That Tidal Wave clematis is beautiful. I have never heard of that one. How big was the plant? Good roots?
We spent the day laying sod because it's supposed to rain tonight or tomorrow. We laid 150 yards in 5 hours, but we had to spread compost and rake rocks and dirt clods out in that time too. It was just the 2 of us working and I am beat. I am laying tile tomorrow and that will seem like child's play after laying all that heavy sod.
My Palatine order got here today and I haven't even had time to look at them. I'll be digging holes for those plants tomorrow if it isn't raining.

Tidal Wave is just the name Michigan Bulb and some other nurseries gave Multi Blue. It's that old marketing trick of giving an old plant a new name to deceive consumers into buying the same plant twice.

Clematis 'Multi Blue'

Yea, I posted that in the Clematis forum. But I figured that, for my first clematis, get something purdy. And since it was only like $5, I can't go too terribly wrong.

Rained a little again tonight. Wish we could get a night's worth of drizzle.. like 1/2" or so. That would be killer.

Nasty storm just blew through here. Small pea-sized hail, LOTS of lightning/thunder, good rain (probably 1/5th of an inch). Hey, I'll take any & all Mother Nature's willing to give me!!

your storm just got here...my poor dog is so nervous. We went out in the thunder to get last minute photos of roses, and one particularly was for you...Just think of that, Toni, I risked my life to send a photo of a purple rose to you!
Oooh worse, I risked getting my phone wet.
Can anyone come up with a name for this rose? I bought it from a box store 4 years ago as a body bag rose. It had a name on it that was obviously wrong, but I think it's probably a common non-patented hybrid tea rose.

Cindi - Looks like Paradise. I hope your pup's OK & I thank you from the bottom of my pathetic little shriveled 2 sizes too small heart for the picture of the purdy.

I think we got the same storm here. It dumped pretty close to an inch of rain, I'd guess. The soil is nice and damp, and the seasonal stream was running for a bit.

Cindi, I also think Paradise might be a good guess, especially if it's a good smeller. I'm glad you posted it, because as I was watering today I was trying to remember the third rose I planted in a triangle with Barbara S. Mine just started setting leaves two weeks ago and the new canes are maybe two inches long right now. Maybe in a month I can start thinking about blossoms.

Meanwhile the lady beetles are battling aphids. I saw the first lady beetle in the garden two, maybe three weeks ago. Then, last week I saw aphids on Nouveau Monde, the first bud in the garden. Today while I was weeding and watering I saw maybe four or five lady beetles without looking for them. One mistook me in my white mesh shirt as a giant aphid. It didn't take long for her to figure out otherwise and she flew away.

Right now it would seem that most of the animals that damage my garden are elsewhere. One HT had its new leaves nibbled off, three or four days back. I'm imagining that the culprit is the animal that takes the Jiff from the squirrel traps, springs them, and leaves. But at least I think the garden is prepared for Bambi's return. Sometimes I don't bother to turn the motion-detection sprayers off and it always gives me a good scare when I get hit with them - which has happened pretty much every day for a week.

Surprise!
Someone posted this on another forum and I can't stop giggling about some of the silly pics:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/custo...

We're getting a good slow rain here this morning. I'm supposed to be outside cutting iris to enter in the show but the lightning is scaring me off, or maybe it's laziness. I should have cut the stalks last night. The biggest challenge is writing down the names in the rain while holding an umbrella. I forget the names before I get back into the house! It's a two-person job. Sure hope they get enough entries to call it a show....and I have loads of blue ribbon iris growing out there. dang it.

I'll tell you, if you are moving through the garden slowly and are completely immersed in thought, the loud hissing and the stream of water it can scare the bejeezus out of you. So I liked the Pope photo.

Good luck with the iris show. Most of mine are still on the way.

Yes, especially the one of the Pope! And the wicked witch. How funny!

Just a notice to everyone east of Colorado. Some nasty storms are heading out that way right now.. thinking it's gonna hit Kansas (Cindi) and pummel the crap outta it as it's one of those heavy July storms filled with hail & stuff. Didn't get any pictures of the cloud bank as my camera wasn't in my van today. No rain for me today unfortunately.. kinda hoping 'cuz I just put in a couple of roses I got from HD and a tree too.

Wow Toni I read your post just seconds before my phone beeped its weather warning.
Dang. Really don't need hail tonight.

Ooh, Cindi.. please be careful!!

What roses did you get from HD? The native (really just xeric) plant sale I went to today had an Easy Elegance rose I had not seen before-'High Voltage', a bright yellow. I passed it up because I'm trying hard to stick to my wish list.

Cindi - I started a "Hunt" thread where I'll chronicle what I get where. If there's something you're looking for, let me know on that thread & I'll keep my eyes out for it.

Enabler!

Warning to those east & north of Colorado. There's a massive line of bad storms that's brewed up here in the Denver Metro & it looks like it's going to follow I76 north & east. I don't think that Cindi's in danger from these storms, but Gloria might be. It's my fault these storms built up.. I desperately wanted to take pictures of the SuperMoon tonight, and since I wanted to, OF COURSE! it's going to be overcast & yucky.

The moon was quite lovely here when it rose!

I saw that on the news last night Toni I just hope it dosen't rain Tuesday thats my day off and I have a LOT of things to get done lol

We got hit pretty hard last night. It started here at about 1130ish and it stopped (well, I fell asleep) at about 1230ish. VERY full of lightning and thunder. Not too sure as I was too lazy to get out of bed if we got hail. Looked out the front door this morning & didn't see any hail pileup, so if we did, it must have melted already. Now I need to get the rest of my stuff in the ground!!