Thank you, Zuzu. That's how the catalogue described them and i was just hoping they really are that nice.

I picked up Zuzu today do some shopping.
When I got there, one of her cats had just deposited a gopher into one of her raised beds and walked away. Three others came and watched it as it tried to look menacing, baring it's choppers and trying to nip them but they didn't look interested enough to do more. We then walked away for a while to look around at a few blooms and when we came back, someone had finally dispatched it and Magnolia was tossing it around.






and lots of pretty primroses



and a few blooms in Zuzu's yard.

Beautiful helebores.





and some pretty primroses

The funniest thing about the gopher story is that it was caught by a fourth cat. Roger caught the gopher and carried it from the back of the garden, where everything's planted in protective cages, to a raised bed on the former driveway, where nothing is protected. Luckily, the other three cats (Magnolia, Chantilly, and Mambo) came along before the gopher could burrow down and kill everything in the bed. Also, Sue helped by kicking the gopher out of the bed and calling the other cats.

Team effort!

:D My cats don't go outside and I've only had 1 mouse in the house (well, apartment) back in '03, so my guys aren't hunters persay unless it's the Great Dangerous Red Laser Dot they're hunting, then they're all over it (well, most of them are all over it). When I was a teenager, we had a kitty who was indoor/outdoor (until he got eaten by coyotes the night before I left for college) who would bring me plucked hummingbirds (just their bellys would be plucked.. he'd leave the back/wing/tail feathers) alive. Poor birdies. My sister had a cat who would bring in live mice all the time.. one escaped and littered in her underwear drawer! 5 teeny baby pink mousies in her underwear.. my sis was NOT a happy camper!

Those primroses are nothing like what I see locally! I thought they were begonias, not primroses! Stunning!

Those rosette style doubles are especially pretty!
Zuzu and I got whole flats (16) of primroses at the wholesaler, disgustingly cheap! Some surprised us with different color combos, obviously different seedlings all planted together. These are doubles but not as full as that pretty one Zuzu has.

Nice! So lucky... I can't grow them here. Too dry. LOL

I love the cats killing the gopher story, complete with pictures no less. I didn't realise they were so small. I thought they were much bigger and wondered how a cat could manage to kill one. So I am glad you included the pictures so I could see the actual size of the thing. Good kitties!

That was a very young one, Rita. They usually are bigger.

If there was one baby out there their might be more. Keep a watch out in case the kitties find another one.

There are hundreds of babies out there. That's why everything they like has to be planted in wire cages. The cats catch and kill several each day, but these things multiply like crazy.

Oh we are gopher central here, there are lots of them, Zuzu has 25+ years of experience with them, I am in just my first year! The cats have caught 6 that I know of, the big dogs got one and are continuously digging for more and I drowned one, it was pushing up against the hose as I was holding it down the hole. That was a big one.

OH geez. I didn't realise it was so bad. I hate garden pests. Good for the cats catching some each day.

Oddly enough we have the same gophers here but they don't harm my plants. The only damage happens when the dogs try to dig them up and uproot a rose or two in the process. We used to have a dog that was a great gopher hunter, at the moment we have mostly wannabes.

Don't have gophers here, but every great once in a while a prairie dog will wander through our neighborhood. The local kites & hawks usually make quick work of them, though. We had a skunk problem last year, but they're gone too thankfully.

Yesterday's weather was one of the weirdest I've ever seen. Early in the morning (730am) when I left for work it was about 35 degs. About an hour later, it was snowing like absolute hell.. almost a whiteout. One inch & half an hour later, it was sunny. Warmed up to mid 40s. About noon it dropped back down & started to snow again, just a dusting this time. Cleared up about another half-hour later, sunny & bright w/all the new snow. By 2pm it was raining. By 3pm it was sunny again but the wind was back.. 30+ mph. By 5pm, calm & beautiful. The ground's starting to thaw out.. it's pretty gooshy but I doubt it's digable yet. I had to request Palatine to hold off on my roses for another few weeks, so they'll be shipping in April rather than March. I hope I hope I hope we get an early spring! With all this snow, my lilacs are gonna be spectacular and I will probably have a good bloom phase of irises, too!

uummmm Toni I think we have your weather today weird

Gloria - I promise I wasn't sending it your way.. I was actually trying to send it down south where the drought's still got a terrible hold on the land.

its raining cats and dogs here now I would gladly send it to them !! it has been the wierdest winter I can ever remember I hope all this wont be ice in the morning !! it was scary enough this morning took me 20 minets to drive 3 miles to work