Just what we all need...a somewhat eccentric neighbor. My last move was useful in getting two of those out of my life. One with roosters that started crowing outside our window at midnight and one with 6 barking Standard Poodles....

Carol, Does your neighbor speak English? If so, you are lucky.

So you can cuss at them in English and they understand you?

Oh, yeah - she speaks English. She's in a wheelchair forever. Decided she wanted barbeque (sp?) one day last summer so set a hibachi on fire on her front porch - 4x4 and all dry wood... in a mobile home park you might as well invite hurricane Andrew to come on by. Could have killed us all. Recently her neighbor on the other side kicked her 34 yr old worthless drug addled son out and Ms. Eccentric invited him to set up housekeeping in her back yard - about 15 feet from my back door, and no fences allowed. He's gone - I did it and the police cooperated gladly.

Oh, this is the Blooming thread, I forgot. I've got buddleja lindleyana, columbines, heucheras, and my loropetalum 'Razzleberri' blooming, along with some zinnias that don't seem too enthusiastic about it, and are not the colors that the package promised,

I planted more bulbs today, or corms and rhizomes. Got gladiolus atom and curcumas (Siam Tulips) from EZ to Grow Bulbs in the mail today and got them right into their containers. Will get pics of the Razzleberri and butterfly bush in the am. Too dark now. Oh, I've got boodles of seeds, some actually throwing up green stuff, but they're all summer blooming so have to wait on those.

Early blooms of Pineapple guava:

I wonder if mine will bloom here...it's settling in, putting out lots of new growth.

Finally took some pics of blooming things. Now to spend a while getting them uploaded. First is buddleja lindleyana, weeping BB. Second is loropetalum 'Razzleberri' (fringe flower). Third is columbine 'Blue Barlow', and the fourth one is artemesia 'David's Choice' going wild on the flower cart.





This one is the whole BB, along with the zinnias which are supposed to be really big purple and lavendar types. So far they are small and pink. Just have to keep trying.

Love that Columbine! I haven't tried any of them here...mostly due to mildew issues.

Sherry, If you are mentioning Pineapple guava, I wish you have lot blooms soon. But I hope mine have lot more crop (than last year) this fall. I am waiting... bet you too.

I'm trying to think of a spot to put a Pineapple guava. I love that plant, but am short on room for shrubs.

ctcarol - did you say mildew? Yikes. Thanks for the heads up - I'll watch them a lot more closely now. I've got a black barlow columbine in another spot, but its not doing as well. Maybe it needs more attention.

Cerinthe.....

CAROLHB, Yeh, I said mildew. So far it hasn't been a problem, this year because it's been cool and dryer than usual, but if we are still getting our "marine layer" when the weather warms up, it gets bad.

My "Easter cactus" forgot when Easter was
Rhipsalidopsis gartnerii

Very pretty...should be a 'Christmas' cactus

Soon......Lilac-in-Waiting....

Can't stop showing these sparkling blooms: (can I expect many big juicy PAGs when Fall comes? )

Looks like it's thriving! Mine is putting out lots of new growth since getting into the ground...going to be probably a long time before I know if it will fruit here.....

My columbines don't have mildew yet but I did find a couple of very pretty pink caterpillars on the blue barlow this am. No camera handy and the little cats aren't there anymore. I did get a good couple of pics of a butterfly on one of the dreaded pink zinnias which made me decide to keep those pink things. Got the replacement purple and lavendar zinnia seeds today. I've decided to plant these seeds in 1 gal. containers and wait until they're tall enough to hold their own, then take out the pink stuff and replace with the purples in their nursery containers. I'm hoping I can just leave those 1 gal. containers in the BB barrel to save the space for companion plants. O/W the BB will just take over everything. Does this even make sense?