They are absolutely beautiful S&S. There is just nothing like the feeling of planting a seed in the dirt, watching it flourish, and then feeding your family with it's fruit. It's empowering lol. Great job buddy keep up the good work, and don't forget to keep me up to date on your progress. I will talk to you soon my friend. Patmark

My HN didn't produced catkins for three years I have it, either, but catkins productions generaly depends on amount of late winter-early spring sun plant gets and on age of it. In any event catkins on HN is not that ornamental, foliage is. About growing it in a pot I don't think this is a very good idea for two reasons, first, as all pot grown plants it need more frequent watering than inground. In case of salix that is always thirsty by definition, you are looking for extra work. Second, when you'll try to repot it, you'll see how much of the root mass is in your pot and how tangled it is. Not to say that it can't be grown in a LARGE pot, but it will be much happier in a ground. Grafted tree form maybe, but not a shrub. Even if you decide to still grow it in a pot, it's absolutely unnecessary to bring it in for the winter as it's hardy to z4. Interesting link below. Here is a link that might be useful: Hakuro Nishiki

I still don't have that flowering quince planted but I went to Home Depot again today to buy annuals. Bought a flat each of red salvia and marigolds. Of course, I didn't get past the shrubs. I bought a Coral Beauty Cotoneaster, a Purple Gem Rhodo, then two 'Fisher Salmon' Azaleas for $4.95 apiece, a 'Gerard Rose' and a 'Herbert' Azalea also $4.95 apiece. Plus I found two gorgous little Viburnums for 6.95 each! With a six pack of Morning glories and two six packs of nasturtiums bought at Hicks, that was my plant additions for the day.

Nancy, I am already beat! Another roughly day and a half of all this activity and I might be dead, but we are having fun. It is good training for the upcoming planting season. Kim, I hope the meeting with the landlady isn't about her having different plans for your house. Enjoy your time with the little man. Jennifer, His name is Frankie and we've been trying for about three years to tame his feral side well enough that we can pick him up, touch him, pet him or exert any sort of control over him. Some feral cats never can acclimate to more domestic behavior, but we are winning him over with canned food. He still looks pretty wild and is incredibly lean and muscular as are many feral to semi-feral cats, but we were able to get him into a crate and take him to be neutered (and to get his shots). He was mad at us yesterday but also at the same time relieved to be back here and no longer at the vet's office, but not so mad he wouldn't let us feed him and pet him. A lot of people say feral cats cannot be tamed, but they can. Sometimes it takes a few years to do it though, and often it is a very slow process where you're forever taking one step forward and two steps back. He and Lucky seem to know each other from their feral journeys. Lucky is fully domesticated now, and I think there is hope for Frankie to someday be as calm and gentle as she is now. Kim, I'm sorry you're ill and hope you recover quickly. Your seeds and planner are a sign, I think, that you'll be gardening somewhere. Bon, The good thing about the cold weather here is that it usually passes through fairly quickly, as least compared to many other states. I hope y'all are toasty warm again soon....without the need for the wood-burning stove to provide that warmth. I think it stays cold here for two more days and the warming trend starts around Monday. If that has changed, I don't want to know it because I'm just hanging on and waiting for the warm weather to come back. Jennifer, Great job, Finbar! He's doing his job as far as he is concerned, and I think dbarron's ID as a shrew is the right one. You have something I've never seen here. I'm not saying we might not have shrews around, just that of all the god-forsaken-wild-things that ours cats and dogs have killed and brought home, there's never been a shrew among them. Nancy, This does feel like a more normal winter although we still haven't been nearly as consistently cold as we were our first few years here. Everything seemed to change around 2005 and since then winters just have gotten warmer and warmer, except for 2010-2011 which was the last really persistently cold winter that I can remember. Rebecca, They really expected more snow and ice flurries in north and central Texas than they received in general, but it isn't because the clouds weren't trying. A lot of snow and ice were falling from the upper levels of the atmosphere but in the very low dewpoints closer to the surface level, the precipitation was evaporating before it could reach the ground. Our dewpoint here was only 12 so I'm not surprised that adjacent areas of north Texas were the same. It was odd to see the Winter Weather Advisory covering the area south of the D-FW metroplex yesterday, but I bet everyone in the DFW area is glad the precip missed them. Nancy, I doubt DFW gets much warmer than we will today, but I think they usually warm up a day earlier than us, so if we are expecting the warmup on Monday, they may get it beginning Sunday. So much flu is running rampant down there now that we are carefully avoiding going south this weekend. Of course, flu is running rampant to our immediate north, so we aren't going far from home at all since Love County seems to have, so far, avoided the widespread flu and strep that now have closed down 8 school districts in the Texoma region. I cannot believe how cold it has been the last couple of days. We are up to 38 degrees and it isn't even noon yet, but I don't think we're expected to get much warmer than what we are right now. The 4 year old is lobbying to go to the playground in Gainesville, but I think it is still too cold for that. Maybe tomorrow will be a touch warmer. Or maybe the sun will come out. Dawn