Colquhounia coccinea...I almost missed the flowers assuming the first blooms would be terminal

After waiting all summer, I stopped looking closely when the temperatures began to spend most of their time in the 40's and 50's F, figuring this wasn't going to be the year. Noticed these flowers today near the ground which is 5--6-7 feet below the tops of these plants. Wow, first the Hibiscus mutabilis 'Flore Plena', that had 19 flowers open today, well halfway open. It was cloudy and rainy all day. Now this. I have to think that if we chose to site for flowering we could have done better. Maybe against a west facing wall, or behind a dark paved area, someplace that would accumulate warmth. Or maybe when these plants have bigger root systems next year) they'll get a faster start and flower earlier. We'll watch.

Rose 'Fortune's Double Yellow'....it rained again today

Fortune's Double Yellow, an old China Rose, makes a huge sprawling plant that puts all it's energy into a single explosion of fragrant yellow flowers suffused with orange. Though it doesn't rebloom, I like it a lot...in spite of those thorns, thorns that are so much worse than they look. They're "small but fierce" as Robin Williams said of his....equipment in Death to Smoochie. (a wonderfully quirky comedy with Edward Norton) I think it's that little curve. And they're strong; they don't break off, they rip and tear cloth, flesh, hair, whatever. Interestingly though, and I attribute this to the curve as well, they don't catch leaves at all. Three large shrubs (6-10 feet in diameter) hadn't caught a handful of leaves between them. Adjacent plants, including a couple of roses, looked quite messy, but the 'Fortunes Double Yellows' were clean.