I knew a member of an "Old Italian family" (if you get my drift) whose forebears were instrumental in the running of the Balinese back in the "bad old days" when they had illegal bootleg liqour and slot machines and fancy ladies in there. When I dated him in the 80's, his family still had the slot machines that were taken out of there when the law descended on the place and shut it down. There was a fairly well known story that there was a big circular trapdoor in the kitchen of the Balinese, the cook used to sit in there in slow times and fish, and whatever he caught was cooked up as the fresh catch of teh day, but the door also had another use: when the law was on the way, all the illegal hootch and weapons went out of it into the ocean. They said it was possible to see the cops coming from the moment they stepped onto the boardwalk, and it took them so long to get out to the actual club that by the time they did, everything had been "sanitized". Interesting family. Interesting history. When I lived in Rockport, I can never remember any freezes. If they happened it was after we moved away in the late 70's. I have no family left there (or anywhere, for that matter, I am an orphan now) but my parents are both interred in the Rockport Fulton Cemetery. I grew some stuff as a kid there...my sister and I planted an agave and cactus garden, and we had a bottlebrush tree, and I planted polebeans. After my mom died in 1972 we planted all the potted funerary offerings in the front flowerbed. My dad let me piddle in the flowerbeds but we were pretty poor and there wasn;t a lot of $$ for spending on flowers. Some of my neighbors had really nice stuff though. I see that Houston is getting ICE! HD, is Galveston freezing as well??? I hope all your lovely things are okay! Bust out covers if you have to. It is so weird, it looks from the national weather map today that Florida and Hawaii are the only states that are not going to freeze (if they aren't or haven't already frozen). We have no prediction of even any 30's so far, but I am so feeling bad for everyone who has been hit by the weather system. No gloating here guys. Its just grace of god so to speak. We have usually already had some 20's by now here in Gainesville, its really weird that we have not.

I buy one or 2 every summer and keep them in pots on my patio. When they start dieing back in winter, I put the pots in a dry area. I've only had a couple come back, but they were weak and spindly. I consider them annuals. Also, in my experience, they seem to prefer very bright light and seem to do better in dappled sun than they do in shade. I've also found, that while they don't like to dry out, they do like it more on the drier side of moist. wanda

Hi Peg!! Nice to hear from you about the sweet cicely. Yours are producing seeds already? I think mine will be a while for that, probably next summer. I have two very healthy seedlings and they are just right for now in the spot that I have them. A nice shady spot with a bit of dappled sun in the morning before noon and bright shade the rest of the day. Also close to the tap so they get watered regularly. Thanks for the offer of the fresh seeds but I am looking forward to when these two produce seeds. :-) When they do I will plant them right away and then have more plants to put in another spot around the side of the house (which is not garden ready right now but I hope that by the time I have new plants it will be. I actually saw stevia plants at the local nursery and thought about it but ended up walking out with everything else and forgetting them. I can always go back or maybe wait until next year. :-) I will look forward to hear how they grow for you. Lois

I know after those meetings I do not want to be associated with any large garden club, not state or national. I guess I'll have to keep trying to find a small club that is having fun. This is a neighborhood group, associated with a large club which I won't mention the name of, but so far, they haven't really done anything of much fun, just fretted about meeting the requirements of the larger club and doing things for them and it's taking all the fun out of it. After a few meetings, I can't figure out why the leader is getting away with this competitive behavior when the rest of the club has verbally stated time and time again they don't want to go that route. It's not really a club. It's run as a dictatorship. I've been to enough meetings now to see that. It's as if she wants to prove something to others and impress this large club because she is insecure. I am sensing competition and anxiety and I left the corporate world to get away from that. Who needs it in their favorite hobby? I've only been to a few meetings, so it's not too much of a waste. Had to try. I imagine the rest of the people will flee as well to create their own club. You should have seen the looks on the newbies faces! They looked like they wanted to run right out of there! Disappointing experience but I'm not suprised. I'll keep looking and I'm not going to settle for anything but the right group because who has time for that in their precious free time? Anyways, I needed to vent and was wondering if anyone has experienced this? Is this par for the course in garden clubs? After this experience, I am turned off to garden clubs!