We also love to eat the blossoms! We try to plan a dinner party to coincide with bloom time each spring and serve each person a blossom floating on a cold soup. I love them on cucumber-yogurt-garlic soup, or here is a fun recipe for a cold asparagus soup my hubby dreamed up: http://www.hungryagain.net/?p=43 Notice the chive blossom in the picture? That is actually a half blossom, floating cut side down because our dinner was a little early that year. I love the potato salad idea; we will definitely try that one this year!

Claire, I just took pictures of mine to show you the differences - yes they vary. This is the leaf and flower of the tree in the picture above. It is the unnamed variety kousa from the arborist. I have gotten a few babies, maybe 3, gave away 2, and this year there is another little guy next to mom, but I'll wait till fall or next year. This is a $3 pot I bought from a woman who propagated solely in pine bark mulch. Different leaf and bracts and grows like it's on steroids. This is a transplant from the first picture (arborist tree) which has not yet bloomed - another few years maybe - but the leaves look more like the one above which I 'imported', if you will. This is the one I stumped 4-5 years ago and has bracts that overlap whereas the others do not overlap. And lastly, what may/may not be a rough leafed wild dogwood out back that has struggle for a decade, but produced offshoots which I'm leaving in place. They are too close to the root of a large maple, but they planted themselves there, so let nature take it from here. The wild struggler that I hope someday will succeed and bloom. (that is persicaria polymorpha in the background) There is a Golden Shadows dogwood tucked in in front of the persicaria and this was its best year - until the deer came. I was too late spraying and it cost that poor dogwood a lot of leaves and young branches. (damn) Whatever you have, and who knows, some may be pink tinged, they're a gift and seem happier in full sun. Jane

Hi Dee, agreed, moving on. :-) The photos I posted are of our daughter’s dog Babs who is looking for the rabbits hiding in the branch pile. [g] They have nests in the brush pile AND a raised veggie bed! This is not the first season they have picked a raised veggie bed to build a nest in. They are gone now and I’m going to be dismantling my raised beds, hopefully this season, so maybe they’ll find another yard to build a nest in. It’s really not safe here with Babs. I have pots I haven’t planted yet too and this week I am going to either have to do that or pot them up to the next size. I had Hyacinth bulbs I had in the house late winter and after they died, I kept them in pots outside and kept watering them. I've been waiting to add them to the beds, and I got them in the ground yesterday before all the spring bulb foliage disappears and I wouldn't know where they were. That frees up about 10 pots that were making a mess! And hopefully these bulbs will come back for me next spring and increase my inventory. And now I can get rid of leftover dead bulb foliage. My one NOID daylily just started blooming yesterday. Same time as red raspberry Monarda and they look good together. That is a really tall QAL?! Either that or you are shorter than I guessed….lol. I didn’t know they grew that tall. I have eliminated the cosmos that has been reseeding because it had just become weedy and not very attractive. I may start over at some point. I did add a couple of six packs of Violet Queen Cleome and that is blooming. I have a little Dill that reseeded, although small still. I don’t have Rudbeckia any more, I ended up having to divide it too often. I bought a Coreopsis last year - Cream something? - and the foliage was mildewed by the end of the season last year and I thought I might lose it or have to dig it out this year, but it has come back fine with lots of nice green foliage and buds that haven’t opened yet. I’ll have to take some photos of roses for the July thread. The first flush is just about finished up and some of them are pushing up new buds already. Lilies/Hydrangea/Butterfly Bush/Hibiscus will be next. Right now I’m trying to get rid of pots hanging around and just clean up in general. We walked around Rockport MA yesterday and each little shop has a postage stamp of property on BearsNeck and they do such creative things with plants. I was inspired to come home and get rid of any messes. Including scrubbing the front steps that were a mess from wet pots on them all last season. I’m going to need to use saucers on the steps. Okay, that’s it for me. I’ll post the July thread hopefully on Monday.

Glenda, I grew a small okra several years ago, one that Dawn talked about, but I don't remember the name. The okra was very short and very productive and very pretty, but I don't have raised beds, and I try not to bend anytime that I don't have to, so I just left the okra in the flower bed and never harvested it. I don't even harvest the first pods produced on my big okra, I just leave them for seed. Bending is painful, if I have to get low I just go ahead and get down on my hands and knees, the worry about getting up later. My trellises are heavy duty with tee posts that I can climb to get back on my feet. I often have a hoe with me that I can push myself up with. My poor wife is an Angel, she tries to keep my jeans looking nice, but they look like they were worn by a coal miner. I wear the knees out of most of my jeans, but a pair of shoes will last me a long time. I took Madge out to eat yesterday, and while we were in town I bought a couple of rolls of baler twine. I got the largest they had at the co-op. It is getting harder to tie the twine I have. This is another thing you younger folks have to look forward to, fumbly hands, and weak eyes. Anyway I tied up more tomatoes today, and the larger twine seems to be easier to use, it sticks out like a sore thumb, being a bright orange color. The bunching onions that I harvested, and was going to wait till fall to replant them, seem to be wanting to grow again now. I may have to do a little research on how to take care of them. The walking onion bulbils I harvested seem to be doing well, I see no problem saving them, but you cant kill an Egyptian walking onion anyway.