When Mike Dirr tells you your garden "was a joy".....well, that's a good thing

That would be the Asian Collections at the US National Arboretum. And when he follows it up, in the context of a discussion about universally diminishing resources with the comment that, "you can tell the people who work here know what they're doing and care", well....whoopee

I picked a bad day to leave my camera at home! Ten fire engines at 7:00 then a visit from the author of the Manual of Woody Landscape Plants and the godfather of the same. Oh well.

I try to not carry my camera once a week. I don't always succeed. I think I see the world differently when there's no possibility of photographing it.  Things are a lot easier than they were 25 years ago so that carrying a camera isn't the terrible responsibility it used to be but it's still a burden. Back then it took from an hour to all day to take a decent close-up of a flower. Now I bet I can do it in 25 seconds. And that includes taking out the camera case, opening it, turning the camera on, changing a couple of settings, framing the shot, and taking the picture. My pictures are, I say once again, snapshots. The exposure is acceptable, the image is usually sharp, and the composition is generally pretty good. I can take credit only for the composition. I owe the rest to technology.

Oh yeah, the fire engines were a response to a smoke detector tripping inn the new greenhouse complex. Amanda and I heard the alarm when we arrived just before 7:00. Because she's conscientious, we checked it out and smelled a little smoke. There was no fire. We contacted Security who checked the alarm and called it in. Very quickly there were ~10 units on site. Most left quickly when no active fire was discovered. They cleared the area and we were back in withing the half hour. I never found out the source of the smoke but it smelled like bearing in a motor or a pump.

Anemone hupehensis.....we have a lot of "Japanese Anemones" in the Asian Collections

These are Chinese and descendants of plants that I moved there in 1992. They live near the middle of China Valley between the bend in the path and the dry streambed on the south end of the collection. This is a wonderful plant for fall. You can cut it or just enjoy it. Obviously it's a long lived perennial without many issues. I have seen anthracnose on the leaves in cold wet springs, but nothing serious.