Well, I did not mean to imply there is not much else to do. Indeed pray for a normal winter (!!!). But as stated, others in colder zones than mine have to take some additional measures. As a matter of fact, some people in your zone and colder ones take additional preparations. Once the plants go dormant in the fall, some people place a cardboard on top of the hydrangea stems and press downwards until the cardboard in somewhat level with the ground. As ong as you press down gently, this does not do harm to the stems, which recover very quickly when you remove all the stuff in spring. To hold the cardboard in place, people add the weight of some rocks. Then they top it off with dried leaves. At least one foot of dried leaves from their garden (and/or their neighbors). Others add some chicken wire around the plant. Six inches to a foot past the drip line. Then they fill it in with a lot of leaves. No stems beding with this technique. But the idea is, again, to protect the stems holding the flower buds from the worst of winter temperatures and winds with the leaves. Your plants seem to be holding up well without these additional measures and that is good. But mother nature can sometimes surprise and catch us off guard. The result could be no blooms. That happened to me last winter. In Texas, we are not supposed to have to take additional measures. But this last winter, the temperatures were warm until we had a nasty cold spell and the temps stayed low for a little while. This killed all but a handfull of blooms. Now I am not saying go ahead and do all that. Just keep your eyes open when forecasts of the next winter temps & precipitation come and see if you think your plants may require some help this winter. Otherwise, stay the course. Hydrangeas that bloom on old wood are the ones which require a lot of care during winter. Those which bloom on new wood are not affected much and can receive less winter care... within reason. Have a good winter season and an even better 2008 hydrangea season, emmgus. Luis

No matter what the original size, you can always change the size it displays in the forum, by modifying the html code you've copied like this: if the code is: add this: You can play around with it, changing the "500px" to any size you want; the largest that folks can comfortably see in their browser is around 800px. (This changes the width AND height proportionally, no need to fiddle with the height at all.)

Thank you, Donna, for doing what I told Scott I would do and that was tell ALL how fabulously WONDERFUL he is. (I've got too many eggs in my basket right now. Sorry Scott!) Punctual, reliable, reasonably priced....I think I want to adopt him! This guys is everything he says and more. A true jewel. The problem is now we know how valuable he is and the word will spread....but that will be a good problem. I know from my conversations with him that he will never forget his roots and if/when we need him, he'll find a way to fit us in. I just love him. Thanks Earth Sister for putting my word in for him! In case ANY OF YOU have rodent/varmint problems...Scott is your guy. Seriously. He trapped and disposed of 7 MOLES AND 2 POCKET GOPHERS on about an acre of our property that were totally destroying it. It's been a month and no sign of any activity. I'll gladly pay him again when I see problems. I've also given his name and number to others that aren't members here. I hope they use him. He's worth every penny and more.

Im spending the afternoon planning the planting schedule. There are 4 houses I can plant in. 2 of them now have tomatoes growing in them, and considering those are our best sellers, we are not willing to rip them out early to plant other crops. So those 2 won't open up until October / November. Not sure if there is any reason to try planting them at that point, or wait until early spring to try to have crops in April. The other has ginger in about 2/3 of it, and zucchini in the other third. I have no problem ripping out the zucchini - but that only gives me a 4x70 bed. The ginger won't come out until late September at the earliest The last is currently empty, but is our main greenhouse. We need to get benches out, rip up landscape fabric, bring in compost and till. But - since that is our main greenhouse, and plants are our real money makers, we will need it beginning in March, I need to plan so that whatever crops are grown in there are gone by then. It is also close to a Walnut - so I have to grow walnut tolerant crops. Im thinking beets, carrots and lettuce for that house, and some brassicas away from the walnut. I will just have to rip them out come March. This year will be a real learning curve. :)