Thank you Carol. I checked out the University of Connecticut Hort. site and indeed that's a very good match.

I was just wondering if anybody has had luck with Chusquea breviglumis/gigantea/aff culeo, in the gulf states or on the east coast? Do any other american bamboos besides A.gigantea work for you? I wonder if varities from the carribean or southern Brazil would work in the zones 9-10 on the Gulf.

Thanks, y'all. It was a very long day and I am glad it is over. I'm just flat tired. We left our house at 11:30 in order to be at the fire station by 11:45 (we'd been there earlier in the day to get the truck ready), so we could leave the station no later than noon, so we could be at the Valero truck stop in Marietta by 12:15, in order to line up the caravan and be on the road by 12:30! The schedule stayed pretty regimented for the rest of the day. Just from Marietta, the Love and Marshall County fire departments drove between 25 and 30 fire trucks and rescue trucks to Ardmore. There, we were joined by other trucks from Carter County, and Murray County too I think. It was amazing. Just one HUGE long line of trucks. Terry would have been so proud to see everyone in their "best" trucks, the ones he helped us get. Would you believe those protesters from Kansas showed up (the ones that have been going to the funerals of soldiers)? They were stationed up the road a bit and the funeral procession was supposed to drive right past them. Grrrr! We were so upset we couldn't stand it. I know they have a right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, but I disagree with their methods. More about them later. The funeral was spectacular. There were several chartered buses of folks that came down from OKC and Stillwater (because of Terry's long association with the college, where he worked for 13 years), including more dignitaries and government officials (including the Governor, Lieutenant Govenor, and Speaker of the House) than southern OK will ever see gathered together in one location again. Flowers...dozens and dozens of flower arrangements and sprays....and some really fancy and gorgeous ones. It was a three-hour long service, and I know that sounds long, but it was part traditional funeral service with the preachers speaking and some religious songs sung by one of the state representatives who had a great voice. Another part, and it was my favorite part, was more of a memorial service, with friends, family, former students, members of the House of Representatives, at least one senator, the Lt. Gov., etc. speaking about Terry. We went from tears to laughter and back to tears numerous times. After the funeral, there was a LONG wait for all us firefighter types. I believe the family was meeting, greeting and speaking with the busloads of people from OKC and Stillwater, because they all were going to board the buses and head back home from Ardmore. Finally, after a long wait outside in the hot sun (during which time our VFD carried bottles of water and Gatorade to eveyone else), the procession left the convention center.....and, instead of turning south, as expected, we turned north. OOOPS! Guess what? We didn't drive past the protesters.....instead we turned north, drove about a quarter-mile, then went east about a mile, and THEN headed south as originally planned. I don't know if it was a deliberate route change to bypass the protestors OR an error by the lead fire truck, but I have a hunch! So, the fire trucks served as a sort of honor guard, leading the funeral procession all the way to the Leon cemetary. All along the way, there were people pulled off the side of the road, some standing outside their cars, hands and/or hats over their hearts. Very, very touching. When we reached Marietta, more fire trucks and firefighters in their bunker gear, were standing alongside the roads (a great way for the ones who couldn't take off an entire afternoon from work to still be able to pay tribute to him). Some citizens stood alongside the roads too. All the way to the cemetary, I was concerned as the funeral procession seemed to be made up of the firetrucks, the hearse, and the family cars and little else. I was pretty disgusted...thinking to myself "I can't believe there's not a huge procession of vehicles behind us". THEN, we rounded that last corner before the Leon Cemetary....and there they were, dozens and dozens and dozens of people. Probably a couple of hundred people.....more people than live in Leon, I think. People and cars everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. So, the joke was on me....I guess while the firefighters patiently waited to lead the caravan, everyone else pretty much headed to the cemetary and waited there. (Some of them told us that stopped and ate fast food along the way 'cause they were hungry and knew they had plenty of time!) So, Terry really had a big funeral/memorial service in Ardmore for EVERYONE and then the smaller (but still very well-attended) graveside ceremony in Leon for "the people" who lived there near him and loved him dearly. He deserved no less. It was an honor and a privilege to be a small part of it. Scott, I am concerned that whoever succeeds Terry as the District 49 representative will not be as dedicated to the rural communities as he was. I hope and pray I am wrong. He was a very strong advocate for agricultural interests, including Agricultural Tourism as a way to "save" family farms. And, I worry about people like you out there on the tractors. Everyone around us uses them, and accidents are fairly common occurrences, although only maybe 1 every year or two is fatal. One nice thing about today was that those of us who live here and greatly admired and respected Terry were able to see that other people statewide shared our feelings for him. His wife and daughter and other family members have been amazingly strong and have handled this extemely well. We finally got home abour 7:45 p.m., I think. So, tomorrow we try to get back to the normal routine. Dawn

I thought it might be of help to outline the Diagnostic Plant Pathology Help that is available through Cooperative Extensions in your state. Extensions in turn may offer LOW COST Lab Analysis through their land-grant university partner. I was going to go state by state and realized it was too daunting of a job to find everything and then I found this site for the Southern Region of the US. Here is a comprehensive site for the Southern Region US: http://spdn.ifas.ufl.edu/Sample_submission.htm _____________________________________________ Here is just a sample of the information I found about NC. NORTH CAROLINA: North Carolina residents can send digital photographs to Univ. of NC Plant Pathology Dept/extension for a free analysis. Better yet, you can submit a sample for $10. Digital Photo Analysis (free):http://image.ces.ncsu.edu Sample Analysis: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/clinic/Submit/submit.htm NC Extension offices:http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/counties/ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ If you find out info about your state and want to add it here or if you want to start another thread about another region of the U.S. please do so. It is amazing that for as little as $10 you may be able to get professional help for disease problems that you haven't been able to figure out for yourself. If this thread falls by the wayside you might just want to bookmark the above link for future reference. (Good luck with your garden.)