Quelle surprise: to see this old post back up on page one! It is also a bit serendipitous to see it on this particular day. My DW and I are putting the old house up for sale, sign goes up today. She is 112 years old and we have spent the past 13 years renovating and loving her. But when we moved to the East all those years ago, the plan was always to move back west to our home Province of British Columbia. That is where all of both are families are, so the time has come to go home. It is a bitter sweat time in our lives. Leaving our grand old home, my zone pushing garden and dear friends we have made here in Ontario. I am also very maudlin about all the roses I grow which will most likely perish without my fanatic care and winter protection. But that is life. I will not miss having to go to all the work of winter protection and spring cleanup growing tender roses here requires. I look forward to growing roses in a warmer climate again, but his well be the third garden I will have to build from scratch. Thanks for bringing the post up again jjpeace. Paula, I expect we will soon share more similar gardening climates. We will likely end up in the South Okanagan of British Columbia, an arid zone 7. Cheers, Rick

2lips Carol Ann, Congratulations for the honor of being asked to be on a garden tour, I am certain your garden is worthy. Breathe in and out. With that said I am going to throw you a curve ball and suggest that your main focus not be on pruning/pinching plants for later bloom but rather to fully embrace the late season garden. Frankly I believe people are more interested in what they can replicate in their gardens and are not expecting the over the top flower show of a June or July garden at that time of year. Consider how lucky you are to have mature sized rare annuals and tender perennials at their best in the late season. Frankly I would consider plants with strong architectural foliage such as cardoon (perennial), Melianthus major (Tender Perennial?), Angelica archangelica or giga, ect. If you are planting perennials now for the tour choose them for their foliar color not an ify floral display . I would definitely not pass up filling up your garden with tender SalviaÂs, Ageratum (the tall one 30-36"). I think coming off a year from a wide spread tomato blight I would think twice about depending heavily on Dahlias. I am on the news letter mailing list for Ken Druse who is NJ and doing a garden tour himself this year (Carl are you going) and he made mention of a 2002 NYT article he wrote about garden tours that I thought you might enjoy (or find useful). Best of luck Katy Here is a link that might be useful: Snippers, Snackers and Garden-Tour Gaffes By KEN DRUSE Published: June 13, 2002

Great day, lots of visitors. See you next year!

Thank you so much, Marlorena. Yes, I meant the pot sitting on the gravel. I was toying with the idea of box for my lg. pot, clipped into a globe. My garden is anything but formal, so didn't know if that would work. I like the idea of it set it at a juncture of the pathways. I've been wanting to incorporate Hakone grass into the garden, so could use that instead, with the pot in a shadier area. Now, I'm going to look at your photos again! Nothing blooming here, yet.