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I'm at home, enjoying a slow morning. I'm going to the Bedding Plant Field Day at the KSU Research Farm this afternoon and evening, and that counts as work today.

It took twelve trips to carry that paper in last night. By got home just after I got out of the shower, so I put my sherpa hat back on and helped schlep the first load of F's stuff inside. Did not get the currants tended last night, just tossed them in the freezer.

Next to no knitting last night, just a few rounds on By's black sweater. It's 6 1/2" along now.

By's getting very cranky working for Terry. Not that I blame him; it's becoming a very high level of BS. Terry doesn't get to the job until 9 or after, so no direction until then, no clear plan on the project, and one member of the crew who thinks (mistakenly) that he's in charge. By's very tempted to call Johnny and switch jobs. Working for Johnny wouldn't be any more exciting, but Johnny has a very low BS tolerance. Robyn's trying to get money together so she can have By back to make inventory for the Plaza show; we'll see how that turns out. *crosses fingers*

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Got home a bit after 9, just a few minutes after By. jdoryt's stuff is moved from our place to her house, less a dresser and a pair of bookcases which are staying here. All in one trip, By said, because he is the master of 3-D jigsaw puzzles packing.

Parts of the seminar today were real snoozers, parts were really good. 4 hours of talks on soil structure and soil ammendments. Very important, I know, but dude, I already had this stuff in college, and it was sleep-inducing then too.

But the new flower lectures.....ah....I fell seriously in lust with a few things this year, as I do every year. Silver Frost euphorbia, bred by Proven Winners (tm), limited release in 2005....looks like a short, very fine-textured baby's breath; takes the heat (duh, it's a euphorb) but it's also done very well in this cool wet summer. First Kiss Blueberry vinca....a bit untidy (not as self-cleaning as other cultivars), but an amazing bluish-purple hue. Some nice new petunias, there's a new series out called Early Wave that resembles the very popular Tidal Wave series, but seed-prop rather than cutting-prop. There's a nice red in that series, or seemed to, what flowers the deer hadn't eaten. Ruellia bertollii, I'm told the common name is water bluebell...this was the highlight for me. Think shiny black stems three feet tall, willow-ish purple leaves, dense enough to look nice but not enough to hide the stems, and 2-3" wide petunia-ish lavender flowers nestled inside the foliage, just enough of a floral show to soften the architectural feel of the thing. I've got to have it.

Sounds like they're thinking about tossing the performance data from this year...our temperatures and rainfall have been so out of the ordinary, it's skewed the report. And what they have for soil temps so far this summer is also way away from the norm. The goal of the research plantings I visited (and four other sites in Kansas)is to try as many things as possible, treating them no better than the average homeowner would (they only get watered once a week, for instance), and judge them for floriferousness and vigor, on a scale from 1-7. The varieties that receive an average score of 6 or higher, for two years, are listed as "Prairie Stars". The idea is that we have a challenging climate, and none of the trial gardens for the "All American" program are located in the Midwest, so this program fills in that gap. They rate perennials too; there's a big planting of hardy hibiscus out there for observation right now.