You know Kristy I'm not sure Santa thought Barry was good enough to get a little something.LOL (just teasing) But I'm not sure Barry has a chimney. Santa may have to find another way to deliver something to him. No Barry we were not able to get you one of those girls that work at Hooters. We tried but the were all taken. Shoot, I'm not even sure he knows what a Hooters girl is. LOL They may only be in TEXAS. I think if Santa does have something for Barry he may just toss it out of his sleigh as he's flying over on Christmas Eve. Gee, Barry I do hope you get some little something. It's not alot of fun looking in from the outside. The fireplace is so warm and the hot chocolate with marshmellows, and homemade chocolate chip cookies is so yummy.Not to mention all the brugs and seeds that are being shared. Linda, I would dearly love a couple of those pink daffs. I do have a field next door to me of plain old fashion daffs. I have dug up about a truck load and planted them around everything. The neighbor has a field full of them and he doesn't want or like them. So he said I could have all I want. Now doesn't that just figure, someone that has them doesn't want them. He probably has about a 5 acre field of them. The past two years I've gone and dug a bunch up and shared them with other people. You would be surprised how many of them things you can get in a flat rate box. They are buried pretty deep and it's alot of work for an older woman. (grin) But I would dig you some if you wanted me to Linda. Merry Christmas everyone, Love Marian

Well, iVillage must have used their transporter and beamed this thread off the main page. Thank Bob, they didn't just simply delete it. Thank you to everyone who got a copy yesterday. Kat, send me an e-mail with your street address and I'll put your copy in the mail this afternoon. Treefrog - Your crotons: coming into the garden from the left side of the house - the yellow ones against the fence are "Diane". Please start me a cutting when you get some time. It's an old one that I've not seen except in a photo. The long leafed one next to the house that I thought was "Charmer" is not. It's "Queen Victoria" another old variety that was used quite often as an accent piece by several designers in Boca and Ft. Lauderdale. Root some cuttings and put them in the ground in some deep shade and you'll get leaves up to a foot long with pink and red. To the left of the big Star Fruit tree - "Bravo" - one of the popular varieties used just before "Petra" came out in force. Love the pink colors! I rescued mine from job in East Boca several years ago. By the fence to its left you've got an "Andreanum" - not one of my favorites as it tends to get brown and yellow leaves, but it is one of the tallest growing Crotons. I saw one in Miami that was two-stories high. There were several others, but I can't recall them off hand. Post some photos if there's an important one I've missed.

Helen, That is too close. I've had close calls like that before and they scared me to death. When I've had that sort of a close call, it is hard for me to go back into that area again because I am so afraid another snake will be there. I did notice that it was pretty wide and wondered if it either was about to give birth, or if it had had a really good day and found something good-sized to eat. You know, it is that time of the year. I think the copperheads here usually reproduce in August. I don't really have any suggestion about how to pick tomatoes in an area where you already have found snakes. Sometimes with beans or southern peas, I carry a 3 or 4' long metal green fence post with me (I use them to stake tomato cages) and stick it into the area where I am about to pick beans or southern peas. I move the foliage around a bit and look carefully at the ground and at the plants themselves trying to make sure there's not a snake in there. It is easy to do that with legume plants that are more lightweight and move around pretty easier. It would be harder with tomato plants that are sprawling on the ground as they are heavier and cannot be shifted around easily with a stick or pole. I've always felt pretty safe in the garden early in the day, assuming that the snakes already are out of the garden by daybreak. The encounter with a timber rattler that was headed into my garden, not out of it, a little after 9 a.m. one day a couple of weeks ago made me stop and think twice about that. Even though they tend to be nocturnal, I've had them in the garden more than I'd like during the daylight hours. Copperheads are not as aggressive as some other venomous snakes, or at least at our house they aren't. Even the timber rattlers would rather warn you to go away than to waste their venom on you. Chris stepped on a copperhead one night when he was getting out of his car when he was in college. It didn't even bite him, for which we were grateful, but as he pulled his leg back into the car and closed the door, it slithered under his car and headed straight for us and a bunch of our friends. We were sitting there in lawn chairs, so Tim had no choice but to shoot it because it was coming right towards us. Another time, back not too long after we moved here, Chris and I stepped right into a bunch of copperheads. It was a mother and a bunch of babies and they were moving across the pasture towards the pond in broad daylight and we stepped right into the middle of them in tall grass, saw them and then jumped and ran away. It is hard to believe that the adult at least didn't strike us. Ever since that happened, we always mow 6-8' wide paths through our pastures and only walk in the mowed pathways. At least that way we have a good chance of seeing the snakes before we step on them. Please be careful! You've had too many close calls lately. Dawn

Jandey, you may be right. I scoured the web and looking at photos of Heidi Gold, the inflo has similar coloring and as the blooms open you can see the lavender edge on the back of the petals.