i lost my senior great dane girl 5 weeks ago to bone cancer. it was sudden and shocking and i still look for her. my remaining dane girl and eden were joined at the hip, pip took the loss very hard and had been grieving so much, it broke my heart. i contacted pip's breeder and one of her former co-owners and asked that they keep an eye out for any adults that any breeder friends might be considering a new home for (retired show dogs, etc.). the co-owner gave me the contact information for one of her people who had a dane boy she had been looking for just the right home for and the rest is history. meet "flighty foto my way", call name "frank". frank will be 4 years old on 5/31. he is a very sweet boy and he and pippin hit it off immediately at our meet 'n' greet friday. they do zoomies numerous times a day, sleep curled up together and are just a perfect pair. pippin is so much happier and that makes me happier. even though i miss eden terribly, i am beginning to heal now that pip is feeling better. frank is a bit on the thin side because he lived the last 4 weeks with a female dane who was going through a heat cycle and when that's going on, intact males ignore food, do a lot of pacing and fretting and routinely lose weight. he's eating like a horse so i'm confident he will gain and be back to his normal weight soon. i'm giving him a few weeks to settle in and then i'll make an appointment to have him neutered.

Lilykate , both of those are just lovely! I had not heard of either one so now I have to go look them up and hope that they are at least SEV's cuz I sure would love them in my gardens . EV's dont seem to do well at all here . I do have a few but have lost more than I care to count . Conditions here are quite severe weather wise with extended droughts in the summer and fall ....drying winds ALL the time from the farmer's open fields ....summer and winter ....little to no snow cover and lots of rain in the winter that then freezes when the polar vortex hits ........it is tough being a daylily here and couple that with the extremely heavy blue clay ........and I am always astonished that anything grows around here . The next trick is to find them in Canada .........fingers crossed .

Thanks for your compliments. Honestly, that arrangement WAS effortless. I did it outside as I deadheaded. Golden Buddha and partner, clematis ‘Franziska Marie’ are looking too nice not to share today. I just love all the dark to light color progressions Golden Buddha’s blooms go through. Felicia is really blooming well. A little spotty from the rain, but still pretty. Felicia’s blooms have a special sheen to them, impossible to capture with my phone camera. Carding Mill A nice new cane coming up in the middle of Carding Mill. Lisa

Thanks for the quick response Mantis! I should probably re-think my distaste for mulch. But in the meantime, I moved some little succulents from elsewhere - they do not seem to be very aggressive, and their roots are quite shallow. Yes, I agree that anything spreading can become problematic. The next garden bed I'll be re-digging has my irises, and the "creeping lemon thyme" has gotten totally out of control. I guess that is a big benefit of mulch - it doesn't directly compete! Thanks, Jane