Garden Update, with Rose-a-palooza

Here's the state of the garden at the moment. The lawn needs mowing, but as you can see we still have an abundance of flowers to offset the slightly shaggy, unraked grass. The cosmos are still going strong, and the yellow dahlia between them -- and then there are all the roses. They're like a colorful constellation of stars, scattered across the back yard.

We aren't sure what we've done to make these roses like us so much. Maybe they're blooming despite us. Dave did feed them several weeks ago, and we've given many of them more sunlight, as I've written -- and maybe that's all it takes.

Here's a rose from the side of the garden that we hadn't seen bloom before now. I'm not a huge fan of this one, which is disconcertingly beige. I call it the "flesh rose."

And then there's this little orange number, blooming out on the lawn.

So much variety! And we still have a couple of bushes, heretofore unseen, with buds on the way.

Not everything we've planted has prospered. Some of the salvia is struggling -- I think our soil is too wet and clayey -- and our lilies-of-the-valley look really pathetic. (The jury is still out on whether they're experiencing seasonal or permanent die-back.) Our verbena and speedwell have been dusted by a white powdery blight, although in the verbena's case it doesn't seem to have hurt the plants. Dave plans an attack with garlic spray this weekend.