I just checked out Susan's latest site pages today. Those Japanese maple colors incite my maple craving all the more! The Cerintheis lovely. I had never met it before, and the little frog tucked inside of the day lily - such a treat! Loved the 3 seasons photos of the Silver Feather grass. I envy your opportunity to have Campanulas and that luminous true-blue Gentian! I have such a passion for any bell-shaped flower -esp blue ones Your garden is so lovely Susan, its makes me wonder what in the world you would ever want to change, but it sounds like you have been getting after some new bits lately.
(Terry, Susan's Rheum is not half as rude as yours ;-)

Maggie, Cerinthe might not look as good in an area with hot summers. I recall reading a disparaging comment about this plant on a garden forum. The unhappy gardener lived in California somewhere. I'll send you some seeds this fall, so you can try it out. Do you know this plant, Terry?

I'm going to look for your Rheum photo, Terry. Is yours an ornamental? There's a patch of edible rhubarb about a mile away from our house. The leaves on that plant are fantastic.

Is mine ornamental, how would you answer that one Maggie?? lol
You started it Maggie, now you will have to send her the offending photo.
Just off for a look at yours now Susan, site that is.

Just seen all the new stuff and as usual got carried along into your site Susan. Shall have to give it more time later. I knew this would happen.

Come on then, Maggie tell me about that blue flowered plant on your home page.

Susan, T's Rheum bloom is sooo rude that he can't put it on
his site ! I'll try to find it to send you and see if you agree

Maggie, Thanks for including a link to Terry's site. I had been visiting his site via last year's bookmark - to a different site! I simply couldn't find the Acer shirasawanum 'Aureum' or the Ceanothus you mentioned and was baffled.

Please do send me the Rheum bloom, if you can find it. I don't think I've ever seen a bloom. I'm wondering whether it's anything like the bloom of a gunnera.

I can't describe here ;), but am working on getting it for ya Sus.

Hi everyone! Summer has finally arrived here this 2nd week in June, so I'm taking my break from the garden and the barnyard in front of the fan at the computer.

I've just come from visiting Susan's web pages. So many pretty plants! And such a nice job on the web pages too. Did you make the layout of your yard on the computer too? any special program? We should all supply one of those with our garden chats.

We grow many of the same flowers. I haven't seen many other gardeners with the sundrops and sneezewort. I'd love to try some of the "maples" but guess we have too much snow for them. I think our WV's wet springs are 2nd only to yours. I'm just putting in an annual bed this week, since it has been under water all of May.

I was glad to see the nice pictures of the borage. I've read that it improves the flavor of tomatoes when grown as a companion plant. So I must try some next year. (It's too late this year for a new project.) Has anyone tried this out with the tomatoes?

Do you decorate your Douglas Firs at Christmas time? That was the first thing I thought of when I looked at your house/yard layout.

Susan's page was the first one I came too, but I'll catch up with what's new on all the pages soon.

I'll be back regularly now - I've missed all my garden friends but had so much to catch up on in the gardens this year. I had let them go the last couple of summers and now that I'm feeling better there is soooo much to do. In the barnyard I have a hen with 4 baby chicks, new ducks, and a pair of red burbon turkeys. In the gardens the flowers are just beginning to bloom, and I'm getting some of those raised beds for the square foot gardening done too.

Nice to see you back MK.

Hi, mamakane,

Good to hear from you again! I'm glad you like sneezewort, it's one of my favorites.

I made the garden map with Photoshop. It was based on a map my husband Don made a few years ago with an application that won't run on our computers now. I put a sheet of graph paper over a printed copy of the map and marked all the boundaries. Then I recreated the map with Photoshop, making extensive use of grid lines.

You can probably grow Japanese maples in West Virginia. Don is from Connecticut. We went back to
see his folks two years ago. While we were there, we visited a nursery and asked about Japanese maples. They grow well in Connecticut! The nurseryman showed us several old trees. You have to be careful about pruning Japanese maples if you have heavy snow. We had a tree whose main structure had the form of a T. A heavy, wet snow made the main trunk of the tree crack. We used a nut and bolt to secure the main trunk, and the tree kept growing well. We gave it away a couple of years ago, because we changed that area of the garden.

I laughed when I read your comment about decorating our Douglas firs. Those trees are
very tall. The lower branches of a Douglas fir die as the tree gets taller. We can't reach
any of the branches of those trees. We do put lights on other - smaller - trees.

Wonderful to have you join us again Mk. I've been wondering what your garden is up to this year and look forward to seeing picies of it and your fourfooter family. We so enjoy sharing your life on the farm.xoxox