Thanks for the kind words. The best way to decrease the amount of medium it takes to fill a pot; and, to limit the volume of excess/ perched water a planting can hold is by using ballast. Note (fig D) how much less excess water a planting can hold when using an overturned pot as ballast. The figure on the right below illustrates how you can use brick or hollow plastic blocks as ballast. If you were to turn the bricks on edge and add 2 more, you would almost entirely eliminate this planting's ability to hold excess/ perched water. Make note though, that there must be at least 1 continuous/ unbroken soil column from the top of the soil column to the pot bottom. If the bricks were turned 90* and 2 more added such that the bricks or other material filled the pot bottom so that there was a 2"x2" gap between the bricks to provide the unbroken soil column I mentioned, the only grow medium in the entire planting capable of holding perched water would be the medium in the 2 x 2 space between the bricks. Al

You all are just too wonderful with your comments. It (to me) is SOOO interesting how each person likes such different totems and glass flowers. I came upon just yesterday a Flea Market that I hadn't known about. I'm going to look into it and see if I can get me a vendors spot. Looks like a mix of collectables, jewelry, antiques and other items sold there. Looks like it's once a month Spring though summer, Cash and Carry thing. So that may be my venue to sell these. ... Cait, yes it is wonderful to see native salvias growing in the desert. Today I was able to get out again to that same spot. I came upon a dried up one but it didn't look like there were seeds on it. It's such a beautiful outcropping of them. I have some salvias --about 3 kinds in my gardens that just thrive here. I'm so sorry that Australia does not have any natives there. Do they sell them at the garden centers there? You know the wildflower thing is reltively new to me. Just started about a year ago. Just my Kodak digital that I'm still learning about. I've got such a LONG way to go but it's an adventure. I tell you I take a gazillion more photos than the few that really turn out. I "weed" through the bad ones and dump them. Keep the good ones. Jeanne, you know it's so funny about the ashtrays. One thrift store I got a bunch at and they were so happy that I was depleting them of them. I have to go regularly to find the items though. It's a hit and miss kind of thing. My MIL used some of those to make mushrooms out of! Ok, really i must get to bed. Love y'all! Love, Jules

Loverly plants and photos, Kate; thanks for the tour! Isn't it splendid to have different gardens at different times of year, and all in the same place? Global warming doesn't necessarily mean less snow, by the way. With higher temperatures moisture in the air increases, and if that moisture encounters cold air, heavy snowfalls can result. This happened here: two years ago northeastern Italy was buried under snow; there were pockets where they got ten feet in a few days, and six feet wasn't unusual in that episode. Winter snow is normal here, but that was extreme. Global warming is also bringing unheard-of hurricane-like weather to Italy. This week the island of Sardinia fell victim to such a phenomenon. One populous area got a foot and a half of rain in twelve hours, with severe flooding as the natural result and sixteen weather-related deaths. The country is just not built to deal with that kind of weather. Cath, I will definitely keep Margery Fish and her books in mind (a Christmas present to myself?); thank you for telling me about them, they certainly sound like they could be useful. One of my current passions is sarcococca. It's that rarest of plants in my conditions, a glossy-leafed evergreen shrub (fragrant, too!) that grows in the shade in clay and takes summer drought. Unfortunately it's rather tender; most kinds are hardy only to Zone 7-8. I have winter aconite here, and agree with you about its charm. It's native and we dug some up years ago and planted it in the bed next to the house where it has been slowly increasing. Like you I have a history of wariness toward yellow-variegated plants, but it has eroded. The big breach came when a friend gave me two yellow-variegated shrubs he had propagated, a ligustrum and the Japanese euonymus I mentioned in my first post. The latter had a bad reputation with me anyway: I remembered it perennially infested with scale. But what could I do? they were a gift: I planted them. And in fact the yellow-variegated Japanese euonymus is a shining example of the importance of right plant right place. My plant has always been completely healthy in its clay and part shade, and the bright variegation goes fine with the box and the fiery fall foliage of the crepe myrtle that grow nearby, as well as with the purple flowers of the lilacs when they bloom. And I love the sunny yellow of the ligustrum. I don't know how prone eleagnus is to reversion. The same friend gave me a yellow variegated eleagnus (he actually has a refined taste in plants, though you might not guess it from his gifts I've listed here), and I believe that it may have by now all reverted to green. Ingrid, thanks. Melissa

Wildflowers should be planted in the same habitat where they naturally grow. Jacks, Dutchman's breeches and wild phlox naturally grow in moist, rich, humusy forest soil under broadleaved deciduous trees that allow lots of sun in the early spring and fall and provide dense shade in summer. They will not thrive and will likely die in dry, sandy soil in year round shade. Coneflowers come in many types, some like dry soil, some like moist, some can tolerate light shade. They are all native to the prairie which provides deep soil and little shade. They will fare worse than the woodlanders in the dense shade of a pine forest. there are plants adapted to all conditions, but you will find few showy flowering plants that like to grow in dense shade. Take a walk through natural pine forests in your area in all seasons and observe what plants are growing. These are the plants that you can consider for your woods. Check the link below for the Illinois Native Plant Society and see if there is a chapter near you. Their members will be able to help you find suitable plants. Here is a link that might be useful: Illinois native plants