Mike - great book. I've read that, too. I took notes, so I could remember her growing tips as well. I live in a clearing in the woods at a camp & conference center, so the deer presence is strong & they're used to people also. Besides gardening around our home we work on gardens around the camp where there is no fencing to keep them out. I don't apply deterrents there, but some staff members stick soap in the soil near the rose bushes. In one area another staff family has a dog that deters them so we can plant edibles for our childrens' gardens. Sounds like you have good experience to deter deer from your newly planted specimens. I hope to scare them before they enter the garden and are just walking on the driveway. Like you I've had them break off stems or sink in rootballs by jumping through in spring when the new growth is out and the wet & soft. Sometimes their feet do tramp through gardens, so I've learned to plant closely & have paths in back of borders that are next to a fence or the house. When the deer can't see over it or can't find a path through it they don't enter, but do attempt to nibble around the front. Barberry prunings from my daughter's place crisscrossed & laying on the path prevented them from getting to seedlings & small plants in the spring. I removed them when the plants were larger. Some root well from cuttings in spring, so you can multiply what you have to make large groupings or repeat in the border. Sedum, Nepeta, Lamium, golden creeping jenny, & vinca minor can cover quite a bit of ground after awhile like a living mulch. The deer eat the tall sedum at our parents' island home, but haven't eaten them here. I was pleasantly surprised with Nepeta cuttings from new spring growth, stripped lower leaves, poked my finger in soft soil directly in the garden where I wanted the plants, & inserted. I moved a few of them further back as they matured as I put them too close to the edge, but other than that they've been easy. Another tip besides starting seeds -- find a free plant swap near you. Those plants are going to transplant well since they've already acclimated to your climate. No heartache if they don't make it because they were free! Just be careful to clean up any stray weeds before you plant them. Sometimes I just wash that soil all away before planting out. I've received rootbound seedings that sprouted in bark on top of plastic in someone's garden. A bit of root prep & they've been great plants. Have you tried some ornamental grasses either stand alone or in groupings? Some can be grown from seed. I've received some of my best ones for part sun at free plant swaps as divisions or seedlings that will mature & reseed again for me. Spring planted starts establish quickly. Some are well behaved clumpers and some are spreaders. Be sure to read up which fit your situation. The spreaders are in sunken pots to keep them as a clump. What ever is new to me becomes my favorite at the time. Hope that helps, Corrine

Thanks Jay. I look at it this way, whatever going to make it through this winter will probably not going to die anytime soon and this kind of freak weather probably won't occur for another 10 years so there's no where to go but up from here. I'm not too bum about it. I noticed your imbe, their looking good. I also have one too. It is quite cool tolerant. Read somewhere that it is graft compatible with a mangosteen but haven't been able to confirm it yet. Also what is the name of the pineapple your growing there? Red, have you tasted the capulin cherry before? I had some before and wasn't really pleased by it.

Bumblebee, Sent mine out today. Watch out for the Bee on the package. I couldn't get him off. =) Figured he may enjoy the ride! I'll send you the tracking info in just a little bit. It says it should be there on the 17th. I was surprised. I put 6 stamps on it, then thought... I better run it by and see if that's enough. The lady said $2.50 would do the job. At the same time taking that stamper and making sure every single stamp got the ink. I mean, I think she actually hit it 6 times. Got sticklers here, lol! I put $4.00 in the package. If anyone comes short and there's enough left - you can put it towards theirs. I know it's not much, but it adds up.

"subgenus" may be more appropriate (or maybe not, taxonomists have put both sweet and sour cherries into the subgenus Cerasus). All these different cherry species are very closely related, if one wants to consider them different species. This is one example where the line separating different species is not a clear one. It could even be possible to consider the different cherry families as subspecies. After all, if they can freely interbreed and hybridize with each other, can they not be considered members within the same species? (by this definition we could divide all cherries into only 2 groups: those with 16 chromosomes and those with 32) Or one could attempt to divide cherries into different families: Sweet cherries (P. avium), sour cherries, Black cherries plus Capulin native to the American continent (put into same group), and Asian flowering cherries. Perhaps better classification could be provided if taxonomists utilized multiple degrees of species relatedness/separation, because it is ambiguous whether some of the different cherries should be classified as entirely separate species or subspecies within a singular species, neither of which would be wholly accurate.