Finally got everything coiled up and measured -- nearly 500' of hoses, including 2 lengths that are over 100' long. As I was coiling them I found some spots that were weak, so I simply cut those out. It still makes a pretty impressive pile, altho' I've got friends coming over for 5 40' lengths this weekend. Still -- it's a whole lotta hose, and just in time; I'm digging up the sod and starting to put in the garden at work. So I'll have hoses in place as soon as I put in the baby plants!

mollie - some of my clematises were damaged by this past winter too. I've actually lost a Sweet Autumn completely - I thought those things were impossible to kill! My C. montana was killed to the ground but is coming back from the roots. Since that one is only marginally hardy here, I do expect that one to suffer after bad winters. The rest seem to have done OK. thyme - the heptacodium is certainly a favorite of ours too because of it being such a butterfly magnet in September. It's an odd-looking tree here though since it grows against the big old cedar. If you look at the picture from the road, you can see that the tree looks like half a tree! The north side is missing - it can't grow on that side because of the cedar. But, if you look at it through the iron arbour, it fills the back, right side of the bed and looks like a normal tree! That is our main view of it so the odd half-a-tree side view doesn't bother us much. PLUS when the monarch butterflies arrive on migration in the fall, they like to roost in the cedar at night and come out in the morning to feed on the heptacodium flowers. So it works for them too.... I bought the tree as a relatively small shrub 10 or more years ago and pruned off all but one stem. Other than pruning off any winterkilled tips, and any branches hanging too low over the side path, we don't prune it now. This spring I bought a 'Blue Moon' native wisteria for a friend who wanted a wisteria. It had a flowerbud when I bought it. I held onto the plant until the flower bloomed so I could check the scent. Some of the natives have a reputation of being 'stinky', but I can confirm that 'Blue Moon' is pleasant.... If I had room for another wisteria I'd be tempted to try that one to see how it compares in growth - but we really don't need another one! I suspect my 'Paprika' rose now includes some seedlings that are likely crosses with the pink Angel roses at the other end of the bed! The color of the Paprika flowers is highly variable so I suspect there's mixing going on. I also have a 'Peachy Cream' Oso Easy rose between the pink Angels and the Paprika. The Peachy Cream is a much weaker plant though and barely made it through this past winter. The ninebark does make a great foil for brighter plants. There are red and rusty orange daylilies near it too that also look great with it. kato, mxk3, a2zmom - rodgersias do have lovely flowers but the ones in the porch bed show them off the best - because the flowers arch over the driveway, they don't get lost against other plants as they do elsewhere in the garden. That bed faces east so gets full sun from sunrise to about noon and then is in full shade from the house for the rest of the day. I didn't have a lot of hope that they'd do well there - the soil is unamended clay with generous amounts of builders rubble and foundation drainage gravel mixed in; it is also under the roof overhang so it can get pretty dry under there when we forget to water.... There's only about 12" of space between the base of the porch and the edge of the driveway. Not exactly ideal growing conditions for any plant let alone a rodgersia :-) I've always felt that rodgersias are more adaptable than their 'idea' growing conditions would lead one to believe. These ones are the proof of it! I'm not usually good at leaving holes in the beds for adding plants later - something usually finds its way into them... - but I do want some of those Mammoth mums and it looks like I need to be patient. I think I know who the wholesale supplier of the mums is for garden center that ordered them for me, so I may call them directly to see if I can talk them in to selling me some early if I go pick them up. north53 - looking at your zone... what interesting very cold-hardy stuff do you grow? It looks like U of Sask. is producing some very interesting hardy stuff - where do you look for hardy material? Rouge - Persicaria polymorpha is certainly an interesting plant, one I use in both the front and back gardens. The flowering decreases as the shade increases but I still like them and find them useful. Here is the one in not-too-dense shade in the patio area this morning: The Fringetree on the left of it is just starting to bloom and the Cornus kousa 'Milky Way' on the right will be blooming soon. And this P. polymorpha is in fairly dense shade under the edge of the pine canopy so will only produce a few flowers but I like its shrubby green bulk there:

Cameron- you can credit me as Tammy Kennedy. I should start watermarking all the photos i post online since i hope to sell some someday. It's just a hassle and i haven't gotten into the habit or that paranoid yet. I don't mind if you mention i'm tamelask on GW- it's no big secret. I'll email you a pdf of the plot board and you can get all the info you want off it. I had 130 varieties/species of plants or so in there, so you'll probably want to pare it down to the big stuff. I was tickled when we went out today to discover no mud from the 1.25" of rain we had fri eve! I adore silkies. Growing up, we had a flock of show banties and a few big ones for selling eggs- we ate the banty eggs ourselves, as well as the duck eggs. We had a few black and white silkies, among other types. It was my job before the chicken shows to wash and blow dry them to get them ready for the show. Some folks would using old fashioned blueing for the grey (so called blue) and white ones, but we never did. We were involved to have fun, show a little, meet like minded folks and get fresh eggs, never to just win. Silkies are incredibly sweet birds. Chickens in general are much smarter and lots funnier than most people give them credit for. We had one that liked to watch TV, one that liked to ride on our shoulders and 'fly' around on our hands (we'd hold her under her keel, with her legs hanging between our fingers & she'd spread her wings as we flew her like a kid does a toy airplane- it was very cute), and some other funny ones. I think most of the time the flock numbered around 40, 70 or so at the top end. I'd have chickens in a heartbeat now, but we have parrots and there are certain diseases that pass back & forth, so we don't. I do miss really fresh eggs, though. Brian- rootbeer plant, huh? I'll have to ck that out. hadn't heard of that. I have the plant/vine that makes black peppercorns, but so far it's not too impressive.

I just happened on this thread, too. I have been too busy to read GardenWeb like I should!! I went with my mother -- we enjoyed having the time to talk in peace. I agree that the sale wasn't all that exciting, but I enjoyed it anyhow. Green Spring's sale this past spring was bigger. However, at Winterthur, I did get a [Big Sky] Sunset coneflower, three chartreuse tricyrtis and three sedges from PDN. Maybe they'll even come back rustfree next year, Lord willing and the creek don't rise! Also found a clematis, and two American wisteria (just gets about 10', unlike out-of-control imports) for a client. I'm glad I found that vine grower! I also enjoyed the booths of Rare Find Nursery and Broken Arrow Nursery -- good ideas. Broken Arrow had some SWEET kalmias, variegated pieris, and dogwoods, among other plants -- anyone here ever grow dusty zenobia? I might go again just to see the northern growers' stocks. Southern hellebore breeders were there, too, but of course it wasn't the best time of year to showcase their stock. Happy planting... Julia