oh mercy I've done it and done it.........my garden in Chicago was a 10-year project of learning and loving. I'd got it to where I could get an armful of flowers weekly and beautiful dirt, compost, etc. Poof, off to Israel. No midwest gardners needed; now I was in for no snow, no frost, sheeting floods in winter and summer hell drought. Ten years I terraced, tried, composted, grew fabulous lavender and rosemary, learned Middle east garden on a 45 degree angle tricks. DG says move, poof we move. I took very few of the old plants with me, and most of those died, and here I am starting anew. Saw old garden this week: completely ignored and in disrepair. New house, very little garden open space, mostly room for containers and a few perennials, lots of shade (great for cooling, not so good for growing). Again, I must still find a place for the compost pile, dig and see what kind of soil I have (rocky, no worms, millions of slugs) figure out where the sun is likely to be in seasons I haven't been here for yet, and put nearly everything in pots and move them around to see where they are happiest before I plant them, which will take at least a whole year of seasons before I can say I understand how to garden here. At which point DG has informed me that we will probably stay here for a "few" years, and then move again so the investment in the house is worth it. I have left more fully functioning gardens, after years of work, than I care to think about. But, I taught myself how to garden, what works/doesn't in a new country. I NEED to garden, and though I sometimes seethe with envy for gardens that I can work and grow for more that a decade, it's the process that I really need. Playing in the dirt. Plant stuff, have fun, learn, get dirty. Move, give as much as you can away, bless the garden that held you, and move on to a new embrace. Start again. Batya

Hey Dave...thanks for looking! We just finally made the "leap" to DSL internet a couple months ago, and it was hard, but we found a way to do it for $25 a month, so not too bad I guess (we don't have/want cable or cell phones, so we had to work around all those "bundle" offer things to just get digital internet). It's still not the fastest connection (we're on the slowest DSL there is), but it's faster than the dial-up was. Thanks for the alyssum offer - I'll have to check with hubby first (I've found it's a bit more complicated gardening with someone else, since our tastes are a little different in plantings). But I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the directions...I can find it from there, just couldn't remember the exact street. Anywhere but Billings, I'm completely lost with compass points, but here with the Rims, I can generally get around pretty easily following them. The Rims are always North, Deb! :-) I'll bring you both something super-special for a division of the fernleaf's...my goodness...I "can't" wait but I will, for something so special! Thank you, thank you, thank you...what a generous offer! I'll get a special spot ready for it this summer, somewhere it will get "shown off" like it deserves...last time I checked, they were $84 each! Very steep, but I'll admit, I did consider it... Yep, that picture of Double Delight is the one I was looking at, and my Peace rose is the one that was damaged the worst this year. I probably noticed it more because my roses are currently out front, where they get about half a day of shade, so the foliage doesn't come in real thick. So I notice all the very neatly cut edges when I'm walking by to the front door. This year they'll be in the back with better sun, so hopefully the foliage will be thicker, and we'll get more blooms. I'll have to check out your handiwork on S. 27th it sounds like. Making a mess, are you? ;-) I don't normally shop Walmart (merely because I hate trying to shop with all those people in one place...I'm kind of "needy" as far as personal space goes), but on the rare occasions I do, it's very late at night, so if she's ever there between 11pm and 1am, I'll definately look for her! I adore Rio Samba - had one at the other house, and I've been kicking myself ever since for leaving that one in particular behind. Between the intoxicating spicy scent, and the "rainbow" of colors, it's probably my favorite as well. Deb, if you get one in at Walmart, let me know, and I'll make a special trip to buy it from you... :-) I can't remember if you two grow veggies or not, but I'll have extra from the greenhouse this spring if you're interested, so just let me know. I went a bit crazy starting stuff in March, and don't have nearly enough room to plant it all at our place...

I am a bit like yourself glaswegian Not always on the garden web forum but like to keep in touch some I remember seeing you on the Brugmansia Forum. To bad you could not bring plants from your garden I was fortunate on the occasion of my last move that I was able to bring quite a bit along But I found as well, that the plant sales of different horticultural groups and various fundraising plant sales found me with lots of inexpensive basic plants. Kind of nice isn't it to have a blank canvas. With your expertise in no time at all you will have marvellous gardens. Hope you are going to stay put for awhile Moving for sure is not just simple. There is a grower of Brugmansia in Quebec that my youngest daughter ordered plants from, but is to late I expect for this year You might even be able to simply drive to the Brugmansia grower in Quebec. Will look up the name of it if you are interested All the best

Hi There I am in Stoney Creek and am collecting a lot of seeds. I have cardinal climber and white cypress vines, 10 varieties of sunflowers, including a small variety with multiple heads called "paquito". I also have hyacinth bean, sweet peas (mixed colours) and purple and dark blue delphinium seeds. Double poppies and corn poppies and am intending to collect (but unsure how they will produce as yet) flying saucer morning glories. I have alot of the ordinary morning glories in purple and pink) and some chocolate morning glories. I also have thunbergia (orange) and have grown a blushing suzie - which is shades of red thunbergia, but still waiting for it to produce seed pods. I have red maltese cross. I do have all the latin names for these plants but my computer crashed and I lost the file so bear with me. Let me know if you would like any of these. Sally