Hello, Paxfleur. I am an outdoor man spending minimum time under a roof. After retirement my mornings are spent in my garden and afternoons on golf course. I too love birds. The first bird that sings at early dawn, while it is still dark is the wild canary. I often go out and sit in the lawn just listening to it. The next singer are BULBULS (nightingale) followed by my cockatiel and my black partridge. I also have some white fantailed pigeons. This morning was spent in pruning my grape vine and cutting dead amaryllis leaves. My doughter in law also desires a fish pond. May be this spring I will have one. Thank you every one for your interest. ARIF

Kay, Amaryllis are very much Cottage Garden flowers. They are listed in a very old (19th century) cottage garden book that I have. They had colors back then that we no longer have, and the book names color variations that had become extinct even back then. The author states that the old varieties had been given up for the newer, bigger varieties that had been produced and the "old varieities" had disappeared, mentioned only in "old books". Mores the pity. I grow them, too. Yes, those flowers you get at Christmas will grow splendidly in the summer garden and can be left in the ground to return the following summer. They grow huge and bloom better than the potted ones. Lovely cottage garden flowers. ~Annie

Susie-Woo Hoo great haul on the BINGO win...Have fun spending all that money. Elizabeth-Good luck on your gall bladder surgery...The most people I know have either had theirs taken out or going to. Sassy-I did see the new daylight savings change for this year when I put up my new calendar. The days are already getting longer...Can't wait until Spring gets here...I love when it gets dark at 9:30 not 6:00... Remy-I'm behind on my WS seeds...I have all my containers but don't have them started yet. Hope to do them this week. I am the speaker at the February Garden Club meeting and definetely not prepared. I had hoped to take some containers with Pretty green plants in them but not now. Laura-I have Canna Australia I can send you...I would love some of your clematis's also...Need to get with you on those. mmqchdygg-Would love some of your Fat Spike seeds. Maryanne-I got your sweet package yesterday and could not get through the letter for crying. My DH had to read it. The Scared Heart Spiritual Society plaque for Dad was divine. I had never seen one of those and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for it. It will always be one of my prized possessions. Beth, Jeanne, Jenell, Tina, & Susan-I received all your cards and thank you so much for thinking of me. I hope to be a shoulder to lean on one day for you. Life is something all of us must borrow, returning it in time to whence it came. Love you ladies. On a happier note, Maryanne I have not had anyone call me Shirley Sue since I was small. I think Mom, my Aunts and Cousins put Sue in all of our names. Good grief everyone I knew middle name was Sue...There was Shirley Sue, Rita Sue, Mary Sue, Linda Sue, Connie Sue and etc. etc. LOL Shirley

All aroids produce tubers. In horticulture the three terms tuber, bulb and corm are used interchangeably but there are scientific differences. I've seen all sorts of aroids sold as "bulbs" and corms but the science books say otherwise. I'll do my best to keep this simple but some of the explanation is tough. A tuber, bulb and a corm are all stems. Most people think of the stem as the support of a leaf but that part is called a petiole. Leaves are technically made up of two parts, the petiole and blade. Some people find it confusing when they read a scientific text and find "the stem is the support of the leaf". That is technically true but only if you understand the petiole is part of the leaf. A stem is the support of the plant. The definition would go something like this: The base, central axis and main support of a plant normally divided into nodes and internodes. The nodes often produce a leaf in the axil of which they produce roots and hold buds which may grow into shoots of various forms. The stem's roots anchor the plant either to the ground, a tree or to a rock. A stem may even spread as a repent rhizome creeping across the soil. May either grow above ground, underground or partially above the soil. Specialized stem forms are called a corm, tuber or bulb. A bulb is an underground storage structure used to store starches and water. A bulb is a condensed stem usually with a basal plate and fleshy storage leaves surrounding the bud that will form the next plant. It is composed of thick modified leaves arranged in layers that are used for food storage. If you want to see the inside of a bulb slice open an onion since an onion is a perfect example. The term bulb is used far more commonly in horticulture but should is not used in relationship to an aroid, at least by a scientist. Most people probably won't but if you did you could see an onion is not like the tubers that grow from an aroid. A corm is similar to both a bulb and a tuber but still different. The corm is an underground stem to which the above-ground parts of the plant may die back in the dormant season. It often stores starch and when it regrows foliage will come from the top and roots from the base like a typical stem. There are no true examples of a corm in the aroid family. My friend and scientist Christopher Rogers wrote the following to further describe a corm: "a corm is composed entirely of stem tissue. It is literally just an underground stem. It has an epidermal layer, a vascular cylinder with phloem and xylem and central pith. A corm can also be a starch storage organ, but it still has true stem tissue. This is why a corm has the new foliage growth coming from the top and the roots coming from the base. Corm examples are Crocus, Cyclamen and Gladiolus." Define phloem and pith The xylem is a plant tissue of various cells that is capable of transporting water and other substances including mineral salts to the leaves. A tuber is a strongly condensed stem as well as an underground structure which is almost entirely a starch storage organ. The buds for future growth and the roots all develop at the apex (top) when the tuber sometimes forms as the tip of a stolon. Stolons are stem runners or stem shoots that run atop or just under the ground from a plant. Stolons possess the ability to produce new plants from the buds along its length or at the apex (tip). Christopher explains further, "A tuber is just parenchyma (with some vascular tissue). It has an epidermal layer with some subdermal vascular tissue, and all the rest is parenchyma." Parenchyma is the primary tissue of most plants which is composed of the thin cells which form the bulk of leaves, roots and other plant parts. He continues with his explanation of a tuber, "It is almost entirely a starch storage organ. This is why the foliage and the roots all come from the top. Most plants with tubers have them borne on stolons, but that is not necessary. In Amorphophallus, Arum and Typhonium for example, the stem tissue is all encased in the small bud at the top of the tuber. That bud grows upward into a leaf or two, and outward into roots, with the tuber beneath. Other tuber examples are potatoes and Sinningia." Xylem is a network of hollow cells found in a plant's vascular system that transports water and soluble nutrients collected by the roots. Sorry to be technical, and I suppose there is nothing wrong with calling a tuber a corm or bulb but if you talk to a scientist they will likely frown if you use the wrong term.