Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to talk about some stuff. You may remember me from such similarly-themed posts as “Birds And Stuff”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
Bright, I know. The guy I live with said that’s what happens when you point the camera at the setting sun.
It’s hot and dry here, now, which, in a way, is a relief from constant daily thunder; the portable swamp cooler runs almost all day long, and into the night. I like lying in the path of the breeze made by the swamp cooler.
Even though it’s hot, the field is still green.
The ratibidas, Ratibida columnifera, are having a very good summer.
You can see that some have red-brown sterile ray florets; I think these are the ones, or maybe all of them regardless of color, that are called “Mexican hats”.
Yesterday his friend came over, and I took her out to the “way back” to show her how huge everything was there. Lavatera thuringiaca especially. Not the greatest picture in the world, I guess.
There are a lot; all self-sown.
Anyway, last week the roses came in the mail. The guy I live with wanted some for “the enclosure”. He’s never been able to figure out what to plant there since his wife died. So he decided on roses for the sake of sentiment.
The roses planted there last year all died over the winter, which made him sad, but he did admit to forgetting to mound soil around the little roses.
‘Celsiana’, “Léda’, ‘Kazanlik’, and ‘Banshee’.
This year he promises to remember to protect the little roses for the winter.
(Um, the cinder blocks. The troughs sat on those, and now that most of the troughs are gone, there are a lot of cinder blocks. He might find a way to give them away.)
There are other plants on the patio, being treated to the “super genius” method so that they’re well-rooted before being planted out.
And these. Some super-rare plants he successfully grew from layers. You can imagine the triumphant strutting. I know they don’t look like much. (The plants in the pots on the left, and in front.) From the Pamir Range in Kyrgyzstan.
He hesitated posting these on Facebook, because then someone might want these super-rare plants for free, which he finds unpleasant, to say the least. So he’s contacted a couple of botanic gardens to see if they want these plants. (He says they’re crazy if they don’t want them.) If no one wants them, he plant them here.
So that’s what’s been going on. It’s hot. It’s the guy I live with’s birthday, and he can’t go out into the garden because of the laundry smell from next door, which he says smells like “poisoned perfume.” Though really birthdays aren’t that big of a deal to him any more.
Tomorrow will be hot, too. It’s supposed be 99 Fahrenheit (37.2C) on Monday, which is extra-hot, for us, and then maybe we’ll be back to thunderstorms for a while. 
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Remind me, mani, what the guy you live with means by his genius method of growing on his seedlings. Thank you and do continue writing these messages.
Linda Meyer
Basically just repotting into larger pots. The guy I live with sent an article about this to Colorado Gardener magazine today.
Lovely dog, kindly wish the guy you live with: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Thanks, I will. We didn’t do anything, really.
yes, I would love to know the ‘genius method’ as well
Manny, please wish the guy you live with happy birthday
I am so tired of the heat here in NorCal – 105 today and 110 tomorrow then hopefully cooler next week
Thanks; the guy I live with says it’s the “Super Genius” method (he can be insufferable); basically repotting into large pots and filling the pot with a coarse mix like sand and gravel, so the roots come out of the root ball.
It’s supposed to be 99 here tomorrow which is more than hot enough for me.
Happy Birthday (yesterday – I’m a slow reader) to the guy you live with, Mani. And many more.
The guy I live with says thanks. He’s a slow reader too, but maybe that’s because of the books he decides to read,
A belated happy birthday. I hope you made his day special Mani. Can’t get over the change in the garden. It looks awesome. All those thunder storms have at least made the plants happy. I am surprised the guy you live with is planting roses as they will require some fussing with and extra water. Smokey here but we have received a few thunderstorms giving us some much needed rain.
Thanks. The roses are going into The Enclosure and will be left on their own once they’ve become established. They don’t need all that much attending to, unlike, say, hybrid tea roses.
He spent hours planting them, today.
It would be delightful if the new damask roses throve and masked the neighbor’s objectional emanations at times.
There aren’t enough roses in the world to mask that smell. The guy I live with talked to the sheriff’s department last Saturday (they can’t do anything) but I heard him describe the smell as “perfumed poison”. It makes everyone ill. We don’t get very many visitors (that’s a different story altogether), so there’s an upside to this, too. The guy I live with wouldn’t want people who come over here to get sick.
Please pass along our best birthday wishes to the man you live with, Mani. Try to stay cool. We’re so over this heat and have begun the countdown to autumn’s arrival which is ‘only’ 68 days.
Thanks. The guy I live with says autumn will be okay if it rains one or two times.
I know he has issues with the passage of time which have less to do with him, but I’m certainly ready for cooler weather.
Oh, I was late for his birthday. Well, I know you made it a Happy Birthday for him. Well, I suppose you do that everyday.
Thansk; that’s okay. It isn’t like it’s a big deal for him. I got extra biscuits, and that was the important thing.
99 Fair-enhite!?!?!?!?!? OMC Mani an Guy pleese stay innside when youss’ can!
This **heet wave** iss terryfyin! Wee watch American newss an wee see what iss goin on. Wee hopess youss’ due NOT have smoke from Bee Cee Wildfiress! They are still outta control…..
It has been hue-mid an sticky an BLEH heer too….butt nothin like what youss’ have!
Mistur Guy all yore Flowerss look lovelee. Wee like yore ‘Ratty’ Flowerss alot!
Our BlackEyed Susan’ss are gonna bloom soon!
HIRRAH fore THE seedlinss fron xotick placess….you reelly are amazin Guy. Wee sorry ’bout yore stew-pid stinky nayburrss. Poison Purrfume inndeed!
Wee still have Meth Fumess an Skunk Weed fumess heer….not all THE time butt enuff to set off BellaSita’ss Seezuress. Why can’t Peepell keep their smellss to themselfss????
Wishin youss’ a guud week purrhapss with sum coolin Rain (no Funder) to ease THE *heet*!!!
****ose bopss**** BellaDharma an 🙂 BellaSita Mum
Thanks. The guy I live with was sick for hours from the “insane” smell from next door, but he’s still here.
It’s not very humid here but tomorrow is supposed to be super hot and then we go back to cooler weather and thunderstorms, or so they say.
OMC wee are sorry Guy was so sick from fumess. How does hee cope?
Wee so sick of Meth an Crack fumess heer. BellaSita Mum blew a gaskit on fone to Property Manager. Shee iss THAT upset!
UGH wee hope it kewlss off soo. THE tempyturess are far too high where youss’ are!
Wee purray fore kewler weather……..
It was 99 degrees here yesterday. That’s 37.2C.
The garden is super-dry now. Hard to believe with all that rain, but it’s dry.
They say thunderstorms every day for the foreseeable future.
The smell is “insanely strong”. The guy I live with didn’t even want to talk about any of this on the blog but it has hugely affected his life since his wife died. It’s been especially bad in the last four years.
‘Banshee’ – what an unusual name for a rose! An Bean Sí
The guy I live with says anyone his age knows what a banshee is, from the Disney movie “Darby O’Gill and the Little People”. (He had forgotten all about that until he saw your comment. The movie scared him as a kid.)
Not mentioned in any of the rose books by Graham Stuart Thomas, but one online source says “before 1773”, which may be unlikely. A damask, I guess.
This one apparently isn’t the true ‘Banshee’ and so is called ‘High Country Banshee’, from High Country Roses, where he got it.
High Country Banshees are especially scary!!!
I’ll bet.
The guy I live with says three of the purebred border collies who have lived here were named after characters in Irish literature. Flurry and Slipper after characters in The Irish R.M., and Pooka after the Pooka McPhellimey in At Swim-Two-Birds.
But no Banshee.
Now I am tempted to try growing Ratibida columnifera again. They didn’t seem to like our winter wet, but maybe up under the Douglasfir trees where it is drier. Wondering if they might also be able to stand up to giant horsetail – somehow I think not.
Congratulations on the successful rare plant propagation too. Hoping the strutting wasn’t as annoying as all the grasshoppers. I enjoy a good mental strut when I am able to successfully propagate things as well.
The grasshoppers are really bad, especially in the field. I get covered with them, which I really loathe.
Ratibidas are really easy from seed, but maybe the first time, the seeds are best pressed into the garden instead of just sprinkled all over.