Purple, I was messing with my photo album last night and accidentally deleted the wrong photo. :( Next time, I'll upload it... at least that way if I move it to another album or in this case, it gets deleted, it'll still be on here. *sigh* Teen, I can still see you plant a little bit too, that looks like a happy plant! Planto

Way ahead of you! Already rejoined for another season (this will be my 9th), and can't wait for the schedule to arrive. I am so addicted to these Garden Tours, that I schedule them all into my calendar, then plan everything ELSE around them. . .but as you said, "they're great!" It gets really interesting, though, when you start making field trips further from home; in the past, I've ventured out to Washington and Oregon, down to North Carolina (thrice) and so far, every mid-Atlantic state and all of New England. A real treat several years back, was a one-day Open Days offering 17 gardens on Nantucket. . .now that was a challenge! Unfortunately, I missed the one on Martha's Vineyard last year. When I go on these longer jaunts for a week-end of Open Days, I always allot extra days to visit that areas' Botanical Gardens, major nurseries (the original Heronswood in Washington, for example) - and since I'm a rider, I always bring the bike along to check out the local RailTrails. . . Depending on where you are located in NE, I would heartily recommend casting your eye at the offerings in eastern New York - Westchester, Duchess, Putnam and Columbia counties all stretch along the Connecticut-Mass. border and offer a wealth of choices, If you are curious about any gardens of exceptional interest in that area, feel free to E-mail me; it looks like Paige Dickey's garden will be open again this year, and if you've never been to Gertrude Shurs' garden, "Rocky Hills", it's a must-see ! Carl

Hadn't even thought about gardens outside Massachusetts yet.... Agree that Linden Miller's garden is a must-see. I once had the extreme pleasure of having her give a personal tour of her Conservatory Garden in NYC's Central Park. Then, several years ago I attended an illustrated lecture that she gave at the Arnold Arboretum. Also intriguing is Suzanne Pierot's garden in Willow, New York. "Thousands" of astilbe and 20,000 hostas! Suzanne is president of the American Ivy Society (holding their 2008 convention in Boston this coming August). Looks like I'll be spending some gas money! ~ Hilda

lovechristmas - I think what you are doing is great! First, take all the furniture out of the rooms you are going to use for the open house, except for the dining room table and chairs if you have them. You will need a table cloth and some sort of centerpiece for your table. I like to do something that I make myself, I have a couple of holly trees on my property and there are fresh greens available here at this time of the year as I live on the east coast. You could use silk, put some christmas balls, or other decorations in the midst. I try and do something a little different each year. One year it was snowmen. Last year it was a little more formal since I was having a sit down dinner and using my Lenox holiday china. From the furniture you took out of the room, look at the room from the perspective of creating small intimate group settings for conversation, but not so much that it doesn't feel like a group event. Make sure you have enough seats for everyone to sit down to eat. I would do buffet. If you serve food that has to be cut, rent/buy plain white china plates from a restaurant supply store. Got to the nearest big city and you will find them in a certain area and there are always a street full of competitors. When I first did this I though what a waste of money. Not so, I have reused those plates for years and they give a more put together look. You can do the same with silverware. The restaurant supply places are probably one of the best/cheapest resources for that kind of thing. You can be creative with table coverings. If you have a christmas quilt or even a red or green, use it to cover a buffet or table you will use to set up your bar or food. You can go to the fabric store and get fabric that you like. You will not even have to sew it as they now have sew glue. So easy. If you have an island in your kitchen, use that for your food setup, its close to the kitchen and you don't have to worry about covering it. I would set up stations on separate tables, bar stocked with wine and beer, food to be set up on a buffet length table or on your island if you have one, table for punchbowl and cups. I usually try to decorate each table. I have had pieces of glass cut to cover my good pieces in order to use them for serving stations rather than renting serving tables. It was cheap and I still get the warm feeling from the well worn antiques. I have inherited some nice pieces, a tea cart and a Shefield table that I love and have always wanted to use for entertaining, but was hesitant because if something was spilled, it could ruin the finish. The glass takes the worry out of any spilling and are easily cleaned with windex. Plus, if there is a spill on a table cloth it really ruins the look of the table for the rest of the day. Glass is easily cleaned up. Using different tables for different purposes avoids a traffic jam of people if you only have one or two tables to accomodate the food, bar, etc. It just flows better. As for your bar, I usually offer beer, a white wine and a red that go with whatever you chose to serve. Of course, you could do something holiday oriented like eggnog in a punch bowl - looks really nice. You can do ahead store in fridge in plastic pitchers then transfer to punch bowl about 1/2 hour before guests start to arrive. If you are a newlywed, perhaps you have gotten some nice serving pieces to use. Get out all of your proposed serving pieces to see what you have vs. what you need. I get everything out since you can forget from year to year what you really have on hand. I am constantly buying unique serving dishes at tag sales and putting them in the pantry closet for entertaining. Not everything has to match. I think it is much beter if it doesn't. If you are using a buffet table, you can set up your food serving bowls at different heights, use small boxes or differing size supports on your table to give it interest. Cover the boxes with colored napkins coordinated with a tablecloth if you are using one so as to hide what you are using for the height. Make a menu - choose a lot of do ahead dishes if you want to relax and enjoy the party with your friends. Think about what you have in the way of oven space - do you have a double oven and how many burners are on your stove. Do you have a toaster oven? Do your friends contribute or are you doing all of the food. I would do something interesting for dessert like individual cheesecake lollipops you can make ahead that are covered with chocolate and frozen. After you make them, freeze and pull them out of freezer when you put out your dinner. I find slicing pies and cakes is boring and labor intensive. A large bowl of strawberries with a bowl of sweetened whipped cream, I hope I am making sense. An event? Not sure what you mean by event, but I think it would be hard to do what I think you mean since, it is an open house and not everyone arrives at the same time, some people may come in and out throughout the day? Is that the type of party, or are you giving a time to arrive? Have a great time. It is alot of fun planning a party and it just takes a little creativity to have it all come together. You will do a great job. Have a wonderful Christmas! How lucky your friends are to have someone like you to gather together those who won't be going "home for the holidays".