Coincidence here....'false Poinsettia', 'Fire on the Mountain' was written up in our local paper this weekend. So if it's not the Amaranthus that audrey suggests, you might look up Euphorbia cyathophora. Of the two, my bet is on the Amaranthus. If not either of these suggests, you might give us a couple of hints about the appearance of this plant. ;-)

From your description, it sounds like Sue Olsen's Foliage Gardens (foliagegardens.com). Both Sue Olsen and Judith Jones are growers up in Washington State and they are both very knowledgeable and have great selections of ferns available by mail order. I see that Sue Olsen has a book out that I would love to get called Encyclopedia of Garden Ferns which was published recently (a few years ago). I visited them both in 2003 when I was adding to my fern collection and garden here in the SF Bay area, and learned a lot and enjoyed myself very much in the Pacific Northwest. I recommend both of these growers highly. The Freddo Here is a link that might be useful: Sue Olsen's Foliage Gardens

Bernd, oh yeah, got a lot of them. Actually, I'm doing better than I expected. By clustering the fragrant ones (plantaginea offspring) I keep the count compartmentalized. Then I have the smaller ones, and sometimes I put the sports of a plant near it. I am accustomed to remembering lists of book titles by the same author, etc, and this makes it easier with hosta. Family relationships. Or where no such relationship exists, then by size....the minis.... And by pattern....such as the small number I have similar to Golden Meadows with some ruffling-streaking-white in the pattern. PeterNujol, I'll have to check out that namizz.com site for ideas. It is more a game with me. I am the sort of person who gives names to houses and cars, inanimate objects which are big enough to make an impact on my world. Why should boats be named and not your house and car, is my reasoning. Maybe because I lived on a houseboat for 10 years, and worked on boats for 20, I have this inclination to name things. Theresa, I'm glad you caught it. Our brains associate things by habit, and in your area, I think the trend is to associate Indian (Native Americans to be politically correct), and the Ojibway are an important part of the area. By the way, I asked Wade & Gatton Nurseries if they were going to make Hosta 'Cherokee' available any time soon, and they said it was going into tissue culture this year. I look forward to having a couple of those, since my family has Cherokee in the background. For that one, Theresa, I shall find a great symbol for it, giving it a place of honor.

This post sure is neat. I met Dottie. She was a hoot. Didn't join till Marlen was already gone. But there are so many people missing, that where active here when I first joined... and the conversation tone changed so much... and the laughter is missing. Moni