You've made great progress for three years. I can sympathize about the grass and weeds as I have lots to deal with, too. I always thought of z7 as the perfect gardening zone, but I guess there's always good and bad wherever we are.

I like your Carolina Moonlight baptisia! I have one that is close to flowering. Your rose looks happy, and that little campanula is a cutie. I'm using a similar one, campanula birch hybrid, around my yard. All nice pics, thanks for sharing.

Just a word about G. sanguineum. It "throws" its seed, so you'll have it coming up everywhere, and even as young plants, it doesn't pull out easily. I got rid of mine years ago--and I still occasionally see seedlings.

Hi & welcome!

Your gardens look awesome! I look forward to seeing more of your pics in the future.

Z7 does seem to offer a gardener the widest range of species to play with, most of the temperate perennials & at the north edge of hardiness for so many others. Also easy to do some microclimate/zone-cheating if all that's needed is to keep the ground from freezing.

I have never planted a rose bush, or even tended to one. Thanks to you, I just ordered "Easy Does It", absolutely gorgeous!!!!

Welcome. Your pictures are lovely. I particularly love your Baptisia australis!

Very pretty, Kez.

Our own climate is hot and humid in summer and cold in winter, but without most of the pre- and post-winter thawing and refreezing of some of our more southern friends. Easier on our perennials for everything to remain frozen.

Laceyvail makes a relevant point about Geranium sanguineum and seeding. 'Rozanne' is certainly a very high performance geranium.

sandyslopes, thanks so much for your comments. I love reading what other gardeners have to say. I've been stalking around the gardenweb forum for quite a while before joining and I recognize your username since a whole lot of your comments have caught my interest. About campanula - I've seen the word 'portenschlagiana' included in descriptions of campanula birch hybrid so I would think it's superior to the species version that I have, which is pretty enough to start with. I do love the little campanulas. Years ago, I also used to have the species form of c. poscharskyana which trailed out so pretty (now I see they have a hybrid form of it called Blue Waterfall?), and I also had a taller white c. persicifolia that I truly loved. I still want to get that one again, but I don't know where I'd put it yet so it's still on a wish list.

laceyvail, so you think that's g. sanguineum I have? Sure looked like it to me, too. Whatever it is, I haven't found a single seedling. But if I see any, I'll keep your comment in mind. I'm pretty sure this will be the 3rd summer for this plant. It might have been a little bigger by now except last year an armadillo played havoc through my beds and really, really disturbed it.

Tiffany, thanks so much for the welcome! I am so glad I discovered gardenweb. As I mentioned earlier, I had been reading the forum for quite some time before deciding to just jump in and join. I thought I may as well take more advantage of asking direct questions to other gardeners and exchanging ideas with them. One of the most recent posts I read before joining was one that was posted 10+ years ago called 'how to save a potted gift miniature rose,' which came in very handy since one of my daughters had given me a potted miniature rose plant for Mother's Day. I followed the advice in transplanting it (it was actually 5 separate plants crammed together) - planted two in the ground and the other three in separate pots. I am pleased as punch that all five of them are doing GREAT so far!

lisaw, I think you're going to love the 'Easy Does It' rose. I had never had a rosebush either until just within the last year or two. I don't know very much at all about rose care, but 'Easy Does It' really IS as easy as the name implies - I have given virtually ZERO care to it after planting and that's the way it looks. It must also be very tough because it survived an event just a couple of days after planting: I had planted 2 rosebushes close to each other ( 'Easy Does It' & 'Love Song') and all looked well enough for the first couple of days. Then on about the 3rd or 4th day after planting, I looked out my front window first thing in the morning, and there were no rosebushes at all out there. I thought some mean kids must have snuck around and ripped them out and took them in the night, but after I went outside to investigate I discovered the 'Love Song' about 20 feet away upside down in the middle of the yard, and 'Easy Does It' was way out in the middle of the drive with roots all pointed to the sky. Fortunately, it was lightly misting rain that morning which I'm sure helped keep them from drying out too terribly. I replanted both immediately, but the Love Song didn't make it. Easy Does It acted like nothing had ever happened. (I later figured out it was that blasted armadillo that had uprooted and threw aside both of the rose bushes!)

Kirstin, thanks so much for commenting! You know that yellow baptisia was a mistaken shipment, but now that I have it I really think I like the yellow as much as I would have the blue - maybe even more.

SunnyBorders - glad to hear from you. I recognize your username because I've already read a whole bunch of your posts and I always thoroughly enjoy them.

Absolutely love your gorgeous plants. I saw the yellow baptisa on gardenweb when someone posted and it's on my "I want one" list! I love the yellow!

Looking forward to seeing more of your garden photos, and seeing you chat on the forums!

Welcome! Lovely photos, kez! And I have to agree with lisaw - that rose is gorgeous! I don't have much luck with roses (must have something to do with the terrible way I neglect my garden, lol) but that one is making me rethink them....

Dee

Absolutely gorgeous! Looking forward to seeing more as the season progresses.

Thanks, diggerdee. If you ever do decide to get a rose, 'Easy Does It' is probably one of the easiest ones to try!

Thanks, catkin. I'm looking forward to reading up on all your posts.

Tiffany, i noticed on your profile page you list beautiful and interesting foliage as one of your big passions. That is something that has always interested me, too. I love to make plant combinations that feature interesting contrast in leaf texture and color when grouped together. One area of my new garden that gets full sun has tango tangerine alstroemeria, south seas daylillies, russian sage, oh so easy paprika rose, julia child rose, and purple verbena in it. I've been looking for something with black foliage to add in there. Have you had any experience with sedum knight rider? I am tempted to try it because i think the color and texture of the leaves would make a pretty contrast. And it's just about the right height (around 24"). Best of all, they claim it stays upright and doesn't flop out in the middle like a lot of the taller sedums do. The only thing that makes me hesitate is the flower color. I can't decide if it would clash horribly with the yellows and oranges of some of its neighbors.