Poop, rain has returned to Portland. It was such a great weekend, and I managed to spend most of it in the garden and greenhouse. I kind of over did it on the tomato seeds, but being a first time tomato seed harvester I was not sure on the outcome. From the two Sungold tomatoes that I saved the seeds from I have well over fifty plants....time to be brutal and "off" the weaker ones.

Just picked my Dahlia order up from last fall, don't recall what I ordered but there are four new one's that I hope do better than last year's. The surprise freeze did most of my tubers in, but I did get a few to come back by cleaning off the the mushed tubers, dusting the remaining tubers with sulfur and potting them up in the greenhouse. Out of those rescued I have five strong healthy plants, a far cry from what I started with. This fall I will lay a heavy layer of mulch over the dahlia bed and then tack down the lot with a roll of chicken wire to keep it together.

Yesterday I fertilized the roses, am getting some nice growth out of them and it looks like they will be ready for this years Rose Festival Show. Last year I trophied with my 1949 Pollyantha "Mothers Day" rose, moving me into professional status. Drat it, just means it will be harder to trophy.

We used to call the Mother's Day rose, Lucy's Rose, it was planted in the back garden when we purchased the home. Lucy Warner was the original owner of our 1916 home. Actually, her father built the house as his retirement home. He built the big front porch so he could sit and watch life go by,but his competitor purchased the lot next door and built his home just far enough out that Lucy's father could not see up the street when sitting on his porch. So the house was left to Lucy and she lived there until 1976 when her family forced her to sell and move into a care center. She passed away that same year, we believe she has not totally left the house as we have had many mysterious happenings and goings on that make us believe we have her spirit haunting the halls of Menagerie Manor, but those are another story.