Julia, Sounds like you just got the same weather system a day earlier than I did. Got some hard rain last night and we've been having showers all day. Miner's Findings really shaped up after the first few flowers that didn't open well--and it's late. Nancy, Autumn Woods had a great year here too. Funny I just looked it up and it only started blooming 3 days earlier than last year and most of mine bloomed 2-3 weeks earlier. It ended later than last year too. Thanks, I like the look of the seedling and it had a pretty good budcount so I'll see how it does next year. Rita, Decatur Cherry Smash has a great budcount and is consistently a star performer here. One of those oldies I'll always have. Val

"TAKING A LOOK AHEAD TO THE WELL ADVERTISED COLD FRONT ON NEW YEARS DAY - THIS WILL BRING THE COLDEST AIR OF THE SEASON TO THE AREA. IF FCST LOWS VERIFY THU MORNING...IT WILL BE THE COLDEST SINCE FEB 19TH 2007. IT WILL FEEL EVEN COLDER GIVEN THE VERY WARM DECEMBER WE`VE BEEN EXPERIENCING. OF MOST CONCERN WITH THIS FRONT IS THE CONTINUED DISTINCT FREEZE POSSIBILITY FOR NORTHERN INTERIOR AREAS....GLADES/HENDRY/INTERIOR COLLIER/WESTERN PALM BEACH COUNTIES. MOST PRONE IS GLADES/HENDRY. PARAMETERS CONTINUE TO SUGGEST FREEZING TEMPS ARE POSSIBLE THU MORNING. 12Z MEXMOS IS QUITE AN EYE OPENER...DEPICTING 26 AT PUNTA GORDA THU MORNING! UPDATED THE FREEZE OUTLOOK WITH LITTLE CHANGE IN WORDING AS THIS IS STILL OVER 3 DAYS AWAY AND A FEW DEGREES WILL MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD...BUT ODDS AT LEAST AT THIS POINT IN TIME SEEM TO BE FAVORING A FREEZE FOR AT LEAST PARTS OF THE OUTLOOK AREA. STAY TUNED. /GREGORIA " So it looks like Miami will stay above 40? 18z GFS (American weather model) is spitting out a low of 47F for Miami, so we shall see. Its going to feel cold! Last night low in Miami was what, 74F...crazy!

Lynn, I see that you and I still like many of the same tomatoes. LOL I think you will like Jubilee and Jaunne Flammee'. Both are really great performers in our heat, but your heat probably is worse than ours. Heatwave is iffy. It does produce in the July and August heat but the flavor is a little lacking (but you know that I say that based on my "heirloom-preferring" tastebuds). In your soil and your growing conditions, it may taste better than it did in my soil and growing conditions. I do think Heat Wave II tasted better to me than the original Heat Wave. Brandy, Sorry if I confused you by referring to seeds sown directly into the ground as wintersown. On GardenWeb, winter sown does refer to seeds sown in containers and exposed to the cold temps. To me, though, anything I plant in the winter in wintersown, which probably would drive the people on the wintersowing forum nuts! LOL If you want a good explanation of wintersowing, go to the wintersowing forum here at GardenWeband read Trudi's FAQ. It is very informative. I sow larkspur, poppies, etc. into the ground anytime between November and February, depending on when I get around to it. This seeds will sprout in the cold and form tiny ground-hugging rosettes. You won't see much vertical growth, but they are making roots all that time and, when the spring conditions are right, they start to grow like crazy. (Lots of cool season weeds, by the way, grow exactly the same way....germinating in fall or winter's cooler weather and flying under the radar until spring). Some plants don't like to be transplanted, and for me, poppies and larkspur are two of those. (I have transplanted poppies before, but they aren't crazy about it because they have long taproots.) So, wintersowing them in containers doesn't work because they get mad when you transplant them into the ground. As far as the purple coneflowers and hollyhocks....I tried numerous times to start them indoors under lights. I was able to do it with the hollyhocks pretty easily, but the coneflowers just didn't want to sprout. Yet, they would reseed readily in my garden. So, I wintersowed some a couple of years ago and had great results. As for the hollyhocks, there is no reason to take up a lot of space indoors under lights because I can direct sow them into the ground (if it is not a rainy winter) or in flats. They transplant easily and are pretty cold hardy. I seem to get higher germination rates with the ones sown outside than I do with the ones sowed inside. I love hollyhocks and have them every year. However, if a really, really wet rainy year, the seed often rots before it can germinate because I have horrible, slow-draining red clay soil. Your problem with hollyhocks last year probably had more to do with the excessively wet weather, the lack of sunshine as it seemed to stay cloudy FOREVER, and the late cold spells. Those three conditions caused lots of problems with plants here that are usually pretty easy to grow. Between "the cold" and "the wet", a lot of roots were stunted and the plants just didn't grow. I noticed this weekend that hollyhocks are already sprouted in my garden. They are small and low to the ground, with 2 or 3 leaves about the size of a nickle or so. You could direct sow hollyhocks in the ground now or wintersow some in a flat or other container. My main challenge with wintersowing is that the cats like to lay on any flat I plant anything in, even if I have lids on the flats! The dogs, of course, like to walk on the containers, and the wild things, like racoons and possums, like to paw through the soil looking for whatever. Also, if I am not careful, the wind carries them all away, even when I think I have them in places where they are sheltered from the wind. Dawn

Darn! Darn! Darn! I lost the post I was going to post yesterday, only it wasn't the site it was my lap top....hit some silly key and POOF! everything gone! I was so mad I swept and mopped every floor in the house, and hour later I was still mad so I washed windows....them I can ran out of steam and crashed! Anj....it is nice to see you again and still the busy wife and mom! And just think school is almost out and then you will have new challenges, but what wonderful memories you will have when you children are grown and on their own...gosh! Are they even "on their own?" Mine still come home to talk over things. Luvs....AH! the pond. Haven't found the "hole" yet but we are moving in on it. We have half of the pond to go, but with the weather everything outside came to a stop. I know that my pond sound like so much work, but it is so nice to sit outside for a meal and listen to the sound of the water falls and watch the fish. The little birds are so used to us they bathe in the stream without fear and then there is the flowers during the summer, iris, water lilies, hyacinths, water hawthorn and lotus. It's worth it! Work on our friends home stops during most of the summer, they are very active in our fraternal order, state officers and national chairman, and they help maintain our private campgrounds, so they are rarely home. DH and I are putting together a work party for the fall as a surprise for them, it should be a lot of fun as well as getting things done. And yes, it is nearing completion, all of the essentials are done as well as the wall and ceiling. The mud and tape comes next, then the texture which will be left to a pro. Nice that your neighbors find nice things for you to paint. My BGF finds me thing as well, 1,000 teddy bears, or and entire ceramic village, 25 buildings. Do you know how hard it is to come up with colors for those old houses? Impossible! And she didn't want any of the painted ones back....so I donated the ones I have finished to a charity. Punk....you have been busy painting and now your helper is off for a week and your plans to branch out...WOW! And... DaaaH! I never thought about googling the lanterns and I do it all the time and about the iris...I read the instructions and...no way! Well, maybe I'll change the oils for acrylics, maybe not! Well see.... My pansy's have given me a closer look at what I can do and what I don't know! I don't know flowers! Well, this chapter is getting longgggggggggg, keep safe! Belle