Thank you for your responses; sorry I was so long in getting back to you. I believe the Aloe I have is the Aloe Barbadensis from the pictures I see on the web. I am trying to control my psoriasis with natural remedies rather than medical remedies. All the doctors have to suggest is to use steroid creams for the rest of your life. If you read up on steroid creams you'll say no thank you. I know using alternative remedies isn't proven by the medical field (I am a nurse) but many people have found alternative remedies to help them. I have purchased Aloe Vera from the stores, but from the reading I have done (and I have done a ton) the recommendation is to use the gel from the plant itself. I am still needing advice on how to keep this alive over the cold wet winter. Thanks Ginny

My first Hydrangea is now in the ground for more than 25 years. At this point, I keep it for sentimental reasons only. It's gotten so THICK with canes that if I wrap it in my usual cage, I have to get everything so tight in there that I think I may actually be suffocating the plant. I've not had good luck overwintering it in recent years. This past winter I didn't even bother with it. If I were you, I'd consider taking a cutting or digging out a portion of your sentimental one and essentially start over. It would indeed be the same plant, so you could keep your sentiment. But I can understand sentiment. I should get rid of my first Hydrangea, but I'm not. For a long time I would cut back the old canes completely to the ground in the Fall. I'd only leave canes that had shot up from low points on the canes or from the crown. They would have grown all summer and would end up giving me great flowering the next year. I'd have very long stemmed flowers, too, that I had cut. The big problem with this technique is that you end up with weaker stems than you would otherwise and next summer they'd be weighted down to the ground with their flowers. I've found that, for my zone, I can usually prune as hard as I want up until about Fourth of July, just to be easy to remember, and not hurt the flowering potential for next year. After that, the buds start setting for next year and you start running into that problem. (But then I've cut some "nikkos" back to the crown in the Fall and on some I'd get great flowering and on some I'd get none. Do I really understand this? NO.) So, here is another method for you to consider to keep it smaller, at least in height. Another thing I've experimented with is to prune all the wimpy growth completely out and just end up with a few stout canes over time. This was interesting, but you end up with an artifical looking Hydrangea and the few stout canes start looking rather strange. But with this technique, more or less, you could develop a plant that wasn't so crowded. I don't know though. I wish I could help you more. I'd like an answer to the question you have, too! Hay

Wow.....lots of good suggestions and great ideas. The Christmas lights sound like a good idea, BUT...that's only if cold air is your only issue. What if there's snow or freezing rain (ice storm)? It doesn't happen much in the South, but it does happen. The only parts of the palm that will be spared any damage would be those areas close to the lights. Orchiddude, We live in the same zone, and you know as well as I do, we got off lucky last winter. Not harsh at all (except for the ridiculous jump in LP/natural gas prices!), but who knows what this season will bring. Building an individual green house over each outdoor palm sounds a little labor-intensive for me : ) I vote for andyandy's method. That's what I used for my palms, and they overwintered fine. Go to Lowe's or Home Depot and buy some polyfence...sometimes called landscape fence. Put stakes around the palm, cut the fence to fit and form a basket around the plant. Fill with leaves/pine straw, and Voila!...you're ready for winter. Just remember to pretreat the palm to guard against fungus infection. One final thought....my palms are still small. If yours are rather large, frost cloth/lights or a mini-greenhouse may be your only options. Polyfence only goes as high as 4 ft.

Hello, I just posted this on another thread, but it may help you, too: if you will follow the link below and scroll to the pictures posted by Hartwood, that is what my rooting pots look like, but I can put perennials outside on the south side during winter if I can get them rooted before freeze. I bed them - with pots and domes and a little extra mulch built up on the sides of the domes - on the south side of the house. They get direct sunlight and no fungus. If temps threaten to drop below 10F, I will put a black pot on top until the frigid weather is past, and when the temps start to get above 80F, I'll take the domes off so the foliage won't bake. The plants need water when there is no condensation on the inside of the dome. Good luck, Gary Here is a link that might be useful: Hartwood posting