A Few Flowers

'Moerheim Beauty' Helenium.. don't SNEEZE at it !

I love 'sneezeweed" Helen's Flower .. helenium in all cultivars just about . I started out with the simple "Red & Gold" one .. and it stuck .. I wanted more. So this year I found

Moerheim Beauty and Sahin's Early .. I think they are going to have to move to better positions though .. you know that thing about plants should have wheels until we are absolutely sure we are happy and they are happy with where they are ? This one has a friend keeping it company. I'm not sure if it is a beneficial bug or not but it looks very pretty with that flashy disco green colour .. a little hard to see I guess .. but take my word for it .. FLASHY !

Oh my ... which cone flower is which ?

Well .. I thought I knew which cone flower this one was until I was trying to find a reference link to post with this .. I thought it was "Twilight" .. then after seeing the pictures on the site I said "OOPS!" .. hum ? ... doesn't quite look like that one ...

Then I was tracking down Big Sky "Summer Sky" and by gosh (I knew I bought one of those too ) .. it looked more like that then Twilight ... then .. I knew there is always the chance of a mislabeled plant ... isn't there folks ... we have all been in that situation .. so if anyone thinks differently from me thinking this is now "Summer Sky" please let me know ? Thanks ! ... what ever it is .. it is gorgeous !

'Karly Rose' Pennisetum orientale for WOW Factor !

One of the most favorite ornamental grasses I have is Karly Rose a pennisetum orientale. I wasn't sure when I first planted it if it would take because it was just in our zone .. and sometimes that just doesn't work .. every garden has a micro climate and thankfully mine is fairly well insulated .. I have grown Golden Jubilee Hyssop for 4 years (just loosing the mother plant this Spring but I have babies .. phew !

In any case .. this grass has been such a wonderful surprise for a few years .. I have actually moved it and worried that I most likely made it mad at me and it would up and leave my garden .. but no .. another phew ! I do have to bind it after it comes out .. sort of mid July because heavy rain can make it look very sad and droopy .. but it has a Venetian obelisk to cling to and actually you can't even see it when Karly is at full tilt it grows that high .. I would recommend this as a feature grass for wow factor in any garden !

Little Lamb and Pinky Winky

The next hydrangea I read about and went mad for over the winter was

Pinky Winky. I know .. some of the names they come up with make you shake your head. This also looks like it is going to be one heck of a hydrangea. It has suffered from brushes with a big ladder (raccoon man couldn't help it) and drought since I haven't been on top of my watering chores .. once I get the front garden back to rights .. a nice big soaker hose is going to be used to make sure all these babies get their drink. I'm just happy to see flowers forming and not looking too shabby after all the ruckus going on there !

My first hydrangea was Little Lamb from Proven Winners, that I put in last year and was amazed at how well it grew and with so many gorgeous flowers. It was the first time I dried flowers in fact .. and I still have them on my kitchen hutch here. I can't say enough good about this little hydrangea and would certainly recommend it to anyone not quite sure about hydrangeas. It was my first and wow .. it is a wonderful one to start out with !

Raccoon Adventure FINISHED !!!!

This is the final episode of the final wrap up of the raccoon adventure !!!
Curtis our exceptional raccoon man came by this morning and did all the repairs from having the front of the house look a bit like a raccoon circus ? he worked so hard and we had such a reasonable bill from him we are pleased as punch : )
Thank you Curtis !!
I am just so happy that nothing sad happened with this .. I know sometimes bad endings are inevitable I'm just so relieved mom and kids moved on .. I hope they can survive in our too busy world here.
Thank you to everyone that took an interest and replied with such wonderful supportive comments. I appreciated each and all ! : )