Thanks Susan for the name compliment...I always tell people i'm April born in August....My sister was born in April and BEFORE me so i've never understood how she didn't end up with MY name! LOL. And I kinda figured you meant the 3rd one. :- ) Artemis...thanks for the info. I went ahead and bought it and am anxious to see how it does for me. I also have Enchanted Evening and Lavender Simplicity both coming next month. Can't wait! These are all my very first lavenders so I can't wait to see them all in bloom. COME ON SPRING!!! April

I have had good luck with 4 roses that did surprisingly well for me as first year plants. One was Sterling Silver, the florist strain from Vintage Gardens; Enchanted Evening, the new J&P floribunda; The Prince; and Simply Marvelous, another floribunda. With my spray program, all of them did well. The Prince has a variable color, but it semms to take our climate okay. I was surprised by Enchanted Evening. Its color is lighter lavender than the others. I am holding my breath and withholding final judgment on it, but it sure was trying to put out the flowers. The star performer for me is Simply Marvelous. It is one of a handful of roses I would say is almost miraculous for me here because of its flower output, good growth, and doesn't get sick much with my spray program. Here is an example of what my Sterling Silver looked like, prior to my getting the bed weeded: This is a picture of Simply Marvelous earlier in the season while it was still on the small side: This is an example of Enchanted Evening later in the year just before I put the straw down on the bed for winter: I hope you find these interesting. Notice that there is no or very little blackspotting.

I have a good vet, although he doesn't call me to check on Dolly as my former bird vet did. She spent a second night in her crate without incident but promptly threw up bilious stuff this morning when she got out of the crate. sigh....so still no interest in chicken broth or anything, and I'm giving Pedialyte electrolytes to keep her hydrated....by syringe. Her mouth is dry and it is hard to get pills in her, they stick or she tongues them out if I don't watch closely. Dachshunds can be such stubborn little creatures. Faye, I did not know about your Penny. Such a hard thing to do, but only thing to do when they are in such condition. Twelve years with you, and such a part of your life....that was the same age my Moon Pie was when he had kidney and liver failure, so wonderful a little man he was. My constant companion, who turned his job over to Dolly, who happened to be born two days before he left for Rainbow Bridge. I know he told her what to do to please me. With Moon Pie, he was the man of the house, until my Bill came around. Moon let him know exactly how he felt about another male in the house. He hiked his leg and peed on the chair leg where he sat. I could not believe the audacity of such a small little boy. Then I found this statue of a white dog, leg hiked, and I have it in the garden near the Moon Walk. My garden path I call the Moon Walk, because I created it for Moon to keep his feet dry. He wanted to be with me but his feet itched in the grass and dew.

Lauriescreams - Thank you! I felt like I was just getting into my groove with my last garden when the decision was made to move. We did not take anything with us, our house closed a month before our new house was done being built and we stayed in a hotel for half of that with everything in storage. I am slowly getting a feel for what the plan will be with this one, my first inclination was to remove the sod on the back slope and plant on it but now I am leaning more towards trying to convince the husband that we need to terrace it with a retaining wall. I have had a few different companies out here to measure and give me quotes but so far none of the quotes have come in yet. So far the plan for the roses is to plant them in sort of an ombre' effect pattern, with the deepest colors(Young Lycidas, Darcy Brussel) in the middle going out to the lavenders(Plum Perfect, Angel Face, Heirloom, Love Song) and whites(Earth Angel, PJPII, Winchester Cathedral).