I was reading to my daughter from an illustrated children's Bible, and we came to a scene where some ancient Jewish king was killed in his garden . . . yes, I know, a lovely scene to read about to a child anyway! . . . but then I turned the page and saw that in the illustration the desperate fellow was fleeing through formal beds of hybrid teas. No way!!! We also have a beautiful park in town that was especially designed for a "natural" look, with many types of ornamental grasses and species shrubs, rosa nitida, etc. The only false note in the whole thing is three hybrid teas that someone plopped down, all by themselves, at a very prominent juncture along one of the paths. You can tell by looking at them that the designer never intended for them to be there! I'll bet that the man who donated the park and named it in honor of his wife probably insisted on including those hybrid teas because they were his wife's favorite flower, or something like that. I shudder every time I see them!

Roxanne- I'm nervous about the egg rooting method. The cutting is pretty dehydrated, somehwere between beef jerky and a once healthy cutting. In the past I've only had luck getting roots at this point if I snip the inflo, which is always a very sad occasion. But...I will read up on it before I take the plunge! Oh, the smell... well I know smell is subjective but this one smells like suntan lotion to me...so waxy coconut? This was a purchase from Matt at 1-stop-aloha on eBay. Its a beautiful orange! Desa- I stopped doing seedlings for just that reason....they took over!!! It sure is fun though! Mike- I bet you would love the real orange color even better! Just sayin' :) George- You wouldn't happen to be another fellow enabler? Would you? LOL I whole-heartedly agree with that statement but I've learned that I apparently see things differently than others. Well unless it's fellow forum members :) Laura So I was cruizing along on JJ's site, doing a little fantasy shopping. I was actually up to $1200.00 imaginary dollars....LOL AND have you seen Fuji Mist? Cote d Or? Oh I am in love love! Do you know what I learned from my garage experience? My cuttings that I sneak in are safe there! (wicked laugh) Now I'm going to work on getting my UPS & USPS guys to see if I can get them to leave the packages by the garage door! Brilliant! Why didin't I think of that before? Metallica is sure being stubborn and slow to leaf out. I only have tiny claws(you know how I stress over this one!) On the brighter side of the bloom-Dazzler opened one sub-par bloom yesterday. Yay! What's on our shopping list this year? XO Nicole

So many people with issues with parents...sad. I was loved, I had toys and gifts,dresses, dolls, books, sport stuff, games,I lacked for nothing . But as I got older, I think I tried to "recapture" my childhood. As an adult, I loved antique shows, flea markets, garage sales. Any time I saw something we had in our house growing up, I had to buy it. I even bought too many rose bushes and planted them in my garden, trying to re-create my Grandma's rose garden. I now have a linen closet stacked with doilies and tablecloths I'll never use, sets of fancy glasses too fragile to use, things like that. Oh, and on the funny side, my daughter cleaned out my bathroom just yesterday. She found eleven bottles of Listerine. I don't know, I hate the stuff, it burns... I remember buying one bottle because it did everything, whitens teeth, freshens breath, makes gums healthy, strengthens the enamel. I'm just always looking for something to make me happy.

Excellent. Do they still sell those plastic toy lawnmowers? Gotta ease 'em into it ya know...