Bill, Here's hoping your recuperation will be accompanied by warm Spring weather that will allow you to sit in your garden. Get well soon. Since Houz doesn't support Flickr, I've decided to bypass it and just upload jpegs from my desktop. Galanthus Blewbury Tart is the only thing blooming in my garden. I don't even have any crocuses showing. They're all under the snow. Sedum Angelina, still in her winter colors, but at least snow free. The damage that is emerging as the snow melts is considerable. Small trees and shrubs have loads of torn branches. The conifers have their lower branches still covered and bent. This is a detail from Thuja 4Ever Gold, which actually has had its best color this winter. I often bring in a few potted Hostas and put them in a window in order to get them to bloom a little earlier than usual. This is Designer Genes, one of the best with a yellow and red combination. No green on this plant. We're supposed to get some snow melt over the next few days. It's almost April for goodness sake. Steve

I went to Michael Gordon’s garden about 5 years ago as one of about 6 or 7 gardens in a full weekend of garden visits. He used to keep a blog but I stopped checking it when he seemed to lose interest a few years ago. I guess he moved over to Instagram. I really love those Garden Conservancy open garden days. It has large sprawling rural gardens like mine and small jewel boxes like Michael Gordon’s or Deanne’s just chockablock full of beautiful and often unusual plants, and I learn from them all. I did notice Dr. Gordon’s Stewartias. The first one I saw after hearing about them here on GW is at Cole Gardens in Concord, NH, part of the display gardens there. And several are scattered around the UNH campus so I make time at work to periodically to pass by them, among other unusual trees there. I have tried clematis in a bunch of different shrubs and have had varied success. I’ve found that the size of the clematis needs to not overwhelm the shrub and a less densely leafed clem like Little Bas works better. The shrub needs to have stiff enough branches to support their own blooms as well as the clematis, so Quickfire hydrangea works well, but Strawberry Vanilla hydrangea wouldn’t. Suckering shrubs don’t work, but Donald Wyman lilac, which is a different species than common lilac and doesn’t sucker, works well. And when I plant, they are usually something like 4’ apart, depending on the shrub’s expected size, and planted at the same time. I give the clematis an inexpensive support, usually bamboo, for the first couple of years since the shrub typically takes longer to size up. But the majority of my clematis have metal supports and if they wander into nearby shrubs it is a coincidence like the dark purple one in the elderberry.

I sneak into the forums and see posts, but I’m not posting much right now. I’ve enjoyed so much seeing everybody’s Sept and Oct activity. Babs, so beautiful around you. I wish I spent more time outside, but everything is so busy now. I know it’s a busy time of life for me, but I’m pretty sure part of it is just cultivating the practice of taking a walk. I live in a beautiful area, and I should be taking advantage of that instead of rushing from one thing to the next. Is that Flax in your last post? He looks smaller than I remember, but so cute! DiggerDee, your daisies look better than mine this year. Not sure why my Montauk’s didn’t have as good a year. They are, for sure, a dependable perennial, though. Even in a bad year they look good. I grew Apricot Lemonade last year. It was beautiful, but I still don’t “design” well with Cosmos and the flowering on them was low. I really need more sun. I know they are supposed to do better in poor soil. Maybe I need to throw them in the trash bed next time! I have one white Rhodie that, for some reason, always puts out a few white blooms. It’s the standard huge large-leafed evergreen kind. I used to wonder why its spring flowering was low, and now I know it’s because the fall flowering uses up the buds. It’s so weird! This fall it had over 20 blooms on it. It’s a big plant, about 5’ tall and 8’ wide. Based on your roses/hydrangea re-blooming, maybe this is the “year of two summers”! My friend’s hydrangeas has new pristine blooms, too, like brdrl and PM. I even had new blooms on a daylily (below). My callicarpa is blooming, too, and I’m with you on those beautiful berries. That has got to be the MOST beautiful Dahlia I have ever seen. What a beauty! Just stunning. You have such beauty in your garden! PM, that dog is THE CUTEST! What a face! She sounds like she loved being with you and had fun. Reading about her antics made me smile! Per the new hydrangeas mentioned above, you have LOTS of new gorgeous blooms. Isn’t is weird?! This has been a year for beautiful mushrooms in the yard. They were there in all shapes and colors. The Indian Pipe/Ghost Plant was happy, too. RTHawk, I had four Japanese Anemone’s (Honorine Jobert and another kind, Swan something, I think) and none survived. One might be trying to survive with a few leaves, but I’m not sure why. For others they are so dependable. Jealous of yours! Aren’t Geraniums wonderful? Yours looks great. What fantastic sunsets! We live in a beautiful world. My Alma Potschke had great color, but floppy. I even pruned in spring. Callicarpa with Amsonia hubrichtii. The hope was for the yellow Amsonia to contrast with the berries, but I have not had a fall where the Amsonia got very yellow. I think we don't get cold enough before the first freeze happens. A new daylily blooms, one of a few! Vision LIght Pink Geranium still blooms. I really like this Geranium! Raydon's Favorite Aster with Sheffield Pink mums. There is a pink phlox, either Glamour Girl or Coral something-or-other. This one particular plants bloomed really late, and it was beside other phlox that bloomed normally. Unusual. Lastly, some sunsets:

Chisue, when my aunt moved from the suburbs to the city, she first lived in Lake Point Tower. The building was great, the outdoor space nice, but she didn’t like being isolated from the city activity. This was before Navy Pier was revitalized much. But even later, Navy Pier was never her cup of tea. Anytime she wanted to go out to do something — shop, eat — she felt like she had to drive, to cross Lake Shore Drive. So she moved to the Neiman Marcus building, sold her car, and lived very happily there for many years. Her only regret was no outdoor space, balcony, terrace, etc. My son is temporarily in a newer building north of the river, and besides his tiny 5x5 balcony, there is a wonderful wrap-around terrace above street level with grass and trees and a half dozen or so little ”living rooms” with sofas and dining tables, as well as a rooftop pool (which would freak me out). We had lunch on the terrace this weekend, several floors above the street, and it was so nice. A few people were in other ”living rooms” just working, or reading.