Jeri, I'm surprised at how pink Monsieur Tillier is. I had thought it had more of an apricot coloring. At any rate, I'll be able to find out next month when I visit the cemetery, thanks to your description of its beauty. For what it's worth, I've never potted on a band and have not lost a single one by planting it straight into the ground, although there are one or two laggards (the prime example being the infamous Ley's Perpetual). I tend to think it depends on the soil and climate one is gardening in, and I consider myself fortunate that it seems to work for me. By the way, Jeri, thanks for enabling me into IHT. It's blooming for the second time after being in the ground for some months and I love the color. I couldn't have found a better plant for my purple garden area. I have been fertilizing bands that have put on new growth with alfalfa meal. Is this an okay thing to do? I haven't seen any adverse effects but would appreciate others' opinions. Regards, Ingrid

Michaela - all sorts of things! My usual bell peppers, eggplants and broccoli, plus petunias, snaps, nicotiana, annual lobelia and some of the zinnias I hybridized - those will all be started in early March. Later, I'll start tomatoes, marigolds, cosmos, cleome, some poppies and more. Will be winter sowing this year with some seed I picked up in a swap - some fancier echinaceas, alliums, gaillardia and others. Would be happy to swap, though I've already got some foxglove, so I don't need that right now. Hoping the ones I've put in will naturalize - I've got them in 3 different locations, hoping one will take. And I'll be direct sowing, among other things, a whole basket full of zinnia seeds, saved from my crosses this past summer - going to be interesting! Anything in particular you're looking for? - Alex

Thank you, Jess and Khalid for your comforting words. I went to the PA (physician assistant) on Jan 20. He checked my ears and found the right ear badly blocked, same with the left ear. When the cold virus attacks the body, it inflames the Eustachian tube. Some info. from Mayo clinic: "With plugged ears, your eustachian tubes — which run between the middle of your ears and the back of your nose — become obstructed. You may experience a feeling of fullness or pressure in your ears. You may also have ear pain, dizziness and muffled hearing. As swelling from the cold subsides, the obstruction usually resolves." My experience is very much like what the below doc. went through: http://www.healthxchange.com.sg/healthyliving/SpecialFocus/Pages/a-common-cold-can-cause-vertigo.aspx " Dr Young, 33, started an otherwise ordinary day with a mild sore throat and a runny nose – like he was coming down with a cold. However, by the third evening, he started to feel light-headed and awoke the following morning with severe vertigo. He felt as if the room was spinning around him. “For the first two days after the vertigo set in, I couldn’t eat, drink, turn my head or even move my eyes from side to side without vomiting or feeling the room spin around me,” he said. It turns out that Dr Young had labyrinthitis, a condition where the labyrinth (the inner ear) is inflamed and not functioning normally. Dr Young, an infectious disease specialist from Britain who works at a local hospital, self-medicated with vestibular suppressants and anti-emetics. These are prescription drugs to suppress dizziness and nausea. “But they had little effect." he said. “The acute vertigo usually lasts from a few days to two weeks. As it resolves, the patient experiences slight imbalance or unsteadiness while walking. This rehabilitation phase may last for one or two months. The hearing function may or may not fully recover. The recovery period is fastest during the first month but the patient may still recover up to six months after the onset of the disease,” said Dr Tan. Labyrinthitis is often spontaneous and idiopathic but can occur after a cold, flu or upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). “These infections don’t usually affect the inner ear. More often, in URTIs, the middle ear is affected when bacteria and nasal secretions pass through the eustachian tubes to the middle ear causing fluid accumulation. A bad middle ear infection can lead to the spread of infection to the brain, or in rare cases, labyrinthitis as well,” said Dr Tan. **** From Straw, the P.A. who examined my ears recommended an MRI of the brain (magnetic resonance imaging scan) to show the inflammation. The cost? $1,000. I said, "NO way, I'm going to rinse my ears with hydrogen peroxide". I went home, fill a glass-dropper with hydrogen peroxide, rinsed my left ear. That cleared out completely. The right ear which bled, I had to rinse it 3 times with hydroxide peroxide ... and my vertigo went away !! I was able to stretch my head backward in all directions. Hydrogen peroxide kills all three: bacteria, fungi, and virus.

As long as it's not Siberian Elm (which where I am is surprisingly common). SE has a messy, weepy look and often bleeds down the trunk. Highly susceptible to wind and ice damage. Smaller leaves than native elms. Of course it's highly resistant to the Elm diseases because it evolved along side them. Much like the sad situation with the American Chestnut. Steven American, Slippery, and Cork Elm are native but susceptible to Dutch Elm Disease and phloem necrosis. American Elms are large, grand, vase shaped shade trees at their best. Sadly, very few mature, old trees remain due to the foreign pestilence they face. I'll have to take photos of two I know of in "my town". We have lost several over the years, and I only know of two locally now.