I'm doing fine, but the garden is getting its first rain in, oh, over a month. Yesterday and today is the first rainfall we've had in quite some time.

The sea holly is blooming its head off. The hardy hibiscus is getting bigger, but no bloom. The iris are planted, just waiting for next year to bloom. The euphorbia is doing absolutely fantastic! Looks great and provides great contrast. Hosta guacamole didn't bloom this year, but it's apparently happy and settling in. My rose is still green, which is a good sign. My bergenia looks healthy. And my fern from Vermont is sending up more new fronds and looks really pretty by the rocks, while concealing the (ugly) gas meter. THANK YOU everyone!

I'm so happy with my plants from Tara's exchange. Thanks everyone! Rbirch - the grass, creeping jenny and tiger lilies have all settled in and look great. Husky (I think) the hibiscus is small still, but healthy. The amaranthus are taking over their corner of the garden, but look super, and cosmos are also fine. MaryB - Baptisia is coming along. The sweet autumn clematis has taken, the autumn crocus has disappeared like it was supposed to, and the purple bee balm will probably bloom late. Remy, the victor reiter hardy geranium hasn't bloomed, but it looks happy. Rini, the apple tree is in a bigger pot now until I find its permanent home. Gardening witch the lilies all bloomed!
Lilylouise and Husky and Mulchy - the tomatoes are great! Thanks to you guys I didn't have to buy any tomato starts - they all have big green tomatoes on them now. Tara the pulmonaria is fine. And more plants that I've forgotten to list.

Thanks everyone! I feel like such a greedy gardener to have gotten so many plants, but they are all happy in their new homes. Wanted you to know I appreciate all of them.

Hi, I think everything is alive and well which is amazing for the heat we have had. The little agastache Apricot Sprite from Penny started blooming shortly after I planted it. I think it thought it was late summer because of the heat. My husband is quite happy with the hosta June from Mary. The lambs ears from Jen look very happy. I think they even spread a little. The daylilies from Hoagie from last year bloomed quite nicely. I especially liked Gumdrops. Next year all the little plants I got should bloom great.
Gottagarden, I'm glad to hear Victor is doing well. They looked so unhappy in the pots.
I'm going to be in the Tonawanda Garden Tour next weekend Aug. 6 and 7. Now, I'm starting to get nervous. The heat has kept me from doing much. I e-mailed Penny and told her my plan for next Friday, lots of mulch,lol. If anyone else is interested in stopping by, please do. Send me an e-mail. I would be happy to have you come see my mess : )
Remy

I would love to see your mess, or anyone else's. Unfortunately I broke my foot on Thursday, so the garden is all downhill from here. :( Out went my gardenwalk plans, my mulching plans, and most everything else.

busy is an understatement. I just put a pool in and I felt compelled to have some kind of garden around it. So I put one ton of riverrock around it and now it looks cool.oh yeah I shoveled all that stone too. that pool was awesome to take a dip in afterwards. the bad part of it is I have to complete this project and get one more load of stone and do it again. oh yeah all my plants are doing very well.penny gave me this hardy hibiscus and it has many buds on it, cant wait till they open.

Valerie,
I'm so sorry to here about your foot!!! What a thing to have happen. A rotten send off to an unbearably hot summer.

All the plants I got at the swap miraculously are doing fine.They were left to their own devices for 16 days during the first heatwave in July and managed to survive.
The Rose of Sharon starts took right off and are gonna be a great hedge....no flowers this year.

A respite from the heat this am....no rain here as the front moved thru...hmmmm.....sprinkler system...wouldn't THAT be great about now?

Val, So sorry about your foot. I broke a toe once and that was bad enough. I hope you heal quickly.
Glen, I can't believe you did all that work in the heat we have had. I'm sure it looks great. You will need to bring pictures to the next exchange. The black mondo grass I got is doing good. It even made flower buds.
Remy

Val,
I too am sorry to hear about your foot. I can relate indirectly as my DH broke both bones in one leg the end of June. Just got the cast off last Friday.

Anyway all my plants are doing very well (I don't want to even know what the water bill is going to be this time). My lupines from last years swap bloomed BEAUTIFULLY even after I dug them all up a second time and transplanted them. Most of the stuff in my yard right now has exceeded its suggesting height. I have some 6 ft. purple coneflowers that were wintersown last year, I had 4 ft. high jacob's ladder that was also ws last year. I have 2 ft high salvias that are now close to 3ft tall and my scarlet runner beans may end up crushing my little arbor. My tomatoes from this years swap are turning red finally but they have been growing very well. I am looking forward already to next years swap.

Penny

My hibiscus are in full bloom, the brugs are blooming, cannas,candy lilies... actually the best month for my garden...still trying to catch a picture of a few of my hummingbirds but darn those things are fast...had a great time at the Tonawanda Garden Walk with Penny and Remy...nothing better than spending a day with gardeners!!!

Husky here is one of my babies that spends most of the day with me. She is at the patio door off the kitchen first thing in the morning watching me and then when I go outside she sits on that old closeline talking to me and enjoying the flowers while I am sitting right there with her.

{{gwi:995592}}

By the way I thoroughly enjoyed the garden tour ...and lunch! It was great...thank you Remy and Husky!

Penny

All my plants from the garden swap are doing great, it was a fun day, looking forward to next year! Husky, my kmotgg are ten feet tall, glad you told me to plant them in the back. I wish I could have gone on the garden tour, I have gone to several in our area and have really enjoyed them. By the way Remy I made your potato salad dish and everyone enjoyed it! My gardens are winding down but I was happy with then, been busy making tomato juice. I am already planning changes for next year flower garden and taking advantage of plant clearances, although I don't have much room left!!! Got to start saving seeds for ws!!

Wow, I'm glad someone else's KMOTGG got that big. I had some last year from the botanical gardens, and they were a wimpy but cute four and a half feet (barely taller than the garden gate), while these... let's see, one is towering over the arch over the gate, fighting it out with the sweet autumn clematis, and the other is by my neighbor's house, looking like a giant towering over the coral honeysuckle and canna. They're both over seven feet tall. Wow, some plants. Glad I planted them in good spots for tall things.

PS- I had cannas from two people. They are blooming away and look pretty. Have to dig them up and overwinter them, they look great.

Hello to all from the GArden Swap. My gardens are doing fairly well, except I TRIED to start a Purple Garden this year, but it ended up a Weed GArden. Oh well, I'll try something else next year.

I know what it's like to have a hurtin foot/leg. I had surgery on Aug. 19th, so I'm kinda out of commission for awhile too.

Hope everyone else is well.

Gail

Hi, I haven't been to the forum in awhile. Being in the garden tour was lots of fun. I met some very nice neighbors including the older couple from around the corner who have no front yard only garden. They are going to trade unusual tomato seeds with me.
The best part though was having Husky and Penny come over. I of course had to point out pretty much every plant that has come from the swaps,lol. Plus my husband suprised us with lunch.
Mulchy, I'm glad the potato dish worked out for you. I've been doing a lot of canning too.
Gail, Sorry to hear about your surgery. I hope you are recovering nicely.
Take care for now ,
Remy

I have been absent for a while now too Remy. I had a dear friend who is in Biloxi, Ms. and have spent all my free time trying to locate her which I finally did a couple of days ago so now I have a little time to peruse the forums.

My regular hummies have headed south but I am getting quite a few migrators now. They have discovered my alcove bed with the balsam from the swap along with several salvias, perennial geranium and cannas from the swap and another agastache and are all over everything. My plantz are still going strong in fact a little too much so. I have created a virtual jungle this year and it is almost impossible to tell where one plant ends and another begins. My vines are climbing over one another at this point and I have had to wire one arbor to my fence to keep it from toppling.

Husky, yes some plantz are still growing in fact some salvias are over 6 ft. now. My cypress vine has left its trellis and has been growing up the side of the garage in between the siding and is headed for the peak of the garage roof. The morning glories have topped the neighbors 15 ft. shrubs and are up in one of his trees now LOL! Next year I really need to be more conservative in planting out my wintersown babies. The stone patio that I dug out over the summer has been staked finally and we are ready to add the crushed stone as soon as I remember to order it. We won't get much use out of it this year but hopefully it will be finished and ready to use come next spring.

Penny

Well it has been an exceptional summer for all of us...kinda sad to start putting the garden to bed...spent the weekend cutting down some of the spent sunflowers and trying to find the weeds amongst the flowers...my brugmansia's are putting on an amazing amount of blooms and im hoping the weather holds out so i can enjoy them all...and I must say after checking out Penny's garden, she does have some unusually tall plants lol...looking forward to checking out the upcoming catalogs and figuring what i would like to grow next year...have some ideas for the beds...hopefully will have the time to transplant and change around some things...wish list includes a lily bed and a tropical bed, will see what happens in the spring.