Back in Business

It’s nice to be back with everyone again. I’ve just spent the last ten days reloading our computer after catching a nasty virus from a garden blog I visited. Actually, two blogs I visited, one of which had a virus that was more destructive than the other one. Long story short, I had to reload everything back on the computer again and reinstall four years of windows updates to add to the mix. I was going to do a blog on this whole subject, but to be perfectly frank, I’m tired of thinking about it because I’ve been forced to spend every free minute I’ve had the past week and a half fixing things. So, in a nutshell here is what I’ve learned from this experience and I want to share it with you.

If you have advertisements on your blog or if you are visiting a blog with ads, you should be very cautious. In one click you can expose yourself to a host of malware that is undetectable by your virus protection program. The Trojans are hidden in flash ads, for those of you that don’t know what a flash ad is; it would be one that has some type of movement to it. It may be a slide show or it could be a mini movie of sorts and you don’t have to click on the ads to be infected. I would say in almost all instances the person that has the ad posted has no idea they are infecting the PC of their visitors. Most of the time it will only slow your computer down, in a worst case scenario you will be infected by a popup virus that will disable all of your update programs on windows and will eventually cause you computer to freeze up. This is exactly what happened to me.

I’d also like to mention that the particular viruses I got were non-detectable by McAfee, Norton, Panda and Trend Micro. I was finally able to identify them with Kaspersky, but even then I was unable to delete, quarantine or clean the five viruses from my system. If you are placing ads on you blog or if you visit a new blog loaded with them I would recommend you use extreme caution or simply leave the site.

Now that we have this issue out of the way, check out these things that were blooming while we were gone. Get comfortable, this could be a long one. If you get tired of reading, then just enjoy the pictures.

Jamie and I have thirty-three different types of cannas and we just got all of them this year so it’s been exciting to watch them bloom. This first one is ‘Stadt Fellbach’ I really don’t even know how to begin to describe the color of it. It’s a medium sized canna and only gets about two and a half feet tall.

‘Stadt Fellbach’

Now, I know you didn’t even think for one minute, that there wouldn’t be daylilies posted today, did you? This one is ‘Little Bumblebee’. It’s a pretty shade of orange but the name confuses me, I see nothing that reminds me of a bumble bee.

‘Little Bumblebee’

We introduced several new climbers to the mix this year; this is a ‘Snail Vine’. Last night while I was reading my Alabama Gardener magazine; I discovered a wonderful article on vines and such in this months edition. I'm so happy I found this magazine on Phillip's site. Did you know when a vine puts out its little shoots it starts to look for something to wind around and if it doesn’t find anything it will die? I found that to be so amazing, of course that isn’t all of them, only the ones the put out the curly tips or "twiners". It’s actually smart enough to put a shoot in another direction to find something to climb, almost as if there is some sort of thought process involved.

‘Snail Vine’

I am so proud of our Crepe Myrtles, they are just blooming their little hearts out for the first time. I’ve wanted some ‘Natchez’ trees for the longest time and I could never find them. Well, this year not only did we find them, but we also found them shaped like I wanted as well and at an incredible price to boot. I will admit one thing though; when I planted them I had no idea that they could get thirty feet tall. They will do just fine where I planted them, but they will be hanging over on my neighbor’s property and I’ve tried to be more conscious of where I plant things after Annie reminded me about the whole over hang thing. Judy says she thinks it will be lovely, she’s lived in that house for thirty-two years, but she may not always be there.

‘Natchez’

This is ‘Double Passion’ I was really hoping for a more breathtaking picture of this, but my camera lens kept fogging up from the change in temperature and the sun was moving into a different position. This is the best I could do for now.

‘Double Passion’

‘Mary Todd’ is another pretty daylily, but it’s very susceptible to leaf streak and this plant got a bad dose of it this year. I’ve been treating it and it’s looking much better, but I really had hoped to share it with some people this year. It’s not a bad fungus and for the most part, just makes the leaves look bad, but people can be very peculiar about their garden. I don’t want to be accused of passing a bug around. Some daylilies are more resistant than others and ‘Mary Todd’ has the weakest resistance.

‘Mary Todd’

This Canna is ‘Tropical Sunrise’, it grows to the same height as the previous one. None of the cannas we planted are considered invasive. If they were invasive it would only mean we have more to share with friends.

‘Tropical Sunrise’

‘Chicago Apache’

The monarda is really putting on a show for us. I’m going to have to move it after it gets done blooming this year. I had no idea when I planted it that it would grow as tall as it has. I would leave it where it is, but the ‘Red Dragon’ is being hidden by it, plus it really needs to go further back into the bed. It’s standing proud at the edge of the bed right now almost as if saying I will not be ignored and I will play second fiddle to no plant in this garden. At the risk of pumping its little ego it probably is the prettiest thing when have blooming right now.

‘Raspberry Wine’

‘Lusty Leland’

‘Luxury Lace’

‘Bonanza’

‘Gentle Shepherd’

I received this canna in trade this past winter. The nice lady I got if from has no idea what the name might be, it’s another pass along plant. She says it’s always been Granny’s Canna to her, so, that’s the name I gave it as well.

This last photo is ‘Dawn Pink’ and it is the cutest little thing. It only grows to about foot and a half high. The foliage is a wonderful shade of bronze. It stays so compact that I would almost consider making a small hedge of sorts or a border with it. You know, it just occurred to me it would be the perfect thing to put under the bird bath. I’ll talk to Jamie and we may just do that! Well, I hope I haven’t bored you with my ramblings today. :-) As always, we are so proud you stopped by for a visit and we will post a new entry soon.

'Dawn Pink'