Great Treefrog, would you like a chump of my tomatoe stake plant (bamboo)? :-) It is really usefull around here.... I would love the papaya. If you still have any red sugar apple left I would like one. (This are self polynating right?, I already have one regular one growing, have not had fruit yet). What else can I bring for you? Veronika Tony, are those self polynating variety? I would not mind having 2 varieties growing. I may have a avocado seedling. It self started under our avocado tree, it is about 2ft now. Our tree is the large fruit with smooth skin, very very tasty!!! I will look at it more closely tomorrow and see if it can be dug up. This (I think) is the variety: http://www.tropicalfruitnursery.com/avocado-viewer/pages/Simmonds.htm

Hi everyone, Very nice, Ellie, that your county provides compost bins to its residents. Wish ours did that instead of spend money to collect yard debris. Alana, I love the sound of your orange-flowered garden. Orange colored flowers are some of my favorites. Shirley, great GLOW photo of the hot air balloons. What a shot that captures the moment! Jeanne, I watched the College World Series, too. I yelled enough to make myself somewhat hoarse. OK, so I admit to being a very "animated" college sports fan when I get into games... Although I am a die-hard SEC fan, I confess I was pulling for my husband's alma mater, U of AZ. Only fair, since he dares not pull against LSU. As for the cormorant chicks - When we band, we place a band on each leg. One is a small metal band issued by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, Bird Banding Lab. The other is a plastic, colored band that can be read from a distance using binoculars or a spotting scope. Throughout the breeding season, we spend several days sitting in blinds, observing for banded birds that return to that colony. That enables us to get much more info other than through someone finding a dead banded bird and reporting it to the Bird Banding Lab. We can determine breeding site fidelity, survivorship, age structure, and other population demographics. Last year we re-spotted more than 400 unique bands at the 2 islands we conduct our observations on. Here is a "digiscoped" photo I took of one of the birds. As to why we do it at night - that is a matter of reducing disturbance as much as possible. All the birds are calmer at night, so we try to only go on the island when it is dark. That means banding all night long. It also means on observation days, we leave the boat dock at 3:00 am and don't leave the island until 9:00 pm. Makes for a long day, and you have to stay in your 5' x 7' blind for the duration (and that is why we bring a "honey bucket" with us). Hahaha. Happy gardening, Katie

TONI rub it in will you? Mine didn't make it and I used the vermiculite and bag trick this time! I did actually manage to get some sedum to finally put on some roots, last year I did my rooting in August with hardwood cuttings I am going to try that again this year and see how it goes. I have a purple butterfly bush, a honeycomb BB and a red bottle brush I wish to try this time. I SOOOOO hope the bottle brush takes it is sooo pretty. I do have a few hardwood cuttings of a smoke tree in water and I thought they were dead so I was going to through them out the other day and noticed some callousing and thought NO WAY is that root starts BUT I honestly THINK it is so I stuck them back in the water! I SOOOO hope those make it and are not just a false start LOL. Toni I think I am gonna send cuttings to you we can share my cuttings LOL. Thanks for the update, you know I really AM glad you are having so much success right? I really am, I think it is wonderful! OHH OHH OHHH, someone TELL ME PLEASE HOW I should do some Weeping Pussy Willow cuttings? Someone sent me a bunch and right now they are just in water is this good? OR what would be the best approch? They are hardwood from the base and from the limbs. ANY advice would be sooo much appreciated PLEASE. :) Fran

Hi everyone, I am in Columbus, Ohio dogsitting and housesitting for my son and new daughter in law. They are in Belize on their honeymoon. Fortunately, my box arrived on Wednesday before I left and I was able to pop all the plants in the ground before I left. My hubby is making sure they get watered although severe storms have been hitting there and here for the last two days. Carol included a list of the items she put in here fantastic box and I thought I threw it in my purse on the way outside the door. I now can't find it. I will wait to post everything til I can make sure I don't forget something. Thank you Carol for the great box and I am sorry I have not informed you it had arrived. The kids left here in such a hurry, I have been busy cleaning and of course, shopping. We don't have much access to many shopping places in Bowling Green where I live. Can't pass up a good sale. :) I will be stopping at a greenhouse on my way home tomorrow. I noticed coming here that plants are 1/2 off. I am sure the two teenagers in the car won't be happy but they know they have no choice. Will post the list of goodies when I get home.