Just keep real quiet, campanula, and maybe he won't notice, lol! I sounds like it is going to be gorgeous!

Lol...Oh that all sounds way too familiar! After my post last week about placing my "last" order...I did break down and order 4 from Vintage Gardens (...and yes, one of them is a huge rambler!) At least I'm not alone!

~Tammy

oh Ogrose - 'just keep real quiet and maybe he won't notice'! Are you familiar with Scharlaglut? Even here, in the land of tiny roses, it will grow 8feet high and 8 feet wide with huge scarlet flowers. True, sweetheart is often gloriously vague about what is new and what is extra but this!!!! even he cannot fail to notice.
So, OK, this is the minds eye picture I am hoping for - I have just removed a large tamarix (which I was under the impression grew as a medium, multistemmed bush - a good seaside plant but inland turns into a tree)and will be replacing it with a rowan I grew from seed (and is now also 7ft tall. In front will be the Scharlaglut, with a smaller cytisus (red and gold) in front of that and in the foreground, the Cambridge rose (cantabridgiensis - a pale gold hugonis hybrid) Maybe even squeeze a seedling cotinus in. I am hoping for a truly fantastic autumn vision of reds and golds....and also feeling quite proud of myself for actually PLANNING something instead of my usual adhoc mode of planting.

I just looked up a picture, I guess that rose would be hard to miss. Gorgeous!

Hard to miss, yes, but many significant others are so clueless about what is planted where and what is actually there to begin with, they'll probably figure it was there all along and they either never noticed it at the right time or it was never happy enough to look that good before. If he does notice, just state, "finally that thing is happy enough to do what I intended for it to do all that long ago when I put it there!" or, "that scrawny little thing FINALLY grew up!" Only you can give yourself away. Many just aren't as in to playing in the dirt as we are and only notice when they read the check book, we draw their attention to something or it looks so flat out, drop dead gorgeous, they'd have to be dumb an blind not to see it. Kim

I'm with Kim. Another one "boy, isn't it doing so much better now that I moved it to a better spot??"

Good to hear from you Suzy, I can always count on a laugh and that is always a good thing!

Absolutely, Kerin! That one always works! LOL! However, I think your husband likely knows them all by name in both gardens and probably comes to get you to show you how they're doing! Kim

I am DONE doesn't mean I am DONE FOREVER. It just means I am DONE for the present moment.

As in, when I finish dinner, I say, "umm, that was good, I am quite done." But then well, oatmeal and peaches sound lovely the next morning. And then I am done, but only until lunch.

Roses are like that as well, don't you think??

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Harborrose, I had to laugh. I used to say that also until I married my husband. Every time I used that expression, he would respond, what are you, a turkey? It annoyed me so much, I now no longer say I'm done.

And yes, roses are like that.

Although I congratulate you on a job well done, campanula, I do agree with harborrose, only done for the present. Who knows what the future will bring? Many more roses I'm sure!

I like the way you think, Kim! I'm righting those down for future use!

Thanks, Seil! The trick is not to lie about it. That thing DID take off once I "moved" it there. You don't have to say you moved it from the nursery or mail to where it's growing, just that you MOVED it. You didn't tell a story, it was true. hehehe Kim

Of course gardens are never done: they're alive, aren't they? We have been carrying out a massive fall planting, favored by a heavy rain followed by steady mild sunny weather, though that's about to change. The landscape has greened up after the tan and gray of late summer, and I'm dreaming about spring! Thank God that after a year of truly wretched weather November, most unusually, has been lovely.

Oh, what have we been planting? This year I made sizeable orders of clematis, herbaceous peonies, and, in the spring, roses. We also bought baby lavender, thyme, valerian, and purple coneflower in quantity and grew them on to planting size, and started a lot of cuttings last fall, various odds and ends and a grand quantity of roses. This fall we bought a lot of plain privet for green filler, and at some point this winter, I hope before Christmas, though that seems too good to be true, we have a shipment of baby hazelnuts and flowering ash coming, with a few each of smokebush, Viburnum lantana, broom (Spartium junceum, for those spots where nothing will grow), Viburnum x burkwoodii and a few other things. Right now I'm wrestling with the cutting grown roses. I was convinced I had written down a map of the beds of cuttings, but now I can't find such a map anywhere. After a year the labels are broken and scattered, and figuring out what's what is a fine pain. But we've been doing quite a good job of getting things planted, and I've begun my annual mapping, drawing our newest bed. This has been a good gardening month. And we got eleven tons of old hay and at last I can mulch to my heart's content!

Melissa

I have never managed to actually keep any sort of secret from sweetheart so I mumbled a confession whilst he was watching the football (still a bit sneaky though). He laughed and said something about 'low maintenance'. Showed him some pics of Scharlachglut (he likes red) and sealed the deal.
Ha, Kim, the art of tactful disclosure, while not EXACTLY a lie, has surely kept many partnerships from foundering.

Scharlachglut should soon cover the entire allotment. Then you won't have to worry about what to plant. I agree about the heps and the flowers also. And I'm glad that you are enjoying yourself.