Saucy - I love rodgersia! All mine are Rodgersia aesculifolia. All the information on them say they need moist conditions but I don't find that to be true. Certainly the leaves are bigger in damper conditions but I have ones in dry shade under the white pines and they do fine. So do the ones in the front porch bed in the rain shadow of the roof - they only get watered when I remember to, which is not as often as I should! The ones in the picture with the Remona clematis are under the oak canopy so once the oak has leafed out, it gets quite dry there. They are very tough plants! Here are the ones in the porch bed - you can see that they are a bit smaller in leaf size but still vigorous. Deanne - yes, we've done a lot to the garden since you were here - time to head north again and check it out...? The big hosta in the Ramona pictuse is Bressingham Blue. I have several of those. I was disappointed in them at first. It took a couple of years for them to get big, but they are now BIG! I meant to divide a few of the hostas in the patio bed this spring but they took a long time to appear this year - and then they grew so fast I didn't have time to get to them until they were too big to divide! What happens if you never divide a hosta?! Does it eventually die out or split off into multiple crowns on its own? I think Vyv is set to make a comeback but the flower show will definitely be less this year. I hope you have good luck with her this year in your garden. Ei - isn't it nice to have plants with a 'history' in the garden?! I'm worried about what will happen to my Ramona - the neighbours on the other side of the fence she's on are elderly. I expect within the next 5 years or so that house will be sold. The most likely thing that will happen then is that it'll be torn down and replaced with a big, fancy house. The new owners would no doubt want to replace the somewhat tatty chainlink fence with a solid monster one and there will go my garden conditions on that side. I'm hoping I might be able to persuade a new owner to go for something like a Jerith 400 series aluminum fence that has the look of a classic wrought iron fence and would be suitable for an upscale home. The closer spacing of the pickets would give some privacy while still allowing for light and support for growing plants. Here is a link that might be useful: Jerith fences

So glad the hummer was ok, sometimes they just need to rest. Last year I had noticed hummers feeding at flowers and were so big and heavy [migration] they had to rest on the flowers. Truthfully I dont know how some of these hummers fly when they get this fat.

Sue, I am so glad you are OK! I was at the doc yesterday and happened to be reading about signs of a heart attack. I never knew until yesterday that a jaw tightening up was a sign. So glad you went to the ER, too. Don't be afraid of 911! My dad died when I was 13 due to heart problems. In retrospect, I CANNOT believe nothing was really done for him. I remember walking home from the train w/him, and he would have to stop because of the pain in his chest. He was thin and had textbook perfect blood pressure. I remember him having some medicine (patches?) for angina, but that is about it. My dad may have survived IF someone would have called 911. He thought he had indigestion, and his co-workers called my house. My sis (15 then) answered and told them they should call 911. They drove him to the ER instead, and he died at the hospital. We never got to see him again. They apologized at the wake. Too little, too late. So relieved everyone else who has posted is OK, too. No one really talks about heart disease for women, and isn't it the most common cause of death among women? Trail, I had no idea you were a cardio RN. I will remember you rules!

I guess for aroma, it would have to be achiote. Whenever I cook with it, I feel like I am back in the Yucatan, which is one of my favorite places. I also had the experience there of walking down roads in the evening where there were groves of orange trees that I could not see, but the sweet fragrance was overwhelming and wonderful. I noticed also that there were Four O'Clocks blooming in the ditches, and I mistakenly thought that the fragrance was coming from them, and so I would gather seeds from them. They only bloomed in the evening, and the orange blossoms only had the overwhelming fragrance in the evening, and so it was easy for me to get confused. Anyway, I planted the seeds when I got back to San Francisco and was a bit disappointed that the flowers I got had no fragrance, but at least they grew and bloomed. The next time I went back to Yucatan, I paid more attention and was able to identify the orange groves as the source of the fragrance. Now I have my own citrus trees, and I love the fragrance (sorry it's not an aroma, but close!). Lars