Shockwave Imagine my surprise as I worked my way around this tree rose while trimming off the spent vibrant yellow flowers.    Pink??

I just chuckled and thought, "Well, Grandpa Chris gave me a little blush." That's just fine. Who'd have thought that his favorite "Yellow Rose" would manage to lighten to a lemon yellow and emit a blush. Special!

Rose: Shockwave - Tree Rose In memory of Chris' late grandfather, William Christy Turnbough. He often played the Yellow Rose of Texas on his fiddle! An interesting note: This rose came complete with a small bird's nest, too. The message received was: "Life goes on in many different ways."

Red Sunflowers With the afternoon sun shining through the back side of the left sunflower, it becomes much brighter than its counterpart which is still in the shade.

Rose: Shockwave - Tree Rose In memory of Chris' late grandfather, William Christy Turnbough. He often played the Yellow Rose of Texas on his fiddle! An interesting note: This rose came complete with a small bird's nest, too. The message received was: "Life goes on in many different ways."

Water Hyacinth. As seen at dwilight.

We were told when water hyacinth in the pond became crowded that they would bloom. We put a few into floating rings and within a week they have multiplied to the point of 'crowding'. Today, we saw the first bloom.

Two plastic rings contain these water hyacinth. The theory was to keep the hyacinths grouped together to provide shade for the fish.

Obviously nobody told the biggest fish, a Butterfly Koi, because it enjoys surfacing straight up through the hyacinths and knocking some out of the ring.

Paul is an expert at Water Hyacinth Round-ups.

Rose: Mr. Lincoln - Paul's homeland of England has a red rose as their national flower. Mr. Lincoln represents their red rose.

Rose: Honor - This lovely rose came to us along with an infestation of Japanese Beetles. I found an 23 year old can of Sevin Rose Dusting Powder in the garage and the Japenese Beetles are history.