Sooo beautiful, Boxo! Totally lights up my otherwise rotten, frustrating day! YOUR TIMING IS IMPECCABLE AND BACK TO YOU!!!!

Finally, the Gorgeous D'Arby makes his Place as King of the Beau-qet, the Bumblebee is ADORABLE, and Dark Lady is beknighted at the Round Table, lol! Fantastic roses and garden, and always the LUMINOUS BOUQUET!

Boxo - I can't believe how massive and gorgeous your Abe is!!!!!!!!! It looks like it's 6 inches across!!!

Your Dark Lady is no slouch either!!!!

Wow!!

I love your clematis too. What a star!!

Carol

KG, You know how that old song goes......Momma told me there'd be days like these :-( I've had better as well, I'm going to have to put one of my biggest most beautiful Koi down along with struggling against a ph/ammonia pond crisis. So today I was up about 20' on an extension ladder painting most of the day while also doing a water change and testing. I am absolutely bushwhacked &^%$*&^)&+)....~@^@~ so I can so relate !!!

Oh, no! Boxo, so sorry to hear about that. and yeeeks, be careful on that 20' extension ladder! I'm gonna be crossing my fingers for you! I just loved the Koi and the gorgeous water lilies :( :( :( Never imagined I'd have an :( on your thread, whereas it's pouring bad luck on my end. First the dead bushes and hideous front of the house, the neighbors glaring at me whenever I dare step out of the house, then this terrible disaster with Kansas IRS. but at least you bring SHEER Sunshine to Everyone who visits your thread. And you TOTALLY BRIGHTENED MY DAY AND EVENING! I had to come back to your thread to totally relax and relieve the stress by seeing all these intense colors and the smiling D'Arby, especially. He always seems to "smile" with his pink cheeks and lift up the spirit when it's at its worst. Carol also said it perfectly when she called your clematis a star!

Oh, I forgot to ask...Is the Prince awake? I thought I saw him in the bouquet. Top left 1/3 corner (first bouquet)and 2 more at the right corner (2nd view of the bouquet). I've always enjoyed the Prince as well. :D :D

Lovely blooms. The bees behave like they are drunk, they seem to roll in the pollen.

You certainly started my morning with a bang....

Smashing bouquet there boxofrox! All flowers/roses look good! I see that bee having fun... lol

No Prince yet, that's Midnight Blue which rarely comes across in a photo as purple. That is a small Gertrude in the first bouquet though :-)

I got dizzy just trying to take that bee pic ;-)

Thanks Jim, I'm thinking everyone got the wake up call because there are swollen buds galore. My Chinese peony is half open so you can see what's coming.....I love that part.

Boxo, then you have got the most GORGEOUS Midnight Blue ever! I've seen plenty of Midnight Blue, but yours and the Gertrude have all the Glamor and the Zing! Just bring out the Royal Purple Carpet, lol!

Haha, I remember last year the bumblebees were teddy bear cowboys in your garden with their saddlebags. You and I were laughin' our but*s off at those hilarious creatures!

Wow, the Chinese peony's deep pink reminds me of the intense coloration of my new heather blooms...I am looking forward to when it opens. I love bicolors!

If I remember, it was the bees on the California lilacs because the swing is flanked by two of them and you can hardly hear yourself think when they are getting jiggywhichit :-)

Dang, that peony and about 20 AD are half opened and the rain came and the temp dropped :-( I'm hoping they still open, that peony is the one that the slugs got last year so I've only had her first year..............

The rose bouquet is beautiful and your other blooms are too. Love those peonies!

Thank you seil. The peonies are going to be awesome this year, me thinks. I have three colors clumped together...that one, one a little darker than the color of her solid petals and one (Sorbet) the colors of her lighter ones. If they all bloom together it should be really cool :-)

I love your bouquet!
The peonies and the white clematis are lovely, too.
Sandra

Me hates the rain thwarting my Stalkin'! lol, lol! Drat that rain!!! I'm holding my breath Boxo, waiting for the next MAGNIFICENT SHOW OPENER! Boxo my Russian sage is starting to bring in a few honeybees. They are from a new hive because the coloration is different. Their striping is much darker and not the golden hue of last year's Italian hybrids...I believe mine are the Carniolan! So hopefully more and more will start to mob my Russian sage. It takes an initial few before they can bring all their pals, and we've had soooo much rain that the honeybees were prevented from coming to my garden. Rain damages their wings so they dare not come out with the bad weather. Another worry is that 2 weeks ago, I caught my new neighbors spraying their entire house with an exterminator, so I am very worried as well. All I can do is wait and see and cross my fingers!

Russian sage's bloomtime is so loooong! It will be from the first week of June all the way up to November! However, your lilacs are the most Showy of all! Russian sage has a feathery look and not the rich fullness of lilacs of course! Hopefully we will get lots of bee photos for you and I! Hip, hip hooray! I am also looking forward to the Boxo-inspired-sedum that I got. I am truly hopin' to sweet-talk the honeybees into staying in my garden.

Boxo not a single sign of a bumblebee in my garden :( so I will have to experience the glory secondhand through your Garden Paradise! :D

It appears that my 'Victoria' ceanothus are going to be staggered in bloom this year(I have 4 total). One is going full steam now but the others aren't even close yet. I have bees galore (not to rub it in ner nuttin ;-)

heyyyyy >:O no prancing in circles around me when it comes to the bees! I'm trying my hardest, Boxo, lol! I can't help it if my neighbors are spraying all these poisons around (wail!) or if our rains keep drowning the bumblebees!

And yup, you guessed it, it's raining on My Parade again! Ferdinand Pichard is opening up and even the baby blooms' colors totally POP several feet away! But again, the rain is soaking in, plus some dang insect ate up 3 of FP's buds, grrrrrr. I looked today and I can't find a trace of those other 3 buds, Grrrrrrrrrr!

I like staggered blooms, Boxo, because that means a longer season of spread out colors. Unfortunately, this doesn't work as well for the roses. For once I actually am doing a decent job with planning for the color coordination of my roses in that one backyard lot, but the roses are not cooperating because they need to bloom at the same time to have that wonderful colored coordination.

I'm doing Royal Sunset, Lincoln, Royal Dane (future), Lincoln, Aromatherapy, Folklore. The Royal Sunset and the deep pinks and violet-reds of the heather will look so pretty when it weaves behind the Lincoln and future Royal Dane, except....Royal Sunset is always blooming when only Lincoln is baaaaaarely starting up or is already past blooming (brick wall smackdo)....

Isn't it funny that here you are a Master Gardener, and therefore you never have to freak out about tiny mishaps or delayed bloomtimes, whereas when one is stuck with an Ugly, Lumpy Garden, the smallest things consume us. I'm sure if I had Abe's 200 blooms, I wouldn't sweat 3 itsy bitsy rose buds! But since it's MY PRECIOUS BABY BAND FERDINAND PICHARD, I'M READY TO BE A FLAME-THROWER. Mystery bug has also been making my fat-Caned Crescendo tree rosebuds disappear into thin air. Thinner-caned Crescendo is a far better bloomer and has escaped these predators for some weird reason.

Hey, who you calling a freaking MG. I'm just an Amateur Owner to Garden....Nothing more, nothing less ;-) Since the K in KG comes before the M in MG, to my way of thinking that makes you just a bit more betterer !!!!! I think the whole deal is just don't be afraid to take the liberty to allow your imagination to run wild and free. That's kind of how I got to where I am. My wife has some connections in the aviation world and I'm thinking of trying to get a good aerial shot of my garden. I think it would be fun to see the design scheme from above :-)

lol, BOXO EVERYONE KNOWS YOU ARE A FREAKIN' FABULOUS MASTER GARDENER, HAHAHAHA! Yeah, we are ready to Freak Party ON with your ever-FABULOUS SHOWINGS. Just for you, I went to look up some emoticon new expressions, since you are so much more "hip" than me when it comes to abbreviations but here is us doing the Boxo cheer and encores

*\o/*

the asterisks for the cheerleader pom-poms, hehe!

ooo, by the way Boxo, I just went to my backyard after a client meeting and saw a huge surprise. My baby band Anna de Diesbach has A HUGE BLOOM ON IT! Maybe it decided to borrow a teeny bit of Abraham D'Arby's bloom Powwa, lol! in terms of how full and how generous it is! So many ruffles and softness. But of course it doesn't have A.D.'s beautiful Peaches and Apricot. It's a varied pink/soft brushed lavendery but mostly pink. Looks like my Lumpy thread is gonna come sooner than people might be able to stand....I think I better wait an entire week though. Two lumpy threads are like having Oatmeal for Dinner, whereas people go wild with all the Delicious and Delectable Back-to-Back 5-Course Boxo Gourmet Gardening threads, haha!