Wow prubo! Glad to see you found what sounds like a beautiful solution! I have seen those units and what you have planted will be gorgeous. THANKFULLY my neighbor from hell MOVED. He's gone! Now a woman around my age is there and she has been pleasant and has pretty kept to herself, so I am truly relieved. Betsy - regarding the cannas... What sadly happens up here is that since we (myself and prubo) are somewhat near the ocean, that cold water and the marine layer air that blows our way, tends to extend out the chill in spring and limits when cannas really get to growing. They usually don't size up enough to be screen-like until mid-late summer (unless overwintered intact inside). And if we wanted a longer period screen, there would need to be something else there until they come up to size. However they will be good through to October/November as a screen due to warm falls (again due to the then warm ocean). I have some cannas right now that I finally put outside a couple weeks ago (kept them inside during winter but left the live foliage in place). But until we get a few days of blowtorch heat (coming soon), they'll sortof languish there and take their time growing.

I ordered two of the Exclamation planetrees from Advanced Tree Technology. The total of the order including shipping was $64.50. The trees were roughly 4-5 ft tall. They were not bare root. They are shipped in a plastic wrapping that is in the shape of a pot. The trees were essentially potted with a good amount of soil around them and best of all the soil in each "pot" was still quite moist. I expected the trees to be dormant given the time of year that I ordered them but each still had a decent amount of green leaves. They were beginning to go dormant though because each had a few brown leaves as well. Neither tree was root bound when I took the plastic "pot" off to plant them. However, each had a nice root system that looked very healthy. I took some pics of the shipment and I've included them to give you a better idea of how the trees look. BTW, Advanced Tree has some errors on their website. If you poke around, you will find Bloodgood listed a few times as the Planetree that they sell. I talked with a company representative over the phone and she said that they used to sell Bloodgood but they switched over to Exclamation exclusively. This was confirmed by each tree having a tag from Chicagoland Grows that discovered and markets this cultivar. Advanced Tree Technology hasn't updated parts of the website yet to reflect this change. You can't see the prices of anything on their website unless you click on the "Order online" link. You can also request a catalog that has all of the prices. Here is the box that I received: Here are the two trees in the box: Here are the two trees out of the box: Here is a closeup of the leaves:

I have no idea about Montana. What is your gardening zone?! How cold have you already gotten? Also, there are many species of Prickly Pads. The ones that are sold in the East are Opuntia humifusa (Eastern Prickly Pear); but lots of species of Opuntia are not cold hardy. Keep in mind, O. humifusa looks completely different in the Winter! They normally shrivel up and lose the rich green color. They ain't dead! It's just that when it gets really cold, the plants move water out the leaf pads, as soon as Spring returns, the pads rehydrate and turn green again. O. humifusa is native to the East Coast from Florida up to Cape Cod (up to approximately Zone 7a). So, they are unusual among cacti for cold tolerance AND WET tolerance, the combination of which is FATAL to most all cacti. Mine have regularly been under mounds of snow and always return. I would think that a Montana winter would offer some advantage as you are soooo much drier in mid Winter, and it's soooo WET here even in mid Winter. I would think that a snow cover would offer protection if the winters go below 0 F. You could take cuttings, I have a bunch on the surface of some palms that I overwinter in the garage, but they are perfectly cold and freeze hardy to at least 0 F.

My husband was in michigan this week and that was one of the flights he thought about taking on thursday night. He flies a lot and it just hit close to home. Clarence is not far from where we live. We are a little more out in the country. Big sigh of relief. When the news came on at 10pm they announced at the end of the broadcast that a plane had crashed by the airport, but they didn't know anything yet. By the time the 11pm news came on, it was not until after the weather that their news crews made it to the neighborhood and they announced it was a commercial plane. WIVB broadcast without commercial break until I went to bed at 2am. When my husband called to say he was alright i was so grateful. (wipes tears and sniffles) Fran, Could i have the blanket flower, please? BTW, DS#3 watered my keyboard once, its still a little iffy. We set it in from of the blower on the woodstove for a week. Just FYI those of you sowing in the keys LOL! Thank all of you for the prayers. Families here are esp. close knit and things like this are difficult for anyone. Praying for your FIL, too Nichol. Fleethart