I'm Tracy and I live in Olmsted Township. It is a little burb just south of North Olmsted. I grew up in a neighborhood of Cleveland called West Park. It is just south of Lakewood. This is my first year winter sowing and I am having lots of fun with it. I have only glanced at the Ohio Valley Thread because I am so far north of it. Truly a member of the snowbelt area. We are getting dumped on now! I too love the snow! We just finished up with a big ice storm on Wednesday. All the trees were full of a thick glaze of ice. It was beautiful.

Hat's off to you onedaylily!! gardencrazy is right--Winter sowing is the best. You're gonna have SO much fun here. Welcome! We're all very happy you decided to join in the madness. Everyone here helps with questions, worries, successes, complaints, and accomplishments--basically just about anything that comes up and every aspect of gardening--so that we all enjoy a spectacular gardening experience. Don't know? Ask. Have an idea? Share. Need help? Post a question and folks will weigh in with all sorts of suggestions. Have a problem? Go ahead and complain. There are plenty of suggested solutions to a host of problems too. Chances are, if it's garden-related, they've already talked about it here.

Acutally, most of your nicer nurseries are going to be on the East Side of Cleveland, In Cuyahoga, Lake and Geauga County... If you take I-271 to Rte 422 East, go out about 9 miles to rte. 306 and make a LEFT (north bound) along 306 there are quite a few *upscale* nurseries all the way up to Mentor (Lake Erie)... About 3-4 miles north of the off ramp on rte. 306 there is a nice nursery called Leuty's on the right side of the road just inside Novelty, OH... They have a decent selection of conifers, but have hundreds of japanese maples... They probably won't have the conifers replenished from the West Coast until Sept or Oct... If you continue another 10-15 miles North on rte 306, you will find the Holden Arboretum in Kirtland, OH (Lake County).. try a google search to get the exact directions and address, its a bit tricky to find, but worth the trip in that they have a decent display of conifers, and other woody plants... There is a small botanical garden in Stow, which has a few unique things. Also If you are in Cleveland proper, the Cleveland zoo and the Cleveland Botanical gardens have a few things, but your best bet would still be the Holden in Kirtland. Good luck... Email me if you have any questions... I'm in Canton and familiar with NE Ohio... I've done lots of looking around for nurseries and gardens... If you find a new one let me know...lol...

I wanted to say a great big Thank You to Stardust !!!! The swap was a success. She did a lot a work to pull this together. The hall was great and easy to find. There were tables and chairs inside for a great lunch of all the food everyone brought. Of course, all nicely decorated! It was fun to see all the door prizes that were all wrapped. And there was a very nice silent auction of books and home decorations. Then, on to the swap. Names were chosen at random to start the rounds and everyone redeemed the tickets they were given for the plants they brought in exchange the the plants they wanted. It took many rounds to use up the tickets. We sure had lots and lots of plants. Stardust brought about 60 plants. Wow! So, everyone got to select a "bonus" plant after they ran out of tickets. So, thank you so much. This was a lot of work and turned out to be a lot of fun. Also, thank you to Stardust's long time & very good neighbor friend who helped the whole day and made the refreshments. I can see that you did a lot of planning, too. Here are the lucky guys who came home with me::::