It is wonderful to hear such great news----You have every right to be proud of him and the job you have done raising him. I wish you and your son the best of everythig.. Please keep us posted so we can all share in his success. I agree with what Morz8 said----- Florence---

Mary, I agree with Susan, you must be one great gardener! I discovered two more very tiny variegata sprouts. The good news is that the Purple MW that the gopher got last year and almost destroyed is coming back! I took the remnants of the plant that he had drug down into the soil and planted them in two pots. The two pots are sprouting. I was so nervous that I might lose this plant that was so beautiful last year. I will put window screening in a deep hole and replant the Purple MW. I saw Mary Ann at a sale here in Tulsa yesterday. She planted some more variegata this year, but apparently it has yet to sprout. So I'm on the list and will send her an email to keep in touch. I hope to get to go back this year. Susan, hooray for the clematitis returning!! Mine seems to be so hardy; however, it has yet to make an appearance this year. But, I'm sure it will. I have had a lot of seed pods the last two years. But, this is one of those plants that is tricky to germinate. It needs two cold periods - which makes me think it takes two years in the wild to germinate. I'll be putting the seeds back in the fridge in a couple of weeks. I have had success with germination and growing this plant. It just takes lots of patience. Wish I could say I'm successful at growing variegata! The gophers are already busy, as are the moles. So, I will be planting some Castor bean plants in the garden in hopes that it will repel them. Susan, we need to plan a trip to Pine Ridge to see Mary Ann this summer. Maybe we can meet up with others from the area. Sandy

Ok, my wife saw that and really wanted a blue rhodie. None of the blues on the rhodie site are actually blue, theyre purple. But when she googles them the pics are clearly blue. What gives? Is there a real true blue rhodie? If so we want one. Hehe, thanks, Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure

Quoting Phoggie's post: "When we were starting, I asked if we needed to write up a contract and contractor said, "I don't know why we need one...I trust you if you trust me."....so we are building cost plus 10%...and no contract" Boy does that bring back a fond childhood memory- My Grandad was a dairy farmer & blacksmith in rural N.E. Ohio, and we were about 5 miles from a fairly large Amish Settlement. Although we had tractors on our farm, we also had 13 large Belgian Draft horses and we did most of our farming work in the same manner as the Amish, and we frequenly worked with the Amish. Today the banks and state governments often require contracts but remembering back to my youth, the Amish would not sign a contract. There feeling was that if your memory is so poor that you have to take notes on what we agree to do, then they would just prefer not to work with you and honesty was never an issue, but then as Grandad was fond of saying, they don't worry about bankers or bean counters because they answer to a higher authority. Now, while you witnessed them taking their hats off and saying a blessing before eating lunch, what you did not see or hear was the the conversation at lunch was the Elder supervisor was critiquing the mornings progress and what he expected everyone to do for the afternoon. They hold a similar session as soon as they arrive on the job in the morning. First a moment of prayer, then they get their instructions from the boss.