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The pink petunias in front where grown from seed. Behind the petunias are Iceberg roses that I planted earlier in the year. I now have 12 roses and unfortunately I don't think I have room for any more. :-(

When we moved here, we found this rose planted on the north side of the house where it got almost no sun. That first summer we were here it only had one flower and the plant looked like it was barely surviving. That winter I dug it up and moved into the front yard and it's doing great. I have no idea what type of rose it is, but it's the sweetest smelling of our roses and blooms off and on all summer. It's grown quite a bit since this picture was taken.

I planted these daylilies in spring 1999 from a bag of 10 dry root plants for $10. That first year the foliage came up but no flowers. In 2000, 8 ofthe orginal 10 plants had survived the winter and all bloomed. I can't wait to see what they do in 2001.

This picture was taken in spring of 2000. The flowers in the front are Gazinias, which were supposed to be cold tender and die in the winter. Apparently they didn't know this since they survived and bloomed all winter. Beside them are pansies that I had planted the previous fall. Here in Wichita Falls pansies do fine all winter, but have to be replaced in late spring because they can't survive the summer.

The two bushes in the background are rose of sharon. I've really learned to love these although I wonder who Sharon was and what she did to get these wonderful blooming shrubs named for her. They're easy to grow and are very adaptable to different situations. I also like the fact that they have such a long bloom season. They start blooming in June and continue non-stop until early October. The only maintainence is deadheading in the summer and spraying for aphids. The pink flowers in front of the rose of sharon are vinca. This was my first time growing these but I don't think it will be the last. Those guys handled weeks at a time of 100 degree days with no problem.

I loved the gazinas I bought as transplants the year before I decided to grow them from seed this year. I found them to be easy to start from seed and I think these had even more beautiful flowers than the ones from the previous year. However for some reason these didn't have nearly as many blooms. It might be because I planted them under our crepe myrtle tree and they may not have gotten enough sun.