Thrilled for you on your ALM, Ingrid! Your plant looks very healthy. I have one since 3/16 and it is putting out it's first basal cane. So far 32 inches. It is also next to my only Limonium Purezii from the seed packet I sprinkled last Spring. This plant also has a flower stalk going up. I hope it blooms before frost, and lives through the winter. My only plant last year didn't bloom, then died during winter, so at least I'm making progress.

Oh the beautiful little girl! Be still my heart. I can't help but think how I almost had yours in my greedy dirty hands. Seriously though, I am glad she's doing well for you. I honestly am. Patience really does pay off. You must be so glad you hung in there. She's a lovely rose, thornless, shade tolerant, and pink, what more could anyone want? Oh yes, she's healthy too. I shall look forward to seeing yours in a few months, Ingrid. She remains one of two roses I really would love to grow in my lifetime. Well, maybe three, Gloire de Dijon is also increasingly hard to get out of my mind. Anyway, congratulations on your beautiful Annie Laurie McDowell. She looks healthy and happy. I think she likes you! Good things come to those who wait, and she is indeed a very good thing. Lisa

You're right, Nik. It's been working hard while I saw nothing. A good lesson to learn.

Sheila, what is it about your garden? Everything is on steroids, and that has to be so satisfying for someone with a rather young garden. Of course I'm jealous but also so happy for you. I'm already looking forward to your next spring's garden pictures. That cane of your ALM is unbelievable.

Your Limonium perezii is looking pretty good too, what I would call a healthy teenager. I hope you can protect it over the winter so it survives.

Lisa, I'd forgotten that I more or less promised you that rose. I wonder if Burling could root one for you. I thought I had her rose list but can't find it now. If you don't yet have La France, I would get hers, which is the correct one. Mine is arriving next week! What is the other rose that you must have? I think at this point I will have every rose that I really long for, with the exception of Reve d'Or, for which I have no room.

Great news! And cooler weather is coming.

Thank you, Jeri. I feel like a proud mommy. Yes, I have so learned to love cloudy, overcast days which in an earlier life I thought were kind of a bummer. There's been an attitude adjustment.

You know Ingrid, we used to have long strings of cool, foggy weather -- when the rest of SoCal was sweltering. Now . . . not so much.

These days, I could feel that I was back in the San Gabriel Valley, where I grew up . . . with nights so hot, I climbed out my bedroom window, and slept on the grass . . . creeping back in just before dawn.

I want my coastal fog back!

I wish you could have it back too, Jeri. That would mean that things were normal again. I wonder whether you would now be able to grow Souvenir de la Malmaison, which you always said was an utter failure in your foggy garden.

Congratulations on your success!

Congratulations and it truly is an exquisite little rose.

You're all so kind and I appreciate your support. Every once in a while there is a success that seems especially meaningful, and this is one for me because it took so long and because this rose is not available just anywhere. I love the fact that it's thornless, and pretty and fragrant.

Beautiful rose. Beautiful and peaceful yard. Both are gorgeous!

Delighted for you, Ingrid. With all that time to get her feet established, perhaps she's going to be a big girl! Large or small, I hope she'll bring you a whole lot of pleasure for many years to come. :-)

A pretty rose, congatulations! and fall is on the way. We share your fondness for clouds, of which there have been way too few here the last half year.