70 degrees here today. I was checking out refrigerator and freezer last evening, doing inventory. Lots of soups, roasts and steaks, but no appetite...we're still in big salad mode, eating light. In fact I turned on a/c to keep me and the frozen stuff cool while I cleaned and reorganized. Noticed the whole northeast is running 20 degrees warmer than usual.

Dug all my garden magazines out of unread stack today to see what "new" plants are touted. Best news is that Dan Hinkley will be writing regularly for Garden Design about his plant exploration trips and finds. I'll renew subscription just for that reason. On front porch my young Helleborus foetidus is budding...it's in a pot with Saxifrage sarmentosa as groundcover. Above it the Japanese Climbing Fern is still green and lacy climbing the porch support. Usually by now it's turned a creamy tan though still pretty. The little Chamaecyperus I used for Xmas tree is back on porch ...it's been almost as warm outside as its week spent inside so no big adjustment.

Still trying to decide re a kitten or older cat. And what new seeds/plants I must have taking into account how much I hate watering all those containers in August...LOL And I always thought I was a decisive person...the fewer decisions the harder it seems nowadays. josh

Josh, where did you hear about Dan Hinkley writing for Garden Design?

I just told my former boss (a CPA) I would come back and help him during tax season. I must be crazy, because I am in the second of a five year plan to renovating my yard and I have a lot of work to do while everything is dormant. Right now, it is way too wet to do anything.

Welp, started the new year off optimistically, but the alignment of the stars are such that one item after another is self-destructing. My washing machine is seeping gear grease on random articles of clothing, and so far it has only picked two of my husband's nicest dress shirts and the quilt I made last fall. I heard a brake thumping tonight on the jeep and it got two back tires replaced last week. Spent a whole day tearing apart an antique sewing machine and converting it back to treadle from where somebody had electrified it.............(three more to go upstairs I'd saved from anihilation). Just got it running again and the cabinet top splintered. Now one of the drives on the puter I use to burn back-ups died. This is getting old.

The upside is it's the wee hours of the morning and still over sixty degrees. I just took the dog for his moonlight walk and it's warmer out now than some nights last summer. I actually carried all the hanging baskets out of the solarium and set them outside to let them be rained on instead of pulling up a hose to water them.

My mother is visiting tonight, and I think I'll whip up a Tom and Jerry and that ought to zonk me enough I'll get sleepy. Tomorrow is another day.

Kris, Dan Hinkley's debut column is in the Jan-Feb 2007 issue of Garden Desugn. I really got a kick out of it as he mentioned climbing a hill in north Vietnam and seeing a big specimen of Curculigo crassifolia. I have a 14" pot full in my living room...bought it unlabeled for its beautiful pleated foliage and took me years to id it.

And the editor had a note that they plan a big article on his new garden this year.

Did you know he has a website with some articles on plant hunting? josh

Here is a link that might be useful: Dan Hinkley

What is the bright orange plant behind the Phormium in the first picture in that Dan Hinkley article? I think I did an image search for every plant named in the article, but no luck.

I don't know, but isn't it gorgeous?

I've sent my Garden Design on to my DIL, but the magazine has a website and a forum. Unfortunately my browser won't work when I tried to post a query. Would one of you try...then let me know? I don't remember the photo especially but I love orange...josh

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Design forums

I asked and will let you know if I receive an answer.

Yea, it is really cool looking; I want to see if may work for me in one my gardens.

Kris and Big Thicket, I guess my query went thru after all. Had an email today from Garden Design identifying the orange plant as Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire', common name Bloodtwig Dogwood.

Unfortunately this won't do well for my zone, but I can grow the Salix integra 'Hakuro Nishiki' which has nice variegated leaves and red stems (only in winter) which gives almost the same effect. I spend half my time trying to find "lookalikes" for our hot muggy weather...LOL josh