Sounds like a 50's B-movie just in time for Halloween. In my wildfires post, I discussed the fire danger posed by cedars and promised you more information. Not long ago, like most rural residents, I considered cedar trees to be weeds that appeared on my acreage and in my flower beds. Irritating, but not dangerous. I changed my mind when I realized how invasive they are. The Oklahoma Redcedar Task Force was formed in 2001 to come up with some solutions to this ever growing problem (pun intended.) Per the task force's report published in 2002, although there are five different native junipers in Oklahoma, the one causing most of the problems is the eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana.) The other natives are Ashe juniper (Juniperus ashei), oneseed juniper (Juniperus monosperma), Pinchot juniper (Juniperus pinchotii) and Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum.) As gardeners living in a dry state, we're always thinking...

I've been thinking about the wildfires in California today. My heart goes out to the people whose lives have been altered, whether they lost property or not. Thinking about the devastation made me consider our own dry state. I know what you're thinking, "Not with the monsoon of June," but prior to last summer, our drought lasted years. Seven years ago, in Oklahoma's back country, two young men were seen with fireworks. They set off a wildfire that burned so hot, it annihilated both the buried telephone cables and all microorganisms twelve inches deep in the soil. I took this picture today showing the fire's continuing impact on one tree. I remember because our home was within three miles of that fire. Fortunately for us, the winds blew the flames the other direction, but we went without land line telephones for a month. I live in a log house, so...

I have a painting by Sandi Gore Evans titled "Last Rose of Summer." A Mason jar holds two yellow roses just turning to brown. Parchment petals litter the countertop. A lace curtain billows over the entire scene. I'd love to show it to you, but it is a watercolor and is covered by glass. This is the best I can do.The red rose on the left is 'Mr. Lincoln,' a hybrid tea. This is his second year in the garden, and he is still struggling to get a footing without being grafted. I live out in the country where the wind really does whip down the plains. Most of the roses I grow are on their own roots. That way, if they get frozen to the ground (which does sometimes happen) I still end up with the same rose, not some ugly grafted rootstock rose. (You know the ones ....

By now, most of the summer "make mine hot" perennials are beating a steady retreat as days grow shorter. Not so with Mexican Bush Sage (Salvia leucantha.) It is just hitting its stride, starting to open velvety purple calyces from which extend white blossoms beloved by both hummingbirds and butterflies, along with nearly every other pollinator known to man. I like how its stems bend in graceful arches, echoing the form of native grasses now heavy with seed. Plant information states that it is an evergreen perennial in Zones 8 to 10. I garden in Zone 7(a), but because winters have been consistently warmer in the last few years, I have a large stand of Mexican Bush Sage gracing my middle garden. It came back so heartily this spring that I actually divided it for the first time. Even in those years when it doesn't return, I still plant it...