Shirley! Shirley! Shirley!

You're killing me here....I want it all! I want it all! I want it all! And I want it now! (lol, have you heard that commercial? lol I can't remember what it was for but seemed fitting! lol) Beautiful..............all of it:)

This is a pic of my Thanksgiving Feast, that thing has 5 babies! (Not all look like babies anymore) This is on one stalk and I've cut 2 off already.........

Its so pretty, I love it so much.

Sassy

Sassy-Oh Thanksgiving Feast is beautiful, mine hasn't bloomed yet. Thanks for posting yours, I'm getting a list together for you.

Shirley

Bluebird Wine

Beguine

Coral Point

Cee Jay

Shirley

Loving all the pics, Shirley! The iris you sent are multiplying but a long way from blooming here.
I'd say our season is 20 D behind schedule.

Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: what's blooming here- in reverse order! lol!

I'm enjoying all the pics, keep them coming.
My dwarf boo iris from cindy is looking great. It has multplied and has some buds.

Who stole my camera??????
sharon

LA Arboretum orchid house:
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Thomas at the Garden Show. He wants to make one of these cascading water fountains:
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Epi "Julie":
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Epi "Vendetta"; it was windy and the bud fell off before it could fully open... amazing colors in the sunlight:
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Thanks,
Paul

Obviously, Southern Cal & NC are paradises.. Thank you for those delicious photos! ~m'
Here are Frosted Violet & Marmalade heucheras surrounded by their friends:
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Here's Going My Way and a lost tag peach Dwarf Iris ~ yum!

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Thank you Roxie for all these amazing flowers!

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TALON FIX PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jeez, Carol - what are our photos, just stuff in the way?

Marea-Wow those tulips are gorgeous..those are definetely keepers. Iris Going My Way will always be in my gardens..I love it.

Shirley

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Behold A Lady

Pink Magnolia
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Dusky Challenger

In Your Dreams

Cream Cake

Spring Peppers

Ozone Alert

Shirley

wowza Shirley! You sure grow beautiful iris!! The 'Dream one is my favorite.

Here are my favorites from this morning:

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Stop The Music

Be A Dream

Terre De Feu

Ladies those iris are gorgeous!!Nothing blooming here,well iris anyways.In Your Dreams and Ozone Alert are heart stopping:)Like Cream Cake too.

Thanks For Sharing

Just wanted to show you what hubby made me for mothers day.
He is having fun with this stuff..hehehe...lucky me:)

I love the iris pictures. Jean, you are a lucky duckling, he is a keeper!

My iris Going my way is blooming right now, I don't remember who sent it to me also Rock Star. But these are just awewome.

Also the iris we bought 2 years ago from Mary (I think) all but one has bloomed this year. There are wonderful.

Keep posting pictures. I love them
Angie

Blooming in the house..WAAHOO

Congratulations Jean! Gorgeous epi flower!! Your house garden is just awesome!

Hi ((Angie))!

I agree, never too many Iris or Iris photos.

Here's a thumbnail of my transplanting project for today:

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...all those albinos (my first, 5 of 'em) are Admiral's Braid descendants...

forgot to include ~ I wanted to share my progress.
Here are my pretty sdlgs from February and my vivid heaucheras (again, I guess, but I'm so IN LOVE)~

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and these Dutch Iris are amazing blue-violet and ultra-yellow in person ~

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I just learned how to attach pics here!

Mialbox tough as nails plantings_
cerastium, white rebloom iris, daisy.
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the reason I'm not wasting my money on ornamental grasses anymore- 3 out of 5 here are dead. the other 2 - just barely alive. And it's June!! what a waste of space!

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Frank! dwarf dianthus, sedum 'voodoo' and blue eyed grass.

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redneck garden!-so far recycling the old trampoline has made superior landscape fabric. I don't get muddy knees and have very little weeding, or watering to do.

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The sweet autumn is 3 ft tall and will soon cover up this "trellis' of (dead) wild grape.
Isn't the grape cool tho? Gene got this millstone at a farm auction for me.
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karen

Lovely garden Karen.

Well, I hope this is of interest to some of you :). I recently took a trip to San Miguel Island, the western-most island within the the Channel Island National Park. It's only about 70 miles from Los Angeles, but it's really remote and primative. This is one of only 4 camping trips scheduled to this island this year, so a rather rare chance to experience it. Here's how Day 1 went:

The previous week was chilly, cloudy, and windy. The boat company, Island Packers, had cancelled all the trips for the previous few days. I woke up at 5:30 to call and make sure the trip was on, loaded up the truck, and headed for Ventura Harbor.

7:30 we're on the boat. My boy and a friend's boy. My friend couldn't come due to a recent surgery, so I was in charge of both of them (i.e. extra load).

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10:00 Saw some whales on the way out but couldn't get a good photo. Boat is pretty crowded as it takes people to stops at Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands on the way out. Sorry for the blurry photo... the boat was ROCKIN'.

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11:30 after unloading the people at the two closer islands (they have all the campground facilities :)), the boat is pretty much empty except for us diehards. This is at the dock on Santa Rosa Island.

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12:30 we're at San Miguel Island, but no dock or pier like the other islands.

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1:00 get in the skiff and make a beach landing

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1:15 because of these guys (protected elephant seals), we had to land half a mile away from the trail head.

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1:30 time for some lunch while waiting for all our gear to be unloaded.

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3:00 finally got all the gear to the trail head. Up the trail we go... about a half mile hike and 500 feet climb. Not too bad but with 50 lbs of gear, it's not easy... and I had to do it three times!

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3:30 there's the beach we came from... only about half way up.

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7:15 finally made camp. I brought one large tent instead of two backpacking tents. Kids point out that the tent looks like a Darth Vader mask.

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Campsites have a wind block, picnic table, mouse/fox proof box, and a pit toilet. No running water or any shade. The wind break is necessary because the wind blows at an average of 30 miles/hour. There are 24 of us humans on the island this weekend; 20 campers, one park ranger, and one fox researcher.

More to come :)

What wonderful pictures! I have missed so much!

Marea, Jean, Karen, Paul, Shirley........thank you so much for sharing. It has made my morning to sit and look at beautiful flowers, lovely gardens, and Paul's wonderful vacation pictures. Awesome!

I'm sorry for not being on.....it's been a tough time lately. I am getting ready to leave for the hospital...my mother is having surgery today for her shattered right arm. She had an accident while riding her new horse.

I promise i'll get some pictures on soon.

HUGS,
~Dawn (mamabirrd)

Continuing the trip log, Days 2 & 3 on San Miguel Island.

The National Park Service is very concerned about getting the island back to the way it was before sheep grazing, so all hikes are led by the ranger. Day 2 hike was a 14 mile trip out to Bennett Point, the western-most point on the island with one of the highest concentration of seals and sea lions in the world. Unfortunately, 14 miles was a bit too much for the kids, so we only went part way.

10:00 after breakfast, we pack up and begin the hike, stopping at various points of interest along the way. Here we are at the highest point on the island, 831 feet above sea level.

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11:00 we are at the Caliche Forest, which are remants of old tree trunks and roots that have been filled with calcium carbonate. The surrounding sand has eroded exposing these casts. A definite highlight for me as a geologist, but kids are not impressed. Beautiful wild flowers too... some ice plants, poppy, morning glory-looking vines, etc.

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14:30 we turn around at Caliche Forest, return to camp, lunch, and head down to the beach. We're the only humans on the beach, along with probably 100 seals.

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17:00 of course playing at the beach means we have to hike back up to camp. Can you see the trail?

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18:30 back at camp for dinner. Since there's no open fire allowed, kids roast marshmellows on the propane stove :)

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Day 3 features ranger led hikes to northern-most and southern-most points of the island, each about 6 miles round trip. We decided to just do the northern point.

10:15 we're directly above the beach where we landed. Prince Island is in the background

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11:45 we make it to Lester Point. The Harris Point, the northern-most part of the island is in the background. An absolutely beautiful cove below us... if I was a seal, I'd definitely live here :)

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Kids remark that Harris Point looks like a triceretops. I think it looks like a cameleon. Mainland is visible from this spot, but doesn't come out on the photo.

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13:00 long hike back to camp for lunch and back to the beach. Can you see the landslide? (sorry... being a geologist again)

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16:00 tide is low enough for us to wade through the surf and check out the tidepool. Kids have a blast feeding stink bugs to the sea anemone.

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I sure hope this is of interest and I'm not just wasting bandwidth. Tomorrow is trip back home.

really Cool Paul! That ocean blue is intense. I'm going with iguana on teh island shape.
Karen

Paul, WOWOWOWOWOWW! What wonderful pics, I just love all of them! I know you all had a terrific time. I'm so glad you posted them, I keep coming back to look again:)) Sorry I didn't have a chance to post earlier. What a good dad you are!

I know your kids enjoyed that. There's something about water..........it just takes away any worries and lets you 'feel the moment'. Thanks sooooo much for sharing with us! I don't know what to say, except, they're all just gorgeous!!!!

Oh, hope you got my email, I received the cuttings and they're all happily rooted, thanks so much! I really appreciate them.

Where is everyone? Boards are so slow right now. Well, guess I can't say much, I'm leaving to go to my other house tommorrow so I won't be back until Sun/Mon. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Sassy

Karen-Goodness your landscaped yard is just beautiful, so glad you can now post pictures.

Paul-What a treat for you to share that memorable hiking trip with us. I agree with Karen that is the bluest water ever. I can't tell where the landslide was. Enlighten me, I would love to know.

Sassy-Have fun at your other house. The boards are slow right now.

Shirley

Amazing Paul! That is of such interest and I hope you keep posting pictures. I can't wait to show my DH. I told him about your trip last night and he is very interested to see.

Very cool picture of Caliche Forest! I would love to see it in person. And that sure looks like a napping Triceratops to me!

I'm enjoying the vacation.......I hope you are!

Thanks Paul!

Dawn (mamabirrd)

This vacation is coming to an end... it's cool to think that we're one of less than 100 people that will have this experience this year. The return trip was highlighted by a couple of surprised... read on.

9:00 kids work hard to complete their Junior Ranger program and return with their badges.

9:45 begin the decent to meet the boat. Only 2 trips up and down this time as we used up all the water and ate most of the food.

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11:00 beautiful weather once again. Take time to take in the island one last time.

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12:00 people take turns at the kayak. Here comes our boat!

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13:40 all loaded up and leave San Miguel

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15:00 pick up passengers at Santa Rosa Island and continue on to Santa Cruz island. The rugged volcanic coastline and sea caves along Santa Cruz Island.

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15:15 we come up to a place called Painted Caves, a large sea cave on the north side of Santa Cruz Island.

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Oh no... he's not doing what I think he's doing...

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yeap.. the 25 foot catamaran fit completely inside the cave, with room enough to turn around!

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17:15 after picking up passengers at Santa Cruz, we're in the open ocean headed back home. All of a sudden, we're in the middle of a dolphin/sea bird feeding frenzy. Apparently there was a large school of small bait fish. Can you see the dolphins jumping?

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The frenzy is about a mile long... the captain predicts that there are probably 5000 dolphins in the area. What a great way to end the trip.

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18:15 back on the mainland. Time to go home and take a hot bath. I hope you enjoyed the photo log :)

Thank you so very much for the vacation!!
I like stopped breathing trying to scroll so fast.
I loved my trip. Here's a reward back. Paul.
Schreiner's Iris Gardens today in the eye of the storm:

Pchanggeo,

I am not in this group but I love daylilys and check it out for the pictures :)

Wow! What an awsome trip! The boys will never forget this and it looks like you have a wonderful time. Can't wait to see the final pictures.

Marie

Paul and Marea...you both made my day...WHAT AWESOME PHOTOS...Marea can I come and visit you? lol

What happened to our Pigeon Forge trip with hostess Gloria?

Shirley

Paul, a trip of a lifetime ... what memories you have given to your son and his friend!

Marea, Fantastic picture!

I bought a Bear Fountain at a Garage Sale a couple of years back. I got tired of it and do have used all three parts of the fountain in my garden. I had hubby drill a hole in the hollow base of the fountain and use it as a planter, then the bears on the top are a decoration, and what I enjoy best of all is the bowl part of the fountain, I made into a semp/sedum dish. Here it is.

Shot with FinePix 3800 at 2008-06-11

I've told you about my birthday present, the greenhouse, well, here is the picture of that at the back of our house. Hubby and the kids are happy I finally took it down at the beginning of June.
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Shot with FinePix 3800 at 2008-06-11

And here is the north side of my house and the dog we have for 2 years, well, one year is almost over. sigh

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Shot with FinePix 3800 at 2008-06-11

Thought you might get a kick out of them.
sharon

Yikes, sorry about the HUGE pictures gals and guys.

Sharon-A friend of mine has a green house just like yours. I'm thinking I might get one like it soon.

Love the pictures.

Shirley

Shirley, you are MOST welcome to come next year and tour the Iris gardens with me!! Schreiner's & Cooleys & Mid-America and more. As you can see, it really IS heaven...

Sharon, I love your greenhouse! What are all those lovely red flowers? and I AM PROUD of your succulent dish!! But there just aren't enough semps in it yet ~ be on lookout for another pkg. ;-)

The daylilies have started!! LOOK!

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Hi all! Thought I would come by and bombard you with a few pics.

Paul, I want to go on vacation with you.

B.B. COLLINS (named for a neighbor of mine hybridized by a neighbor of mine :)

BORDER SENTRY

CALYN AND CAITLYN

CHEROKEE BEAUTY

FORESTLAKE POINT LACE

INQUIRE WITHIN

KING OF MASKS

ORGANIZED CHAOS

REIGNING PINK LEMONADE

ROSE PARFAIT

SHRIMP AND GRITS

Dakota grooming a scape for his first time entering a daylily show

Dakota winning Best Youth Award with FOOLED ME. He was a half point from winning Best In Show overall. I was proud as punch!

Kids at the Knoxville Zoo last month.

Us at neighbor's house.

Maleah in the neighbor's garden.

View of the Smoky Mountains from neighbor's garden.

This garden is like a half mile from my house up on a ridge. The couple who owns it are dentists. The wife is from Vietnam and is the neatest person. We first met them a few weeks ago and never knew they were up there on the ridge behind our house. She grows the yummiest veggies!

Ok, I am done for today :).

~Canna

I'm loving the great photos!

Delphinium and sandcherry

Karen
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WOW! love your shot too Karen!

Congratulations to Dakota!! What great fun to see all those photos Canna, thank you! Tennesse looks like Heaven.

Here is my first flower this year of Marea's Angel ~ complete with pollen from Tet Lavender Blue Baby's ffo - 2nd photo *BIG grin*

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Awesome pics everyone. thankyou for the vacation Paul. okay to those of you who have no pity for me and my 88 degrees, it was 91 and if you can't pity me then maybe my poor squirrel

my youngest daughter and her two boys are visiting from california, last sunday we took them up mt ranier to play in the snow, this is us 1 week ago,

I wish I were there today. come on a lil squirrel pity. hugs to all
carol

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'Red Hot" orienpet lilium

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'Rosepoint Lace' Lilium

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konjac amorphophallus

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yes I cheated to get this color!

;-0
Karen