Thanks for reminding us to take advantage of our state's treasured places! I love DeLeon Springs for a cook-at-your-table pancake breakfast on cold mornings and a walk along the nature trail. Gemini Springs is 6 miles from my house, and it is a beautiful place to walk my dogs and see nature, too. And Wekiva Springs is my favorite in this area. Mark and I were married on the arched bridge there, with ospreys circling overhead and turtles sunning below us. For camping, I like Alexander Springs and Juniper Springs, though Mark & I really prefer to backpack in somewhere more private. We can't do that right now with the problems they've been having in the Ocala Forest, so it's campgrounds all the way until they clean it up around there. Our State Parks are treasures we should support in every way we can. We have many, usually centered around a body of water of some sort, and most are really beautiful. You can even get some good gardening ideas from them. I've always wanted to go to Torreya in the panhandle area, but haven't made it there yet. Anyone been? Great thread! Marcia

Try Fernwood Botanical Garden and Nature Preserve in Buchanon, Michigan (this is extreme southern Michigan, close to South Bend, Indiana). Their web address is www.fernwoodbotanical.org, or call them at 1-269-683-8653. Fernwood is on a river. One of the plants I like best there is a beautiful tri-color beech tree. There's also a gift shop with not only the usual stuff but plants as well--lots of kinds of ferns, for example--and they have a really big plant sale (twice a year, I think)where you can buy great stuff you don't find in most catalogs, let alone nurseries. They offer a nice little lunch buffet in a dining room with woodland garden print wallpaper. But of course, the best part is walking through the gardens. Do you like woods, prairie, river bank, or English-style gardens? Take your pick; they're all here. Here is a link that might be useful: Fernwood Botanical Garden and Nature Preserve

No point in having a conversation with someone who has an agenda which obviates any need to consider facts. Since you so obviously know so much about the state of Eucalytptus species infestation in the USA, which is in your view reason enough to avoid planting any Australian plant elsewhere than Australia because of the grave impacts on our local ecology, I will defer to your expertise and greater wisdom. Oh, by the way, did you neglect to register that I did mention the very species of Eucalyptus, both E. camaldulensis and E. globulus as being amongst the few that have weedy potential here in California? As to any Eucalyptus species ever having a chance in hell of becoming an escaped weed in someplace like Ohio, what is your supporting evidence beyond a Wikipedia citation? As to presuming that I have no experience with conserving native habitats or the issue of escaped exotics in the wild, you form this conclusion on the basis of what, exactly? Yet you continue to sidestep the very real issue of potential issue of gene pool pollution by mixing of selected "native" cultivars amongst local gene pools, and act as if this is a non-issue to consider. If you are going to walk the walk instead of just talk the talk, then "native" species should only be collected within their naturally occurring habitat for revegetation purposes, rather than planting out man selected cultivars from other parts of the plant's range, and often selected for their ornamental characteristics rather than those qualities that make them a good fit for their particular geographic range. As well, you failed to address the point I made about how planting out natives in already urbanized settings can not begin to replicate a fully functioning natural environment, the closest you can come is a facsimile, the original diversity of species is impossible to fully replicate. Therefore, as I stated before, it is more important, as well as more useful for the conservation of species diversity, to place more emphasis on preserving intact environments that remain, rather than play at recreating what was, in urban settings which have changed the hydrology, soil structures, sun and shade, etc, etc. Certainly no harm in promoting "native" plants for use in gardens, but to insist that only natives should be used is no more or less valid than other approaches. The only way you would actually convince me otherwise is if you did your homework, got off your soapbox, and addressed the points I raised in a logical manner, rather than resorting to bullying and name calling. I suppose that we also differ philosophically on the point of gardening and cultivating plants in general. I see landscape design as encompassing various methods with varied purposes. To the point that use of exotics does no harm to the surrounding "wild" landscape, what is wrong with appreciating plants much as an artist uses various paint colors, having a diverse palette to create beautiful effects. If...

I'm with you, +oM. It's a huge pleasure to watch a woods fill in and change over the years. Our woods burnt in '45, and 10 years later, my dad took me planting acorns. At that time, there was a lot of assorted popple, white spruce and balsam fir (Var, my Dad called it). Over time the dog berries (mountain ash), red spruce and white birch came in. The tamarack had survived in the wet spots the fire had not burned. Wasn't long till some of the tiny red maples started to get big enough to be noticeable, and the acorns had become trees big enough to mast. The squirrels planted oaks all over the place. Bog birch showed up recently. Beech came in, probably via the squirrels and jays, from the seed source across the road. I mouse guard them when I find them. The elms lining the brook caught the DED, and most died...not all though. I am planting more elms too, from local survivor elms that have either not been exposed to the dutch elm disease, or survived it. I have planted american chestnut, and soon they will be old enough to mast too, and the wildlife will spread them too. One year I dumped a bucket of acorns in the path, and the squirrels had a planting party. There are red oaks all along the paths, none more than 50 or 100 feet from the paths. Some of those are over 20 feet now. The grouse have come back, and the eagles. It's a lot of fun.