Good news for you Brenda! So glad to hear you did get some rain. At this point, we will take anything we can get. We went to our 5 year old grand-daughter's softball game (those little girls are so much fun to watch) and wouldn't you know it, we got rainned out! There were actually two lines of storms that went through the area today and we got some rain from both of them. I'm pleased and so grateful. I'm also looking forward to a few days of cooler weather too. My plants are looking better already. Not only from the rain, but also because the relentless sun was in the clouds quite a bit of the day. stevation, we are also sad to read and hear on the news about your dry, hot weather and the fires you are having to endure. Hopefully, rain will soon come your way and things will improve. Linda

HerabalBetty, Thanks for chiming in. Wow, that is amazing growth in a few years time, even with the deer browsing it. Is it as full at the bottom as it is at the top? Does it spread by runners like a lilac does? What I read says it blooms only on new wood, does that mean that the majority of the blooms are on the top of the shrb and the lower portion is fairly free of blooms? I don't want the base of a shrub that large to look like a vase of flowers if you know what I mean. I appreciate your input. Thanks Thyme2dig, I believe at full size the Pink Diamond is supposed to be about 6x10, a 4-5' x 8-10' shrub would be perfect. The continuous perimeter length (circumference?) of the garden is some thing like 200 ft., this is for sure a case where size matters! It will take a lot of them to form a hedge that long and the cost, depending, could be phenomenal! Pink Diamond is a bit taller than I'd like But I thought that I could probably trim it in late winter while it's dormant since it buds on new growth only. I think that should work. Someone tell me if I'm thiking this all out wrong, please! I have grown Spirea "Gold Mound" when I lived in zone 5 and it was a fabulous shrub. I had around 25 of them encircling my pergola/patio. They looked so smashing with the deep red climbing roses that grew on the pergola. "At this house I have Spirea Jap. "Magic Carpet". They are hardy enough to hang on every year but they have not grown more than 6" in over four years now. If I knew I was getting on that had some growing power and would be zone 3 hardy I buy it in a heart beat. I'll go search the Spireas some more. I'm sure that many more have come out since I last took a look at them! Oh, BTW, the Blue Muffin was long coveted by me. I got one little panicale of Blue seeds before it to croaked. The seeds on that are a LOT darker than they've colorized them in the catalogs. MeMo

I just found a copy of a post from August of 2002, so guess it's been a while. Got alot, I mean ALOT, of good book suggestions and quite a few good book discussions over the years. After all these years it almost feels like I know some of these posters.

Mizzteek Z6 MA, the forsythia has set all its bloom buds for next year already, so the particular buds that are blooming now won't bloom again next spring. However, there are probably branches that aren't blooming now that will have flowers in the spring. Once the hours of chilling needed for a plant have been experienced, some plants will bloom all or partly in a warm fall like this, even those that usually bloom in spring. We (visiting family and I) have been spending a lot of time out-of-doors walking through the woods and fields in the area when it hasn't been actually raining. Previous Christmas visits have involved visiting some of the same places on snowshoes or skis, so this has been unique having temperatures in the 50's for several days. We cut our tree (balsam fir) from the woods across the road early last week, so it's a bit Charlie Brown, but it holds ornaments just fine. We are expecting some form of frozen precipitation on Tuesday, so I have been enjoying this final hurrah of fall warmth! I will want to go out to the garden and stomp down all the vole tunnels prior to the cold temperatures in the hopes that they will settle in for the winter elsewhere!