Namaste, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Chess the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here to bring you the latest news from our garden. You may remember me from such excellent posts as “Carpets” and “Grace Under Pressure”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristically pathetic pose. Few creatures can look as pathetic as I can when the need arises. And it arose.
The guy I live with left me at home for hours today, to “work” at the Mother’s Day plant sale at Denver Botanic Gardens. He said it was a terrific sale. Big deal, I say, since I had to sit at home and stare out the window.
In the picture below, you can see pots of Caulanthus crassicaulis, one of the coolest of all native plants, and one the guy I live with has been searching for for many a moon. Imagine his excitement. (Because I can’t.) 
I’m kind of glad he didn’t bring this bird thing home with him. 
Actually, he didn’t take many pictures of the thousands of plants for sale, because he was too overwhelmed, but he did wind up going to the Rock Alpine Garden with Panayoti, because this is May and all, you know. This is the endangered plant garden. Physarias, I guess. 
And the crevice gardens. They seem to be peaking right now.
Looking toward the alpine house. The blue is from camassias. 
More crevice gardens.
Acanthus syriacus, a plant the guy I live with drools over. I know about drooling, but over a plant?
In front of the alpine house.
Behind the alpine house; the first crevice garden.
Another one, this time for shade-loving plants. 
Well, those were the pictures he took. He didn’t really work very much, which should surprise no one, but he bought a lot of plants, which also should surprise no one.
Back at home, I should show how he solved the problem of the two chairs and all the feng shui stuff.
genius at work
And then we had this visitor.
The hummingbird was probably mad that the guy I live with was so close to the Gilia (or Ipomopsis) aggregata.
Oh, and another penstemon is blooming. Penstemon angustifolius.
Well, that was his day. Aside from my walks, my day was pretty lonely and sad, as you can imagine, but I was a lot happier when he got home. Here I am looking that way. I discovered I can sit like this and move my hind feet up and down, which makes the guy I live with laugh, and he says he might make a movie of it some time. He better not. 
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 