Nothing exotic here, just the stalwarts reappearing on schedule. Garden phlox in the Phlox Protection Zone. There's Grenadine Dream, Wendy House, and Purple Kiss in there. These are all medium height phlox and bloom before the tall ones. The rambling rose in the background is fading. I saw a woodchuck a few weeks ago but it doesn't seem to have noticed the phlox, hopefully because of the fence and the soapwort. The woodchuck was eating birdseed on the ground which is fine with me - better to eat birdseed than phlox. The daylily Frans Hals is blooming in several locations, here next to a Bosnian pine and an American Revolution daylily (and a soapwort). An inherited No-ID daylily is blooming. and Corky is still opening. Hemerocallis 'Pardon Me' has been around for a while. And Hosta 'Blue Angel' is still blooming, getting bigger every year. I still have late daylilies in bud that won't bloom for a while yet. And late garden phlox (woodchuck-permitting). Lilies are in bud, waiting for whatever lilies wait for. Claire

Two of my flowering crabapples (all volunteers) have fruits now: Some aren't quite ripe yet: Winterberry fruits are turning red. They'll be more dramatic when the leaves drop, before the robins decide they're ripe. Pokeberry continues to ripen. You can sort of see miscanthus and panicum behind the poke. Panicum 'Cloud Nine' next to a miscanthus, in front of the winterberry: Cotoneaster fruit are turning red: And Yucca 'Color Guard' always looks good with the cotoneaster: All of the miscanthus seedheads are wet and stuck together so I haven't tried to photograph them. Sitting here on the deck engrossed with the posting, I just noticed that Viburnum 'Summer Snowflake' still has a blossom. My other doublefile viburnum is way gone by so there's nothing to pollinate the Summer Snowflake. I'd love to have more viburnum fruit now. I wonder if a second Summer Snowflake could pollinate the first one. Claire

Did not work last night or this morning. Tried numerous times. Quotes Sept. 16 2018 Charlie Byrd Quotes American - Musician September 16, 1925 - November 30, 1999 A person should design the way he makes a living around how he wishes to make a life. Charlie Byrd And a musician has to learn to be frugal and to carefully manage financial affairs. Charlie Byrd A musician has to find a way to make his music mean something special - spiritually or however you can. Charlie Byrd We would play, then they would play a set, then we would jam on the last song. Charlie Byrd That jam was so much fun that by the end of the tour, we just jammed on all of the songs. Charlie Byrd B. B. King Quotes American - Musician September 16, 1925 - May 14, 2015 The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you. B. B. King I tried to connect my singing voice to my guitar an' my guitar to my singing voice. Like the two was talking to one another. B. B. King Even now, at 82 years old, if I don't learn something every day, you know what I think? It's a day lost. Now, I don't practice every day. I just take the guitar, swear at it. But I should be swearing at myself. But I fool with music. I'm doing something musically all the time. And my ears are wide open for anything I can hear. B. B. King I was born on a plantation, and things weren't so good. We didn't have any money. I never thought of the word 'poor' 'til I got to be a man, but when you live in a house that you can always peek out of and see what kind of day it is, you're not doing so well. And your rest room is not inside the house. B. B. King I liked blues from the time my mother used to take me to church. I started to listen to gospel music, so I liked that. But I had an aunt at that time, my mother's aunt who bought records by people like Lonnie Johnson, Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and a few others. B. B. King Sometimes I just think that there are more things to be said to make the audience understand what I'm trying to do more. When I'm singing, I don't want you to just hear the melody. I want you to relive the story, because most of the songs have pretty good storytelling. B. B. King My wife Martha used to call me Ol' Lemon Face because of my facial contortions when I play Lucille. I squeeze my eyes and open my mouth, raise my eyebrows, cock my head and God knows what else. I look like I'm in torture, when in truth, I'm in ecstasy. I don't do it for show. Every fiber of my being is tingling. B. B. King

Claire, I tried using a similar system over winter to try to grow a Camelia, but it didn't help. All the leaves around the foliage all winter, managed to produce a fungal problem and it died the next year anyway. [g]. I don't think I have another marginally hardy plant. I have about 4 varieties of Hydrangea and all are supposed to be hardy here in zone 6 but some years I get few blooms from the mopheads, even those that bloom on new wood. I added the 'Little Lime' paniculata last year and I love them. Lots of blooms dependably. I think I prefer the white blooms anyway. I love the purple or the pink, but I've decided I'm not a big blue fan. [g] I'm planning to replace some of my mopheads with more of the paniculatas. If I had enough sun, I'd grow a Crape Myrtle and if I had one I'd definitely use winter protection. I'm surprised you have to cover a Euonymous, I thought they were indestructible and hardy and you are warmer than I am. I've seen something variegated for sale at Lowe's here. Babs, I also hate to buy disposable plants. About the only one I am usually a sucker for are the Hyacinths in late winter. I love the fragrance and I have added them to the garden every time I am finished with them and have gotten a lot of Hyacinths that way. I wonder if I couldn't keep the cyclamen as a houseplant? Haven't tried it before. Or add them to containers in the summer outdoors, if I can keep it alive that long. I normally don't start putting up Christmas decorations yet, but, this year, my daughter gave me the idea. She's going to be away after Christmas so she wanted to get her decorations in early because she won't have that after Christmas time enjoying them. And since we just finished painting the LR/DR, there was the blank top of the DR hutch and one thing led to another...lol. We draw the line at putting up the Christmas tree this early. [g] And it's the darn Hallmark Channel's fault. They run Christmas movies non stop from Halloween on, and I caught a couple and it just got me in the spirit I guess. I just hope I won't be sick of them by Christmas. :-)