I am no expert at any of this, but I do have a comment or two on a couple of things in your list. Hopefully, someone who really has a clue will chime in. The Arctostaphylos should be a really nice ground cover, and should do ok. The leaves, dried, made as tea, are fantastic for chronic or periodic urinary tract infections. Personal experience. The berries, while 'edible', were pounded with dried meats and fats as late-cold-season 'emergency foods'.... But probably not something you would want to bake into a pie. The pinon pine does grow at high elevations in New Mexico. But I am not sure how it would do in Colorado. Farther north, possibly higher and probably colder. And even in lower elevations and absolutely prime growing conditions in New Mexico, they are **very** slow-growing...... If the trees absolutely thrived in your area, it might be 40 years before you can really harvest pine nuts from even a large nursery-grown tree. I don't know about your other possibles. But I suspect there are other options, as well. Have you checked with state and local government sites, and gardening clubs/associations in CO? You might find some other possibilities. By the way, I *truly* envy your cabin in that location!!

Most of this has already been said, so, to repeator reinforce! Any plant you have growing indoors that you want to move out into high altitude direct sun will need to be acclimated very slowly! To do it, move it out for an hour of the very earliest morning sun and an hour (at the most) of the very latest afternoon sun for the first couple days, and then keep gradually increasing the time in the sun little by little each day until itÂs all day long. If you donÂt want to be moving them in and out over and over, use the "covering them with a white sheet" method during the rest of the dayÂthe first few days you might even want to cover them with a double sheet for the middle of the day, but be sure thereÂs still air circulation under it! If you can "tent" it somehow, that would be best. Some of the leaves on some of the plants may still sunburn during this process. If they do, theyÂll look whitish (usually), or tannish! If they burn theyÂll probably fall off and new leaves will regrow. Individual existing sunburned leaves will not "recover!" There are very few "shade" houseplants, so most of them can be grown in quite a bit of sun. Not sure about your palms, and IÂd acclimate them VERY slowly if you try themÂespecially the sago. If you go somewhere like PaulinoÂs (very good selection of indoor plants), most of the things they have, including most of the house plants that have been named here, will be for sun, and if you have any questions, just ask somebody working inside. I havenÂt seen anything people have suggested that I think wouldnÂt work. Remember, again, that youÂre going to need to find some way to "secure" them so they donÂt blow over, and a good quality potting soil/mix will help a lot with the watering, but youÂll still need to water them very frequently. (DonÂt use Hyponex brand potting soil!) As someone mentioned, a mulch on top of the soil will help some with evaporationÂbark mulch would work well too and probably look nicer and be less likely to blow away than straw. I definitely agree with light colored pots or covered with something light colored. A few more recommendations! Tropical Hibiscus would do well as indoor/outdoor flowering plants. They can be bought in bush or tree form and will bloom year around with enough direct sun in winter. Come in all the warm colors. is another, and also can be bought in bush or tree form. The picÂapparently from a growing facilityÂis the only one I could find of the tree form, but they can grow much larger than shown in that pic. With either the hibiscus or Abutilon, if you cut them back pretty severely after each bloom, it will keep them nice and full looking, and encourage even more blooms. Bougainvillea also do well in , and would need to be cut back severely after each bloom to "contain" themÂthey can get very carried away if not cut back! They do well on a trellis in the pot. If youÂre putting the plants on the floor rather than the bench, you could keep them from blowing away by putting twine around the bench and around the top of the plant or trellis at "bench heightÂwould work with other taller plants too." And somebody has already mentioned Brugmansia, which looks the same as . These look very much like the Brugmansia I used to have, which was VERY heavily evening scented, but the pics identify them as Datura, so presumably thatÂs what they are. With Datura and Brugmansia, you really canÂt tell the players without a program. Come in warm colors, and some of them are wonderfully scented. In some ways these are easier to grow than the others, water wise, because they can take (and need) a LOT of water, and much of the time you can actually leave water standing in the saucer without overwatering themÂthatÂs what I did with mine when I had it to make it easy! If you do go shopping at PaulinoÂs or somewhere else with a good selection of house plants, DONÂT get a gardenia! IÂm sure youÂd be tempted, but they donÂt do well here, in or out, because of our low humidity, and it will eventually die or look so bad youÂll want to put it out of its misery! Lots of things you can try, including things that look "tropical." They might not all work, but thatÂs what gardening is all about! Skybird P.S. Bruce, loved your comment about breaking the boyfriend in graduallyÂLOL!

Hi Nomad, Welcome to RMG. Jane Hendrix has an experimental garden near Breckenridge. HereÂs some info about it: "Eleven raised beds devoted to testing the cold\-hardiness, performance and suitability of herbaceous perennials comprise Mountain View Experimental Garden. Located among lodgepole pine at an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet, MVEG is home to over 600 species of flowering plants, most of which arose from seed sown in the outdoor nursery. The cultivated beds are located at roadside; the rear of our property is in a natural, wild state and blends seamlessly into adjoining White River National Forest. An easy trail from our back door leads one through many distinct ecosystems, including edge\-of\-forest, aspen grove, pine woodlands, shaded and open streamsides and sunny marshland. For the more athletically inclined visitor, the trail climbs 1500 feet in 2.5 miles to the alpine tundra of the Ten Mile Range. If you call or email us a few days in advance of your visit, we will be happy to escort you on either the short or long version of this trail. The best time for viewing wildflowers in situ is between June 25 and July 20. The garden is open from about June 1 to November 1, weather permitting. Some surplus plants are often available for purchase directly from the garden. " Below is a link to her photo site. If youÂre interested in perennials, click on one of the Rocky Mountain Wildflower pages and then click on the thumbnails on the left side, youÂll find information about where and the altitude at which it was found growing. There are lots of them at or near 10,000'. The problem when you find something you like, tho, would be that most of these are unusual and wonÂt be found commercially available. You could possibly find seed for some of them at Rocky Mtn. Rare Plants (http://www.rmrp.com/), but apparently theyÂre a small company and only open for a few months over winter, until March, so you canÂt order now, but the site is available to check if they have things, and there are pictures of some of them. (I think they spend the summer looking for seed and new plants!) Where on earth are you located? Leadville? Happy COLD gardening, Skybird P.S. As David said, let us know more about your situation and somebody can probably give you more suggestions. We do have some high altitude and mountain folks around here. I'm way down in the lowlands of Denver! ;-) Here is a link that might be useful: Jane Hendrix Photo Gallery

Your higher elevation than the valley means you will get a wider swing in temperatures during the day--so it may be 75 during the day and freeze at night when it doesn't freeze in the valleys. This makes the spring and fall a riskier time and likely a shorter growing season because of the wider daily temperature swings. At the same time, being higher up than the surrounding valleys, the winter lows and summer highs will probably be milder than in the lower elevations. Not sure how all this translates into gardening selections, other than select trees that are late bloomers and/or plant them on a north facing slope where they will come out of dormancy later in the spring. Ripening times will be a little later than in the valleys due to the lower heat units at your elevation, and you will need to cover your tomatoes a bit earlier than they do in the valleys in the fall.