our drought is now deepening in our county. That's not much a person can do except wait it out Mia, Plants often behave strangely coming out of drought-induced dormancy. One of our plum trees dropped all its leaves about a month ago and now is blooming. It happens almost every year that we have drought that is rated as 'Moderate Drought' or worse. Last year as soon as rain fell and we had cooler temperatures, the cool-season grasses and wildflowers (and weeds) germinated in huge numbers about 2 months earlier than usual. Jay, I'm starting to wonder if you'll ever see average rainfall amounts again. This drought reminds me that your general geographic area was known, long-ago, as "no man's land", and for good reason. How in the world could pioneers in your area raise enough food to sustain themselves on the kind of low rainfall totals y'all see there? Heather, That is not going to be fun. One ofmy memories of my grandfather is of him walking around his sandy yard removing those stickers so they wouldn't fall to the ground and give him even more of those evil plants the next year. It seemed like an endless battle. Y'all, the rain since Wed. morning has missed us, and this week we are instead seeing a big increase in fires, despite that nice rain shower we had Wed. morning. Yesterday we had a pretty bad wildfire east of town that required about 8 or 9 departments and several hours to contain it and put it out. Then our pagers went off in the middle of the night.....this is a trend I am not liking one bit. I can water the garden enough to keep everything growing now that the temperatures have finally cooled off a little, but we cannot do anything about the thousands of acres of cedar tree-infested bone-dry grassland that surround us. In case y'all have been too busy playing in the rain (grin) to notice, the Governor lifted the burn ban for another 22 counties. The current burn ban map is below. Meanwhile, some of the Texas counties across the river from us who lifted the county burn ban 1, 2 or 3 weeks ago now have put them back in place. Apparently the conditions remained drier than they thought and a resurgence in fires caused them to reinstate burn bans. Likewise, the commissioners in a few OK counties have implemented a county burn ban after the Governor's Burn Ban for their area was lifted. Apparently they looked at their conditions and felt like they wanted to keep a burn ban in place a little bit longer. Carol, Other than the peppers, was most of the garden okay after the hail storm? How's the Seminole pumpkins doing? Larry, I always wait and wait and wait for rain and when it doesn't fall, I finally break down and water the garden. Then, out of the blue, rain will fall. It drives me crazy. There's an area behind the garage where I've long wanted to break up the ground and amend it and have additional garden space. The problem is that it is such dense clay that even the big rear-tine tiller just bounces off the ground when the ground is dry, and it is hard to hit it at the right time after a heavy rainfall. It seems like it stays too wet to till until, suddenly and seemingly overnight, it is then too dry to till. I don't think I'd ever be able to grow root crops in it because, like your sweet potato area, it likely would be hard to dig in summer or fall, but I think it could be a good area for corn or, if well-amended, for winter squash. The soil in the big garden is already fairly dry even though we had good rainfall on Wednesday. The dry ground just sucks up the water like a sponge. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Current Burn Ban Map

Adding to this My own hybrid (seeds collected from maculata) - the one with big polka dots and light pink blooms. And a no name white bloomer. Plum Gorgeous and Judy Cook (Passing Storm is in here too). A green heracleifolia is with Judy Cook and you cannot see Proud Mary in the same pot. Red Coleus and Connee Boswell have great contrast. Big purple euphorbia is taking over a big parviflora. small rexes from Lowe's, Walmart, and maybe Home Depot this spring Shy Dancer and Stormy Sunset (pink-purple) I just call this White Bloomer since it has no name

Thanks guys! Ann, BLUE FOR YOU is a gorgeous rose. It really has a very BLUE-lavender tint to it. It starts out a little more on the orchid-y purpley side, but as it ages, it turns more of a smoky periwinkle color, with lots more blue in it. I love the white reverse and the white streaks it gets too. I don't remember if it has a scent or not. I just got mine put in the ground this fall, and it's already happier than it was in the pot in part shade...and it was very happy there! Helen...I have about as many own-root roses as grafted ones. I believe BFY is own root. And most of those pots you see are 16". Some of the roses have been in their pots for quite a few yrs. Once they get in the ground they often take off like weeds. Altho, I did have one that died almost immediately after getting planted in the ground. I guess it went into shock!