I hope July doesn't fly by as quickly as June did. Some nice long relaxing summer days would be such a treat. We can only hope.

The rose pictured is one of the many David Austin roses. These are wonderful plants as they have that great old rose scent that has unfortunately been lost in most modern hybrids. As those plants were crossed and re crossed in the search for large flowers with different colors, the scent was usually lost. The David Austins are definitely worth growing as they have large flowers with that wonderful smell.

Gertrude Jekyll may seem like an odd name for a rose, but there is history behind it. Ms. Jekyll was a very influential garden designer, painter and author in England. Her younger brother was a friend of Robert Louis Stevenson who borrowed their name for his famous book, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. She died in 1932, at age 89.

When you pick fruit, remember that there are some that will continue to ripen after picking and some that won't.

Those that don't ripen after picking are:

* cherries

* citrus (orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit)

* grapes

* pineapples

* pomegranates

* soft berries (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries)

Most other fruits will continue to ripen. To speed up this process, put the fruit into a paper bag with an apple. The ethylene gas produced by the apple will be trapped in the bag and speed up the ripening.

A lot of us have enjoyed the early spring vegetables such as radishes and leaf lettuce. Enjoy them while they last as these crops do not like hot weather and will "bolt." This just means they're done for and want to go to seed. These and some other cool weather crops can be replanted and grown again in the fall.

I hope you have seen a rainbow or two lately. Whenever I see one, I'm reminded of something my youngest son learned in school as a first-grader: how to remember the order of the colors in a rainbow. The acronym is Roy G. Biv. Next time you see a rainbow, recite this and you will see how the colors go in this order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. I don't know if he still remembers this, but somehow it stuck with me.

Remember to cut those tall asters and mums back by about a third now. Doing this once or twice a season will produce much sturdier and shorter plants in the fall. We already have plenty of irises, gladiolas, etc. that need to be staked as they bloom, so save yourself some work this fall.

Also, be sure to feed any pot-grown plants every two weeks. Because they aren't able to reach down into the soil for nutrients, it's up to us to help them out. By doing this and faithfully dead heading the flowers, these plants should continue to bloom for you right up until frost.

Here are my latest words of wisdom. Old gardeners never die...they just throw in their trowels. Makes sense to me.

Elaine Cerny has gardened most of her life, starting in 4-H. Since then, she has always kept a garden of some sort, growing everything from fruits and vegetables to flowers and house plants. She has belonged to garden clubs in three states and is currently secretary for the River City Gardeners Club in Post Falls.