Maddie, I hope I've done right; your email header said to edit so I just left in the gardening bit! Janet
Maddie says
"The heat wave here in Faerie Holler has produced more droughts, higher prices in milk and bread due to grain prices the farmers are having to pay, lower gasoline prices for whatever reason (!!?? probably in preparation to Shrub's hike in Fed gas tax....) but the magenta screaming watermelon pink crape myrtle is loaded with so many flowers it's leaning over the fence into the pasture where i flung the black widow spider last week and her eggs and kids and dead mate.......the white crape myrtle is pissed at me because i never trimmed the dead bits back after the kiilling freeze. but the fig tree is loaded and with all this heat, i might have figs before October. one can hope. I blew my grocery budget which is pennies as i'm not working yet, on a sedum from Lowes knows how to drive me insane. Her name is Frosty Morn.....she adores this heat. There is one ginormous frog that is ugly as mud living in the Frog Holler BBQ fountain. Ferns are thriving because the humidity is spoiling them despite the heat. It's gotten up to 107o with gods knows what the heat index is with the humidity (humidity?? in this drought? yeppers). Black eyed susans, pinched back May knight salvia, Blue enigmas, towering 4's and I'm gathering seeds to the yellow 4's frantically to share with anyone wanting them. Zebrina great grand sisters are crispy on top with thousands of seeds, but below, where I shoulda whacked it, new growth and new flowers. no sign of sweet Autumn clematis alas.....a reseeded petunia returned this time in the pot of yellow Baptismia, fever few is everywhere and I have one rare clump of snow on the mountain euphorbia I'm praying reseeds everywhere next year. Poinsettia euphorbia is also everywhere, but I adore the shots of orange in unexpected places. The hummer is frantically supping on everything. And the other day he spotted the red and cream flowers on the crown of thorns euphorbia house plant on the nook deck railing and was flittering about all squacky and estatic. Magenta phlox is winding down, so I pinched it, the white dwarf butterfly bush gets pruned and the flowers are cranking out and providing sweet warm honey scented flowers for all the floaters. Monarchs, Artillary, skippers, varieties I have to hunt in the butterfly book to see who they are.....The double althea in the back has three colors of double ruffled flowers packed on the branches. I planted them together and it looks like one bush........ Herbsonne Rudbeckia has reseeded all over but the finches adore the flowers that nod and flop about like lazy teenagers. I see signs of fall crocus or colchicums peeping up out of barren pots, the hosta's underneath the black cherry tree are blowing me away and beginning to flower. The lighter colors draw your eye as you pull in, but the mass of foliage is what slaps you up side the head first. The Cereus cactus has three buds, one is ripening at a fast pace thanks to this heat and I hope it holds off for it's night debut and one night performance until Tuesday.........Little sedums on the railings on the kitchen deck are blush pink in the heat and sun, they look like toes, so since I dug them in the sands of my sister in law's cottage yard, I'll call them Michigan toes............ It's too hot for gardening, but I'm out there sweating buckets, which is how I almost put my hand upon that black widow female last week. she had made a nest underneath the pads of prickly pear I'd dug up from Miz Mary's side where I'd planted them 11 years ago and had decided to plant them around the mailbox with the rest. It's in the pasture and has been trampled by the cows since Benton put them back over on my side again. Downstairs, I have an invasion of Wolf spiders. Not poisonious, but scare the hell outa me when they confront me and don't run quick enough. I usually don't kill spiders (except Recluse and maybe a Widow if I had to) but this has become an exception. The plants on the balcony are thriving in the heat and humidity because they're the tropicals and adore this environment. Soon enough it will be fall and time to think of bulbs and perennials. I will be just hoping I can stay in Faerie Holler for a season (year) and not be pushed to dig up and move my beloved plants. Despite my obvious absence in the gardens, a lot of things go on without me, including the Vinca major.......alas. it's thriving and growing feet per day it seems. evil stuff...... I miss you all and the lack of communication, and each day is a blessing when I wake to see the assorted winged dinosaurs at the front suet basket moving the Heavy Metal grasses and Golden rod that I decided to let do what it wanted to. The gardens are different again this year and I don't mind. Soon there will be someone with as much passion as me who will shape and mold the gardens with his hand and I will tell you when it comes about. I wish you all well, and I love each one of you. Keep in touch as best you can, send e-mails to snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com and soon I hope you'll see me on the newsgroup again! I have lots of pictures to share on the binaries as well..........((((huge MADDIE HUG))))))) madgardener, up on the steamy ridge, back in FAerie Holler overlooking a hazy and almost obscurred English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36