Many southern Californians are cynical of weather reports after this last year when time after time they would predict 20 to 50 percent chance of rain and all we would get here in North Orange County would be a few drops that evaporated as soon as they hit the ground or concrete. Especially heart breaking is to watch the doppler radar on the internet and see the rain clouds split up and go to the North and South of your home leaving you high and dry. My location also seems to be in a rain shadow from Catalina Island. But anyway, I figured we were jilted again when it still hadn't rained by Friday night, but thank God, at 11:30 Friday night it finally started raining, the first measurable rain in 16 months. A final burst of rain for about 15 minutes Saturday morning and I was pleasently surprised to find a total of 1.25 inches of rain in my rain gage. And the rain came while my garden still had some live plants in it and my fruit trees still had leaves on them, instead of in January when everything would have been dormant. I'm happy.

Marilyn, you will have to come to a Plant Swap one day and meet all us ne'er-do-wells soon! (You can tell who we are by asking us if we do well. We'll tell you, "Ne'er!") As for YOU, Felix...regarding that poor unfortunate sweet little grey-haired lady above...I know this is a touchy subject for you, an' all...but...all things considered...I think I'd rather SAY it than SEE it, if you get my drift!! (Just funnin' you, my friend!) And with that, I'd better say goodnight, before I REALLY get into trouble! Marcia

THANK YOU David. I appreciate your help here, but I'd already sort of planned on letting the tree thaw with sap in it's veins and me perhaps staying out of nature's plan until Spring. This JM doesn't seem brittle at all since it didn't split or break but I am reluctant to try touching it and maybe breaking it with my panicked effort when all things are frozen solid as glass we can shatter. I think maybe patience is called for here, rather than pro-active efforts on my part right now when the beautiful little tree is brittle and frozen. We'll soon see what happens to our prized little now 9 foot Maple tree, and like always I am counting down the days until Spring. I just wondered if this sort of thing was unusual and you have given me some hope here. That Japanese Maple has always loved it's spot and grown slow but perfectly into a tree with a grace that seemed destined to have giant bonsai qualities. I'll suffer the tough winter with it and put it on notice that it'd time to straighten up. God only knows how many times I've been told to do that very same thing. I have a lot of faith in this tree but I'm no expert at maples like it, or how to care for it when it's so bent from 3 inches of ice as it's load. I planted that espensive tiny tree on my 25th wedding anniversary back 9 years ago and my wife is now not happy. She thinks it is ruined, but I think maybe I can save this very special tree if I don't do anything stupid. Poor Karen (my wife) has now endured my mad passions for 34 years and that includes the indoor greenhouse I once built in our first apartment. Now she and I just feel "special" about our little maple tree. jim On Dec 4, 2006, at 5:06 PM, myersphcf wrote:

Maryl - So when you saw Midnight Castle and When Royals Dream almost together, which did you like best. I've always thought When Royals Dream looked like a fabulous purple too. When the heat index is 100, SC Francis Busby fades a bit. It is very bright in the "red bed." With scape blast and one of the Julie Newmar seedlings taking over the seedling bed and robbing the others of shade, I can't get accurate stats on Valentine Sweetheart. At this point, VS has better increase and reliable rebloom but a bud count of only 8-9. The sib has developed rebloom and has a bud count of 14. Since they do have differences - one with the gold edge and the other with the white, I might end up introducing both of them as some point. VS had one fabulous scape developing before the blast, and I thought it was going to develop the lateral branching. Because of the rain wave followed by the heat wave, I could not risk moving VS to the new evaluation bed I made. If I ever get than one in good soil and enough sunlight, we will see what she can do. Both are shorter than I would like - 24 inches tall.