Enjoy.

Solar-powered Fountain--unfortunately, it has been overcast for the past 24 hours, so my fountain doesn't have enough energy stored up to do its circular spray pattern on top, but you can see the water coming out of the lion's mouths. Think you can get the idea.

Here's a couple more pics of that same general area--in the center of my rather small backyard.

And here are some rose shots--mostly bush shots.

Jubilee Celebration -- center front. In background (upper left) you can see (red) Braveheart.

Earthsong. She looks a bit different this year. I've had her for 4-5 years and some of the canes were looking a bit old, so I gave her a rather severe pruning this spring to stimulate new growth. Got it--along with about 3 time more blooms--but the overall look of the bush is different now.

Mortimer Sackler. Several posters recently have asked about Morty. As you can see, even though I'm growing him as a somewhat tall shrub, he would probably like to be a climber.

Here's a quick look at that narrow strip you people helped me plan several years ago--the narrow strip is between my driveway and my neighbor's ugly garage. The roses there are just beginning to open (I'll post an update in a week or so), but those pansies sure are blooming their hearts out.

I also drastically pruned back by Eden climber this spring. Lots of healthy new growth coming up from the bottom, with lots of buds, but the top half of the pillar is a bit bare. Fortunately, my clematis Polish Spirit (I think it is) came to the rescue--very beautifully, in my opinion.

And here is a little glimpse of a corner of my front yard which is so shady, almost no roses can be grown there, but in this one corner I did manage to squeeze in three Home Runs which look very happy there on the left.

Let me know what you think. With lots of practice taking pictures this summer, I also hope to become a better photographer. : )

Kate

The easy unclogging method depends on those thin twist-ems that come with some plastic yard bags or with a loaf of bread. Straighten one out and run it as far as it will reach up the lion's head's mouths. Give it a couple swipes back and forth and pull the twists out. There: everything is unclogged.

If the sun ever returns to Kansas (please do!), I'll take some more pics so you can see the top circular spray pattern.

Kate

Ingrid

My roses are suffering from all the rain----I'm hoping to get some pictures when things dry out--
Thanks for sharing your lovely gardens

Florence

My advice is to find the fountains the way I did. Google the following combination of words: fountain solar garden lion. That should bring up a number of sources, all offering basically the same products, but at different prices.

Good luck in your search.

Kate

Link - http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=197986&searchTerm=solar fountain lion

Your Earth Song and Jubilation look incredible!!! Cutting Earth Song back really did wonders for it!! I've never seen Jubilation before; I think it looks a lot like Janet.

Thank you for your wonderful pictures. I'm glad you'll be taking many more!!

Carol

Maryl--I'm probably a few weeks behind you. My pansies will probably keep going for a few more weeks. We've had so much overcast weather that the pansies haven't suffered as much from the heat as usual. When the pansies give up the ghost, I switch over to medium blue lobelia--they make some now that can take a lot more sun, but even the lobelia will probably give up in the oven heat of August. However, by September or October, I can plant the pansies again. They will bloom in the fall and almost all of them will survive the winter to start blooming again very early in the spring through May/early June.

Maryl and Carol: When Braveheart blooms, he is spectacular, but he sometimes is slow on the re-blooming. He's another one that got a severe pruning this spring like Jubilee Celebration and Earthsong did, and he is absolutely loving it, throwing out all sorts of blooms this year. He didn't do that well the past couple years. I have a theory--about long-term damage from that late hard Easter freeze several years ago (I'm sure you remember it, Maryl). I think the canes on a number of my roses did not fully recover and I've been trying to make them bloom more than they were capable of. I noticed that my hybrid teas weren't having that problem--and I have to cut them nearly to the ground each year--so I decided to try a more severe pruning with the shrubs that never seemed to fully recover after the Easter freeze. It worked--they are blooming like crazy. However, I won't prune them that severely every year by any means.

Raining here today. Where is that sun?

Kate