I like this gaillardia every year...I still don't know what it is.

Rosa chinensis mutabilis....I love this rose

For the life of me I can't understand why no one produces it. Ours are on their fourth flowering, they're fragrant, they're clean, and they change color. What more could a rose do?

Like most/all? disease resistant roses, they will accumulate a bit of blackspot on their older parts. I usually just cut them back hard every two or three years and that gets rid of the problem. I cut one of our plants back about two months ago and it's now a bit over 3 feet tall and flowering. You gotta love it.

The frost was not on the pumpkin, but the dew was on....everything

Volunteer day in the Asian Collections

Julie spotted two of these baby box turtles. This is the larger one!

I'm always glad to see signs that box turtles are reproducing. What with buildings, parking lots, roads, cars, etc. things don't seem to be too congenial for them. I was encouraged to read a study that suggested that while a good number of drivers will swerve to hit a snake, almost everybody makes an effort to avoid hitting turtles.

Morning sun through the weeping Katsura on Korean Hill

Boehmeria biloba, Sandpaper plant....it feels as good as it looks!

Bad day for a picnic lunch

We had some serious weather this afternoon. Finally. After waiting since last night and watching rain fall steadily and heavily on the mountains 50 miles west of us. It channeled south to north all day. We watched "our" rain falling in other places. The High pressure front moving from west to east couldn't budge the rain coming out of the south. Until about 3:00 in the afternoon. Then we had wind and rain and a tornado. First branches fell, then this tree. I can't wait to get to work tomorrow to see what needs cleaning up. But the good thing is that we finally got our inch of rain. Or at least we got close to that.