Related to Marie's chat a couple months ago, just wanted to take a moment to say hi. It is nice to see the usual fine people here and even though there may be some time in between posts, one thing stays the same, every now and again it is nice to check in on you all and just say hi. Whatever it is you all are doing, I hope all things are well with all of you.

Nothing but the best and blessings to you and your gardening.

Sincerely,
Benny

My goodness how nice to see you here Benny !! How are things going with you and your garden and family ? Are you still in Colorado ? It is pretty dead here so was pleased to see some activity !

Hi there!

The garden is wonderful and even more so with this recent bit of rain. We are still in Colorado and I am not sure about gardening here. I had to start completely over due to hail. Let's liven things back up!

So, what is growing in gardens down south?

Here, the cherry tomatoes are getting some blooms, the sunflowers are about to send forth a bounty of blooms, the bee balm is about to bloom and the penstemons are full of flowers giving the hummingbirds a smorgasbord to choose from.

I found this wonderful sunflower called Tarahumara sunflowers. You can read about them here:

http://www.seedsavers.org/onli...

I love the back story on these and I believe they could be grown in Arizona.

Apart from this, the violas are still going strong and I have a miniature field of goldenrod which will soon send out a proliferation of blooms making the butterflies happy.

As always, nothing but the best to you all,
Benny

Hello again Benny !

I am growing a lot of very colorful Coleus the last few years here in Tucson. In the fall I take cuttings to start in water then pot them up and keep them in the house under plant lights all winter ready to plant out when it warms up. They are sensitive to cold. I just love all the color ! Also for color I have been growing African Rose Mallow which gives a deep red color and the leaves remind me of maple leaves.

I tried once again to grow sunflowers but as soon as they get tall and start to bloom the Gold Finches strip the leaves. Never seen anything like what they do to those leaves so I lost all those. Thanks for the site on sunflowers you linked. Sounds interesting.

I love violas and grow them in the winter but as you know our summer heat finishes them off here.