What's that thing you're calling an umbrella? I just checked and it's 12% humidity here, as it is day in and day out this time of year, and 96 degrees heading for 99. No large hunk bark mulch ever breaks down here...ever. I totally agree with you, Kim, that in dry areas coarse bark mulch doesn't work. When we moved here eight years ago, we had the landscapers from hell. I was sick and didn't moniter what they were doing very well, but I expressly told them no bark mulch on the many flower beds they had laid out. Well, one day, after not feeling well, I finally got to look at their latest work, and of course, they had covered every bed with a thick layer of the coarsest, cheapest bark mulch they could buy. Even the vegetable garden area was covered (I did make them remove that). Now, eight years later, I still find that darn stuff in corners and niches here and there. It's still giving me microscopic splinters when I gather it up to remove it--they go right through gloves. The stuff didn't stop erosion on our many slopes, either. It just slid on down with everything else. I'm very interested in that Gorilla Hair Kim mentioned for a few selected areas, but I depend on compost, manure, and most of all, closely growing plants, for mulch and erosion protection. I guess all gardening, like politics, is indeed local. Diane

What is the pinkish one in the top right corner of the RED RAMPAGE photo? I'm going to be difficult and pick the one you weren't even trying to take a photo of as my favorite. That bright violet eye really caught my attention. COUNT IT ALL JOY is my favorite of the rest, and your PURPLE MAZE continues to look very lovely. I'm with you in not liking JULIE NEWMAR as much as everyone else seems to. Her colors wow me, but I'm not fond of her form in most pics I see of her. Casey

I have so many of the Phil Korth daylilies open today, it just looks marvelous up there. But nothing new so no new Korth intro pictures today. That big gold daylily, DOC WEBSTER, has another bloom and they are just so attention getting. It just goes to prove that it doesn't always have to be the fanciest of flowers with all the ruffles to get the glory.

I have not thoroughly read through the above posts but I wanted to chime in! I am occasionally asked to help friends pull together a room, my advice to them is to keep it simple. I like to keep most items neutral and add pillows, throws and accessorizes for color and personality. For your chair that you are looking at in a blue - consider a accent chair of dark wood with upholstered seat cushions in a beige tone that goes with the lighter tones in your rug. The brown of the wood to bring in the darker brown tone and your sofa. Add some fun pillows not matching. Keep the curtains a simple linen with a nice ORB rod and rings. Bring in your animal print in a throw or pillows. Nice thing with this way of decorating is it will be easy to try different throws and pillows and accessories to pull it all together with out committing to a fully upholstered piece that you may not love. For you ottoman I would use a rectangle one in a cream color using a nice tray and colorful print throw and accessories to pull it all together.