Kittens & Mystery Plants

MANY THANKS TO ALL OF YOU who so sweetly shared your condolences on the passing of my garden kitty, Willow. The sadness will linger as I venture to the garden and she's not there. However, my progeny, always looking ahead, have adopted a brother and sister team to carry the torch. Meet... 

Sister Nala and... 

Brother Taz. 

My photography isn't even close to stellar but this is the best I could do under the circumstances. Aren't they adorable?

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While driving last evening, I spotted this mystery shrub gorgeously cascading over a pristine fence. Quickly pulling the car over, I grabbed my camera and took these photos. I'm thinking it must be some kind of Escallonia but I've never seen a weeping form. Are any of you savvy people familiar with this gem? If so please enlighten me. 

The Albany Master Gardener garden tour was this past Saturday. It was WON. DER. FUL. The gardens were amazing and inspiring. The only drawback is that it was a clear, blue-sky June day, which meant most of my photographs, with the stark contrast between shade and sun, were not Blog-worthy. However, on the subject of mystery plants, I thought I'd share a photo of this hardy Geranium I spotted on a shady nook. The pink, star-shaped flowers are unfamiliar to me. Do any of you have a guess as to what variety this is? 

And since we're on mystery plants and pink flowers, (you know me), I thought I'd post a few more shots of my Gazbera, taken on the aforementioned clear, sunny day. Love, love! 

The rest of my photos are from the rose garden in Avery Park, Corvallis, Oregon. I don't have names for most of them. It was kind of breezy and cool so I just snapped and tried to enjoy the stroll. If you're familiar with these varieties, by all means, do tell. 

A HUGE rambler, this one has small flowers that start out pink and age to purple. 

Pink, ooh, la, la! 

Love the serrated edges of this gem. 

More pink. This might be 'Bonica.' 

This is 'Cinco de Mayo.' I have it in my garden. I love the indefinable coloration of the petals. 

I tend to favor the small-flowered bush types. This one really wowed me. 

Here it is again. 

Rosa mundi perhaps? 

This is another small-flowered, bush-type. Check out those petals! 

And finally, from my own garden, 'John Cabot' is outdoing himself this year,
despite having a 'Polish Spirit' clemmy winding through his branches. 

'Scentimental' is also a shiner this year. 

Finally, James Missier of Garden Chronicles blog awarded me the Versatile Blogger award! What a nice thing to do, James. Thank you! I wanted to alert you, my awesome readers, to his blog, if you're not familiar with it. He lives and gardens in Malaysia and it's difficult to leave his blog without a huge case of plant-envy.  

As always,