Everything looks so lush and beautiful Marcia! Love the picture of the white lilac, but then I'm a complete sucker for white flowers.

Now, I'm really testing my memory here, but haven't you had your hosta 'White Feather' for awhile now? If so, it's not a rapid grower is it?

This past Sunday morning I did my son's paper route and it was awesome to see how well most people's hostas were doing. I guess that's the upside to being in a flood year and also having about 10 inches of rain in the last month too!lol

Laurie, yes, i've had White Feather for several years and i've moved it around quite a bit so maybe that's why it never got very big. And it always went green so i was calling it Green Feather for awhile! :> This is the last spot for it. I made a hosta bed last summer with soil on top of cardboard, heavy duty landscape fabric on top of that and mulch on top of that. Once the hostas grow up this summer, i'll add more mulch. Hopefully i can keep the weeds outta there! LOL

How is your yard doing? You had some pretty major challenges, didn't you?

Marcia, just from what I've read that the more white in a hosta means there's less chlorophyll which means it's a slower grower. So whether you moved it or not may not make much of a difference really.

Yes, my move into town has given me a lot of changes! To be quite honest, I had fewer weeds to deal with out in the country!lol I really have no idea why there is every type of weed imaginable in my back yard, other than the prior owners moved in soil for the beds that was laden with weed seeds.:( No wonder they moved...
But I've ripped out some sod in the front yard to put in a new bed with mainly hostas in it. I'll have to post some pictures if I can remember how.;)

Well I braved the mosquito swarms and took few pictures tonight.

Here's the new bed I just finished planting up last weekend.

A front view.

When we bought the place last year there was a huge clump of what I believe is hosta 'Francee' in the back yard, so I divided it up into 10 sections and planted them into the raised planters in the front, and they made it through the winter amazingly well.

My gardening style has really changed in the last couple of years, and I'm finding I'm more interested in foliage than flowers. So now I've been collecting hostas, heucheras and sempervivums. I've even put hostas in my front planters.

Hosta 'Guacamole' is doing really well this year.

This bed was planted last year and the hostas are doing well.

All the rain and cool weather we've had has really had a wonderful effect on the semps. They're huge and very colourful.
Here's Saga

Royanum

Unicorn

Jungle Fires

Hayling

Here's my other planters that seem to have more foliage interest than flowers again.

But I do like some bling in my garden too. Iris Non Tocarmi gives that:

And 'Buster' is pretty showy too.:)

And here's my Fairy garden within a garden.

There's my nickel tour.;)

Sorry I didnt see this weeks pictures you posted Marcia and started another thread.Your white lilac looks so pretty, I could bury my face in it.I love it when the lupins begin to bloom. Your garden is very lovely and whimsical Laurie

I love your gardens, Laurie, esp. the little fairy garden! That's sweet! I was looking for little fairy figurines for my granddaugter's garden, but haven't been able to find any. There used to be all kinds of them. There are large ones, but i wanted little ones.

Thanks Marcia, it actually took me awhile to find the right kind of fairy that I wanted for this. This one is about 7" tall and is a good size for the door on her "fairy mansion" which my son has so aptly named it. I wanted her small enough to be able to hide beneath some foliage and just peek out a bit so hopefully she won't be noticed by the neighborhood kids and get stolen. I ended up having to go to ebay to get any type of selection though. Our garden club is having a miniature garden contest this year, so I'm submitting photos of this one. The only stipulation was that it had to be less than 3 feet x 3 feet, so I'm good to go!

Laurie, I just love your containers with the interesting combination of different foliage! You have an artistic flair. I also find my taste in gardening changing and have found an appreciation for texture and contrast in foliage.
And the fairy garden is just priceless!

Oh thanks North53! It's amazing to see how much fuller all the containers are after this heat three weeks later. Our garden club had a horticultural day this spring and one speaker showed us her way of planting containers, which were gorgeous, and that certainly did inspire me this year. I guess maybe it's just old age creeping in that makes me look more for subtlety and serenity in my plantings.lol But I do have a few pots with a riot of colour. It would be nice if someone started a container thread, because I love seeing how people use their creative juices...

Laurie your gardens are looking awesome! It looks like you've been there forever already. I'm so dumb, I was in your neck of the woods last week and I completely forgot you had moved there. I would have told you I was coming.

Ah darn, you should have come over! You probably could have identified my roses. Yeah, I'm starting to shape the yard to how I want it. The former owner was really into lilies, but nothing was marked with names. Some I know pretty much what they are, and there's a lot of the common ones, so nothing really special. It'll be a few more years of work...you know the 'ol process of gardening.;)

So did you get the special sand bag tour around the city??lol