Woody tells me that she received TWO birthday cakes for the big day's celebration. One was from the longterm care facility where she volunteers in the garden, the other from family. She also received several gardening books and from her DH, a dwarf Japanese Maple that she loves. She managed to see the good wishes from Idylls also and expressed concern for V and her brother. Her oldest dog appears to be declining. The vet has given them a second pain drug to see if that will bring some relief. The dog is 15 now. There may be tough decsions to be made one day soon. It has been a blah morning and a lovely hot afternoon. I managed to plant a few ghetto items and moved the Caryopteris Snow Fairy to a spot where we dug out the Golden Wings Rose. I really loved that rose except it was grafted and constantly had thorny suckers that needed to be removed. I MAY have started an own root cutting last Fall, but it will be a while before I can tell how well it is doing. Planted hosta 'Striptease'(should have put that near Black Lace LOL) more blue woodland phlox, a geum, more tiarella to spread about, etc. Tons more to do but I also need to weed and ammend soil and work on my arbors. I simply don't know where to begin so do bits and pieces as I feel up to it. Right now I ache! DH wrote me from Shanghai that yesterday he visited with a student's family in a Shanghai suburb. The suburb has a population of 10,000,000! Anyway he had an amazing time but I guess I'll have to wait another week to hear details. Tomorrow he visits a university, then Sunday he heads to Beijing for another university inspection. That's all she wrote... 'bug

Pam - I see you saw my comments on the rudbecka Rustic not-really-dwarf mix on the other thread. For folks who missed that, the 1/8 oz pack at Swallowtail (in their annual seeds section) contains about 3000-4000 seeds so that actually beats the prices on most of what they offer in their bulk section. The Swallowtail bulk section is always worth checking, but sometimes they also have wickedly huge seed packets at low prices in their regular section. Some of my faves there include: California poppies at 4500 seeds for $2.49 - $2.95 depending on type. Strawflowers, 5000 seeds for $2.49 Cosmos, 1300 seeds for $1.95 Foxgloves Excelsior hybrids at 20,000 seeds (yes, no typo) for $2.95 but currently out of stock. (But you could get 2500 seeds from ValueSeed.com for $0.99 if you need a bunch right now.) They've got some other bargains in there too but those are my favorites. Their xeranthemum and paper daisies have bargain packs but I wasn't impressed with the flowers or plants - especially when compared to their tall strawflower mix. That tall strawflower mix is a real winner. I didn't know they were as hardy as they were - my plants were green and flowering into the beginning of December here. In your area you might still have them blooming at Christmas. Another of my favorites is Helenium Autumanale - especially after seeing it as Bluestone's Perennial's cover flower in last year's catalog. I bought a pack from the bulk section at Swallowtail - 1000 seeds for just under $10. I got those in late May last year. The germinated fast (and with a very high germination rate), transplanted well, many bloomed the first year and I got a nice seed farm level of seed out of those. Helenium flowers are gorgeous with a lot of variety. They blow in the breeze in a super pretty way. I don't think it's possible to take a bad photo of them. I ended up hositing a photo group on Flickr just for helenium flowers because they are so beautiful. They are even super easy and fun to seed save from - seeds pop right off without fuss. AND they are long lived and perennial to zone 3. Oh, and they propagate easily by division so that once you have a favorite color you can divide it and make a garden full of clones if you like. I also think that they are likely to be a hot item for gardenweb seed and plant trading. Unless everyone who reads this ends up growing their own. :) Lynda Here is a link that might be useful: Slideshow from Flickr Helenium group

Hi Bonnie, I totally see what you mean! I moved from Zone 6a to Zone 3/4 in Calgary and what a huge shock that was!!! I so missed my Japanese Maple (it was a lovely dwarf laceleaf one that was so graceful in my front yard in Zone 6a!) and roses that would grow there but not in Zone 3/4! Then the variety of trees that would survive in Calgary was much more limited too. When I first arrived in Calgary, as I got off the plane and was leaving the airport in a car, I looked around and my first response was, "where are the trees!?" I was shocked! Anyway, how big a specimen are you looking for? Could it be a nice shrub or would you like a tree? Do you need something that would look good with its branching structure during winter (then a shrub may be out!) or does it not matter? In terms of my "Japanese maple substitute" shrubs, I have grown elderberries that have done quite well for me in Calgary! I was in Aspen Woods in the SW, so I was up on the hill. I suspect that McKenzie Lake would be warmer??? Anyway, I have tried Sambucus Black Lace, the green one (I forgot the name! It has green finely cut leaves though!), and Sambucus racemosa "Golden Glow" amd I really loved them! I have found them to be more unusual (esp the golden ones) and yet underused in Alberta. The "Golden Glow" remained quite small for me (about 3 ft tall after a good few years) but it was a really amazing specimen shrub! I paired it with Sambucus "Black Lace" and it was stunning. If I find a photo from my Calgary yard showing this pairing, I will show it to you! Now, I have to say that I have NOT had luck with Sambucus "Lemony Lace" though. I grew 3 and all died on me after ONE season!!! So I am avoiding it now. I planted some Sambucus "Sunrise Surprise" last year and they have done amazingly well for me! So that is another golden laceleaf elderberry to look out for.

I say not enough love for BOBOs! Our very established BOBOs are doing well but not as floriferous as I have seen in previous years and not nearly as 'blossomy' as I see with @chrysalids...well done. (I am attributing the less flowers to this much drier summer). Here are ours today: