Peppie is a rat terrier, which is actually a mixture of five or six other breeds, and I must say that some of the doggies posted after mine look very similar to him. We have another dog, a Yorkie, and unfortunately Peppie has never really warmed up to her, although he adored our Main Coone cat, a gentle giant who persisted in trying to befriend Peppie, despite many rebuffs, until Peppie fell in love with him. I love hearing all about the foibles of your dogs, and their interactions with their people and other pets. Florence, there's no question you had to marry Bob for Charlie's sake. No sacrifice is too great for our beloved pets! Ingrid

Many of the nurseries you listed and others suggested are the same vendors I use. And I look forward to investigating some of the other ones that are new to me. Swallowtail is my primary seed source (I start hundreds of seeds every winter and spring in trays. I also like direct sowing in the fall.) I love Swallowtail and have always had good results with their seeds. I also like to order from Renee's Seeds (the Angel's Choir shirley poppy mix is very charming). And am trying a new vendor called Outside Pride because they seem to be more generous with the amount of seed they send and have some unique offerings I haven't seen elsewhere. Van Engelen is the wholesale side of John Scheepers and that is where I go for bulbs. They offer a small selection of peonies as well. C&T Iris Patch for iris. I'm trying a couple of new plant vendors this spring. Digging Dog is the one I remember off-hand. They have an interesting selection of plants. I was drawn in by the geranium, campanula, and monkshood.

I looked up Americana on the Hosta Library. It's a real beauty. As you say Karen, there are many, many more I'd like to get. Right now I have June, Risky Business, Summer Breeze and by summer I will have Americana in the same area. Hope the combo works out. The first thing I have to do before planting Americana is to cut down the half dead pine that's close by before it falls on my other hostas. The pines were here when we moved in and were planted to close together - they aren't doing to well. We are slowly replacing them with Sugar Maples. Marg

Susan, I love your light stand and always will love it. I realize it was the best solution for you, but if I told Tim I wanted to buy one of those, he'd hand me a hammer and tell me to build my own....which is why I have the one that I have. : ) Mine is hidden away out of sight in a room where guests rarely venture, although anyone who knows me and who knows I raise my own seedlings always asks to go upstairs and see it in the spring. So much for putting it out of sight....I just should have set it up in the dining room or breakfast room or something.... I am sure you'll be deliriously happy with it and will have many wonder seed-starting adventures and I look forward to hearing all about them. I think you got a great deal considering it was Gardener's Supply. I never buy anything of theirs for full price. They have sales often enough (and especially in November when, I think, some of us gardeners are shopping for ourselves) that a person can be patient and get a good price during their periodic sales. I've noticed that prices often are not as good in December when gardeners' spouses or family members are doing what I call "panic Christmas buying" and cannot afford, time-wise, to wait for a sale. I don't think you were repetitive at all. The more we all share about what we do, how we do it and why we do it (as well as pointing out what didn't work for us!), the better for all of us to learn from one another's experiences! Carol, Our weather is just like yours. Our high was 70 degrees yesterday and it was so gorgeous outside I could hardly stand it. I wanted to jump up and down and scream "Spring Is Here!". That was exacerbated by the smell of the orange blossoms on my little orange tree. However, I controlled myself because I knew it was a false spring and that winter was returning today. It was 56 degrees around 7 a.m. here at our house and now it is 36 degrees and we have had very, very light rain but lots of thunder. Phooey on winter! I think you showed those folks at the co-op that one benefit of being a gardener is that it keeps your muscles and joints strong, healthy and fit. I'd rather "work out" in the garden any day, than walk on the treadmill or work out on the weight machine. Who wouldn't? Trees, Nope, sorry, I just haven't gotten to it. I am trying. Watch for it in a couple of hours or in the morning. I'm about to start typing mow after I close up the chicken coops, put out the deer corn for my favorite deer, refill the bird feeders (those little birdies are eating nonstop today trying to stay warm), etc. I'm kind of dreading going out into the cold wind but I need to do it now before it gets dark. I have to warn you that I don't use the same planting schemes every year because I don't want to get stuck in a rut, but I'll try to mention some of the planting schemes in my usual rotation. Dawn