Good morning Lucy, Cute story. Love the Iochroma, I have Purple Queen, I think. Its been blooming all summer. I thought I had lost it in the GH last winter. Bad case of spider mites. Looked like a pot of sticks.LOL But its doing good now. Hope you are having a great time with the kids To bad there's no garden you can play in. Sorry about the puppy poop, buts its funny! LOL How long are you staying??? Big Hugs Dorothy

Marcia, I have 'Honey Bells' hosta also. I like the large shiny green leaves on it. Last week I went shopping at Lindenberg's. In store they are clearing out their perennials at 40% off. So, I bought... Supreme Sultan TB iris... $2.39 regularly $3.99. American Halo, Fair Maiden, Sleeping Beauty and Sea Lotus Leaf Hostas all $3.29 each instead of $5.49. First Frost, Summer Breeze and Great Arrival Hostas all $5.09 instead of $8.49. Monarch's Velvet Potentilla followed me home also for $2.99 instead of $4.99. I also picked up some Japanese peonies for $10.19 instead of $16.99. I bought Kukenu Jishia, Bride's Dream and Glowing Candles. The herbacious peonies I bought were Springfield, Eden's Perfume, Kansas, Laura Desert, Tom Eckhart, Pink Cameo and Edulis Superba. They were reg $6.99 and I paid $4.19. Daylilies...I will plant and hope that they are true...if not then I may just have to give them away or sell really cheap. I bought Black Stockings, Fire and Fog and Moroccan Sunrise all regularly $7.99 and now on for $4.79. The daylilies that were regularly $5.99 and on for $3.59 that I picked up were Edge of Darkness, Cherry Valentine, Canadian Border Patrol, Paige Pinata and Daring Deception. Each year I go and get stuff at their clearance sale. Sure is a lot cheaper. They are bare root so I just plant them up immediately and they do fine. Thank goodness perennials can grow in a pot until I have time to plant them. I have done some cleaning through the beds and found a few spaces already and the rest are going to be placed in my new walking garden where the old holding garden used to be. Brenda

Hi Toe, Someone else could do better on that one. All I know for sure is to keep the potassium level high in the nutrient, having a good bloom/fruit formula. I've been worried about it too since I'm trying heirlooms. You gotta be careful, because some tomatoes just crack because it's in their DNA like Cherokee Purple. But the cracking I'm worried about I think happens when there is a step, or quick change in nutrient, temperature or watering. When it gets ripe the skin gets taught and below soft, so rain or sprinkling water can trigger it (like sweet strawberries), changing nute strength can do it, and from what I can tell most worrying is that we can be in situations where the temperature fluctuates suddently since our babies aren't buried in the heat sinking ground. So if it spikes in temperature variation I think you can forget about heirlooms. Back to DWC, besides the problem of rapid temperture changes if you're outside, because the roots have no heat sink that are in the air, if you're thinking that all the watering will trigger it, I'm gonna guess it's the opposite as long as you run your system with a pretty constant level. But if there is a big change in the water level I'm sure that would split them if they had that tendency. Your probably need a way to automatically siphon or float valve in water to keep the level constant. Get some crack resistent heirlooms like Thessaloniki, Google "crack resistant heirloom tomato"

deb, thanks for your advice. i called this morning when they opened and spoke to the customer service department. we discussed that it hadn't arrive yet at its destination. she reviewed their records and showed no activity on it. we discussed how it gets voided out so to say and they do that in their system as the certificate is numbered. (thank God they keep records, because i just signed it, put it in a card and mailed it). we decided to wait a few days to see, just in case my sent mail got misrouted. however, just a few minutes ago, i called back and asked her to stop it completely, which she did in their system. so yes, legitimate companies can void out gift certificates as long as they are numbered and tracked on their end. tina, if you haven't yet send anything to me for february, let's call it a day. if you have then of course, i will do the decent thing and send off to you. you mentioned in your email about your and inability so just let's forget about february with no hard feeling. if the certificate does ever show up, it cannot be used. i was thinking you would have liked some new iris and made it a little more special since i was making this my last month in this group. my letter in the card talked about it as well. fyi to everyone. at times i get a lot of junk mail, magazines and circulars. i have now learned, even if i am not interested in those things, to look through them. last year i gave the kids a bunch of magazines they could use for cutting out for school projects. my sister gave me back mail that had been inside a bh&g magazine (which i don't like but my aunt always renews my subscription). it was something i swore at the time had never been delivered to me. so now, i'm more careful. just a thought! be well everyone maryanne