World's Oldest Potted Plant

via SFGate, this just in:
This plant has been in the same pot since 1770...?
(click on image to read larger)

The July Garden

We've been out & about, taking lots of pics, just not posting many here, alas. Here then is your July garden update...














1) a view from the studio

2) hollyhock, with studio behind

3) helenium, aka 'sneezeweed'-- when not in bloom, it doesn't look like much, but this time of year, couldn't recommend it more highly.

4) I re-planted some pots. They seem to be happy about it.






5) sunflower, bees. The sunflowers we planted are WAY behind a lot of others we see around. Hasn't been a very hot summer at all. And I guess we were late.



6) peach. homegrown.



7) echinacea aka coneflower, ready for it's close-up.



8) Dahlia! Usually, not too successful for me...






9) Our new pet, Spot. He's very quiet.




10) This strange-looking bud is very soon to become something like
11) this (taken at Mendocino Botanical Gardens)

More History of our House

Here's our house in '52, with it's builder, Jack Robertson, center, and his wife, Alice, & his parents.

You see that nice craftsman-style window? Gone. Why? We don't know. Also note lawn where we now have sidewalk & driveway. (I'll have to get you the 'after' photo-- when I've moved the truck...)
We're thrilled to have access to so much history of our house-- in this case, via Ron Welsh, grandson & great-grandson of those you see here, and still in the real estate business here in Graton!

Russian River Rose Co.

We'd heard of this place in Healdsburg-- (open mostly on weekends in the spring) but somehow had never gotten there, so I made up for it by going twice in one week back in May...

If you like roses, or gardens at all, or vineyards even, try to go! Also lots o' irises, in the season.

I know that Butterscotch, (the unusually-colored bud, below) lies in my future, & I purchased Distant Drums, another slightly quirky-colored one I'd been seeking for a while. (last two photos)



That day we also visited the Dragonfly Farm, very close by, which is mostly a cut-flower business, although they allow visitors to wander their lovely flower fields.

lavender in bloom!

It's that time of year, the height of the lavender bloom at Matanzas Creek Winery (their phone message says the harvest has begun and will proceed gradually through July, so the time to go is now!)
I wrote about the lavender when I first visited 2 years ago.
Yesterday, we took a small picnic & some wine-- (that's my painting on the delicious bottle of Eric Kent Chardonnay!) early evening when the shadows were long, and it was glorious.