Purple, we don't know where the OP lives but judging by the fact that the Sweet William is in flower presumably the pictures were taken a little while back. In which case Muscari armeniacum would be in leaf. In some climates, including mine it is evergreen anyway. M armeniacum is by far the commonest and weediest of the Muscari and going by the overgrown look of the beds I doubt anything choice is likely to have survived there. Since all the white part of the foliage in the photo would have been under the ground the foliage doesn't look particularly long to me. As you say Allium would be easy to id by smell. But I'm still putting my money on the grape hyacinth.

Sand is not a good soil component either unless only used in small amounts. I use unglazed, un-dyed coarse gravel from the pet store. Here it costs $2.99 for a 5-lb bag. I mix that about 50-50 with soil from my garden. The soil is high in clay. When wet, it stays together. When mixed with gravel, it crumbles apart easily. I also add lava rock for those species that are more sensitive to overwatering. For me, Stapeliads do not qualify. If I were exposing them to unobstructed rain, then I would add lots more drainage material. Most of my plants are protected from rain in an unheated greenhouse. Since I use garden soil, extra fertilizer is not necessary, and when I repot in 2-3 yrs, the new soil will have new nutrients. Keep in mind though the soil I use has minimal compost and humus. It would be considered poor. I have a patch where I "quarry" from that remains bare. I would repot now. Keeping them in peat increases the likelihood the roots will dessicate, making it also more likely for the plant to rot when you start to water in the spring. I water mine lightly occasionally during the winter. As far as temps go, I have never had a problem exposing my Stapeliads to temps down to 29-30F. They are still outdoors now. Even Pseudolithos from "hot" Somalia doesn't mind the cold. I'd bring them in but space is limited so I stretch it out as much as I can. x

I had to act fast, so the first advice that came through on this thread, I took! These poor green softwood cuttings have been planted in moist dirt in the shade, and our weather will be warm for a good solid 2 more months, so fingers crossed they will get a good start prior to dormancy. When winter comes, it never really is what Eastern folks think of as winter. It's more like sunny and in the 60-70 range. Nights can dip kinda low, but rarely freezing. Snow has never happened. Now and then it rains. I'll post an update when and if I see growth on these cuttings. Next time I visit my friend I'll get more cuttings and I won't let them boil in the car for sure!! I'll bring an ice chest to bring them home in! Thanks to all of you for your great advice! Suzi

Oooh... more responses. So a bit more information... I'm just a single guy with no pets or kids, but I do have a roommate. So wear and tear won't be excessive, though depending on how much I like to sofa it may have to deal with permanent imprint marks from me lying on it all the time. I also do host people over occasionally though I wouldn't say all the time. Here's the layout that I'm planning to make on this thread (and attached the photo). Dimensions aren't exact but I would look at getting the same set for all the sitting pieces on the west (left) side of the photo). I just got off the phone with Carolinachairs. I told them I liked the restoration sofa and they commented how it's very similar to the Henley they have. Right now she's going to look for some photos about what sort of changes they would look at to have it look more like the restoration sofa: · round out the top cushions more to make them less angular · foam core vs foam core + down fill to provide some of the overstuffing look from the restoration sofa Any other thoughts on things that I should be looking out for? Some may ask at this point why not buy the restoration since I'm now changing one couch to try to make it look like another. The frank answer is pricing... carolinachairs can do it much cheaper and my hope is with almost the same level of quality (they made at least the checks on kiln-dried hardwood, corner blocks, and 8-way tied springs). Their model is build to order, so a couple of these customizations I'm expecting to be relatively cheap for them to do. And I'll have to double check dimensions to make sure it works well for my space.