Thanks Sweetie!

Nope, not yet. Suppesed to get severe storms tonight, but stronger ones tomorrow night. Then rain off and on all the next week.

My Peonies are starting to bloom!!!
I have the white one with reddish-pink specks called, 'Festiva Maxima' (1851), a bright raspberry-red peony called 'Attar of Roses' (1951) (or possibly 'Princess Margaret', 1960), and one called 'Monsieur Jules Elie' (1888) - gorgeous! All three of those have super strong fragrances to delight the nostrils or send you into allergic spasms, one or both. Really HUGE blooms this year.
The deep blood red one, however, once again, is not blooming. That makes six years and not a bud or bloom one. Not really growing much either. A waste of space. But delighted with the rest.

My roses all budded and starting to open are now being devoured by a bee looking insect that eats the tops out of each rose bud. Blast it all! They aren't doing anything to my beloved Ispahan roses however. That is strange but I'm glad whatever the reason.
But with all this moisture, we get bugs, bugs and more bugs, chomping on everything!

Years of severe drought and extreme abnormal high temperatures that scorched like a furnace, followed by too much rain, intense humidity and insects that devour everything in the garden, and of course super cell storms and tornadoes with grapefruit-size hail.
Good golly miss molly!
Can't win for losing.

I cannot upload my photos for some reason. A message keeps popping up saying the computer does not recognize my camera. What the heck????

Now, I must get off here. Have to decide whether or not to drive up to Ponca City tonight or not for the band gig. Thinking maybe I should stay home with the critters and hunker down for the night. It is about an hour's drive and a long stretch of rolling grassy plains, no trees, except in the creeks; no towns and few house between Stillwater and Ponca City some 60 miles. There are a couple of Indian Reservations and two Gambling Casinos owned by the tribes, but that is about all. Pretty barren country. Not a good place to get caught on the road in a tornado. The heavy rains sometimes make driving impossible and with severe winds, it is pretty frightening and very dangerous. I have seen 18-wheelers get rolled over and over on that stretch of the highway in just a severe thunderstorm. Tornadoes just toss them like plastic toys. It is unreal.
So, I need to decide now.

Thanks for asking. You take care as well.
This is only the beginning of the Tornado Season.
Isn't that just ducky?
~Annie

This post was edited by sweetannie4u on Sat, May 18, 13 at 17:34

sweetannie, I hope the storms pass you by, but if not, stay safe.

Yesterday, It became super hot and steamy. Today was worse than that. Feels like I'm in the Deep South! You can almost swim in the air. I'm drowning! I'm drowning! (JK)
When that hot,humid air coming up from the Gulf of Mexico collides with the dry, cold front that is swooping down into the state from Colorado - WATCH OUT!
That is the main ingredient for tornadoes of enormous power:- EF-4s or EF-5s.

The gig got called off until next weekend. Yeah!

Glad you didn't miss the gig. And the temps? Yep. deep south. Like Plantmaven, supposed to see 90s. Too soon for such heat and humidity. Yo-Yo temps. Don't like them. Stay safe.
kay

Yes...
We're experiencing 90s here too with 100% humidity. Gads.
AC running round the clock.

I bought some bright yellow Zinnias, Jethro Tull Coreopsis, deep red Wave Petunias and red Begonias to plant out in the new area. I also went back to my favorite haunt, the Farm Center, and found the yellow-flowering Grandma's Yellow Rose (Rosa, Nacogdoches). I am just thrilled to have found her. The lady who owns the farm center is an avid gardener herself, and she orders only the best roses and other plants from Texas nurseries.
Anyway, I am going to love those "HOT" Mediterranean colors of yellow, oranges, and red in there.

I had already planted other yellow flowers and transplanted a Paprika double-flowering Coneflower that I bought last year into that bed too. And just for a little contrast, I added some purples and red-violet African Daisies and Dainthus, and a few Irises, and set a big clump of Garden Sage at one corner with Walker's Low Catmint front and center - they are all blooming right now. (the cats discovered it was yummy catmint and starting to "prune" it a little)..

Anyway, I decided to wait until this storm went through to set them in that bed with the other plants. I need to get in there and dig out all the Bermuda grass anyhow before it gets deeply rooted - darn Devil grass!

~Hasta!
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