An afterthought... "frangea pangea" is, of course, a misspelling--a wrong guess--or I'd have found it by now. I put the letter "e" in there to soften the "g" sound, not to add another syllable. The name the gardener called out to me might have been one word or two words. At any rate, it had the sound of fran-juh-pan-juh (4 syllables in all) I don't know whether the gardener might have been a native Spanish speaker or not and if so, whether that would have influenced his pronunciation. I vaguely recall thinking that he might be from Cuba. The pronunciation seemed a bit slurred to my ears. I just assumed he could understand my question. (I don't think fran-juh-pan-juh is Spanish for "No speak English!") If you have any notion as to what the proper spelling/name of this ornamental tree is, I'd appreciate knowing. I don't have a real need to know, of course--I'm just curious. The flowers, as best I can recall, were on the small side but produced in large prolific bunches close together that you could easily notice and admire from the street. The ones I saw were a rosy dark pink. I think the foliage was thicker and shinier, different from a Mimosa and the flowers had more substance. The form of the plant as a whole was more like a Mimosa than a camellia. It didn't grow straight upwards an it had substantial limbs curving around the corner of the house. I only saw the tree from the car in the street, a good distance away from the actual plant, so I could be wrong on some of this. Anyway, if this ornamental grows in your area, you might consider it. It's lovely, lovely. Best wishes, Mary

Howdy all! It's granny Barb here, oldest of the TD coots. Why do I have to log on as a member here now? Even wickedcoolstuff.com remembers me from my email address. I've been visiting with you all by email cuz I thought you were all chatting away there to bypass GW new confused state. Gee I sure missed a lot! BTW I'm fine. I've dealt with paraplegia for 55 years and even a nasty surgery won't stop me, tho I may be off my feed and so on for awhile. Life goes on, and I enjoy most of it, you all especially, most of the time. I hope I can stay and watch the fun, even if I can't do up boxes while I recover. Very comforting to have friends around while healing. And they may not want to operate after all. In which case, I'll be permanently slowed down. If so, you are still a lovely bunch of gardener types to hang out with. I'll keep you posted. The deciding appt. with surgeon #2 is Feb. 3. Wow, I'm so behind! Greenhouses and businesses, kids and grandkids with good news and not so good, daylilies and orchids, kitchens and chocolate! I'm paying attention here. The brugs are growing in their pots, out of the cellar, but I did lose my favorite, Yellow Wedding Bells. The 2 cuttings I kept just screamed, rotted and passed away. I never plan to collect them, tho; all I want is a modest brug forest beside the knifophias. Doesn't matter if half of them are the same. That's the joy of lotsa land. I'll never fill it all up! Our old friend of 30 years M was here for the weekend. He's recovering from open heart surgery last Aug. and the change in him is phenomenal! He's lost 50 lbs., he's happy and agile, all rosy and the twinkle is back in his eye! He about drove us mad picking arguments over politics before. Now he tells silly jokes again! Wore me out, tho. Deni I looked up your illness. It's like my everlasting nerve pain, but with some added bonuses just to keep you guessing. You get a lot done despite. Terrific. What is going on in everybody's ponds? Are the fish ok with all this nutty weather? I think we should all post our animal pictures nefore Jan is over, as part of the Jan swap theme. Any hints on keeping raccoons out of suet feeders? It is already hoisted quite a ways up a tree. They climb, then hang on the feeder and pull everything down with them. And during this animally time, I just have to say it out loud, corner nothwithstanding: I REALLY LIKE FROGS A LOT! TOADS TOO! I do. DD Sara had an enormous toad she called Frank she used to kiss on the lips. We told her not to, but you all have kids and know how much they listen sometimes. Ol' Frank got so used to it he'd just hang there, with his legs dangling; he was about 7" long from lips to toes. Wish I'd taken a picture! Next time I'll be all caught up and post something more germane... hugs all around Barb

Shirley, I'm a Medical Technologist. Since most people have no idea of what that is, here is a short explaination. 4 years college, 1 year intership. I work in a hospital laboratory. We are the people who set up the blood for transfusions, microbiology (find out what bacteria you have), all the blood tests when you have your blood taken (hemoglobin, Blood sugars), urine tests, stool tests, sperm counts, Cerebral Spinal Fluid, any fluids from your body get tested by us. We also help draw blood, but please don't get us confused with the Phlebotomy team, they only draw blood for a living. I enjoy my job and the people probably because I work part-time. When the kids are done with school, then I will be full-time. Dawn, I grew Kong Mosiac Coleus from seed this year. It didn't do so well for me, probably since I had it in partial sun. Can't wait to hear more about the Lu'au. Well, today is our 22 wedding aniversary and hubby will be working very late. But we will celebrate this weekend. Also, I'm covered with poison Ivy. For the life of me I couldn't figure out how I got it. But then I put 2 and 2 together. Hubby and son were at the cottage for several days, so I let Ahi the cat sleep with me. HE is an outdoor/indoor cat. I bet he had it on his fur and the rest is history, or the rest is on me. The worst patch is on my neck where he loves to rub. I'm the biggest baby when it comes to Poison Ivy. I scratch and scratch. I'm trying really hard not to scratch my neck and face. (silent scream) Dawn, since you are into coleus, I thought you might get a kick out of a no-name coleus that did great for me. Pic is on the front porch. Grew this one from seed also. (Grow all of mine from seed). And since we need a Daylily picture, here is Knights in White Satin with tall red salvia and Rudbeckia gloriosa. This is KIWS last bloom. :o( And since I just have to post a picture of this Rudbeckia, I'm not sure what it is called. Took me all summer to fall in love with it. Now I will be sad to see it go. Now I need to go back to SCRATCHING! Sharon

Marea, great pic of the frog. LOL Cody Question: I'm thinking of trying to root a branch of my Red Japanese Maple Palmatum. Any tricks involved here. I have the directions from my garden book, but looking for any 'extra' ideas. Would 10 cuttings be enough to try for one rooted specimen? We are having a special lunch today for my Dad and other family members. We are having the Woodhaven branch of the Posen Potato Festival at my house. Dad wasn't able to go to the Posen Potato Festival so we are giving him an almost all Potato Lunch. Served up with FOOTBALL of course! LOL Menu includes: Potato Salad Potato Soup Hashed Potatos Potato Spears (to eat while watching the game of course) Still thinking about Potato Balls???????? Non-potato items Apple sauce Jello with real fruit and cool whip for dessert. GOT TO GET COOKING!!!! If it goes over well, maybe it will become a yearly event. :o) sharon/toomanyanimals