Ok just wanted to post a follow up. I got my new cuttings and used my new products... the perlite and dip & grow. I got a ton of semi-hard wood cuttings. Cuttings: 4-8 inch range, striped all but a few leaves at the top, used a 50/50 mixture in 3 pots of my old sand and peat mix with the perlite, poked a hole with a dibber, dipped cut tip in rotting hormone, put my cuttings in the holes, moistened soil (not too wet) damp, kept in location that sees light, but not direct sunlight. (only bad thing was due to time issues I had to leave the cuttings in water longer then I planned before I prepared them and got them set up in pots) This time I left off the bags and instead misted in the morning before leaving for work and when I got home from work in the evening. The leaves browned on me still and I was about to give up and a few days ago 2 gave me some green leaves. So I have 2 out of about 30. I guess that is good considering I have no greenhouse and can't mist them more then 2x a day. The question now is leave them alone and kep doing the same thing and let them get stronger or try to take them out of the rooting pot and into a new pot of their own? I'm leaning towards leaving them till I know if any others are going to try and throw up some green. I worry about the delicate roots and trying to separate them out w/o damage. When, or do they even need to be transferred to a new pot with a different soil?

Josh, Update on the "Little Ice Ages" of the "middle ages". Those occurred during the Moulder (sp?) minimum, where for a couple centuries the number of sunspots dropped drastically. During this time Europe had extreme winter temperatures that are refereed to "The Little Ice Age", and many people assume this was true for the whole earth. Nope, was not the case. Turns out it was a regional event. While the total radiance of the sun did drop, it was by a very tiny amount. There is little or no evidence of significant cooling over the rest of the globe. The puzzle was why? There has been no know explanation.... until recently. Turns out the sunspots are likely key. Reason being, ultraviolet light. Evidence indicates that ultraviolet light emissions from the sun dropped by up to half due to lack of sunspots. This ultraviolet light heats the upper atmosphere where the ozone is. Less UV=cooler upper atmosphere=changed conditions for the planet and climate. Turns out when you feed these resultant conditions into our current climate models, the jet stream shifts significantly OVER EUROPE and the north Atlantic, but not so much elsewhere. Result is much colder temps over Europe but not elsewhere. This is not proof that is what happened in the "Little Ice Ages", but it is a mechanism, and is an area of continued research. Assuming this turns out to be essentially correct as appears to be likely, then far from refuting that small changes in temperature will have little effect, it actually confirms it. Lastly, for those of you that don't understand the way that science is set up, it's not the same as the corporate world we are all familiar with. Everyone is trying to make a name for themselves. It's not profit (though money can come if your successful enough), but recognition. The way you do that is prove you are you are right. But to way to REALLY make a reputation is to PROVE everyone else WRONG and that your RIGHT. Why do you suppose you know the name Albert Einstein? Answer, he PROVED EVERYONE else wrong, and I do mean EVERYONE, and himself RIGHT. The upheaval that Einstein created happen once a century or two at most. Issac Newton, Darwin, Galileo, among a few others are comparable. Science is self correcting, that is why the story can change over time, but usually actually just becomes more complex as the understanding becomes more complete. So for a climate scientist the ideal would not be to confirm the current thinking, but to actually sink it. Problem is, that is looking less and less even a remote possibility. Arktrees

An update in the AJC: A Florida real estate development and acquisitions firm said Wednesday it has bought The Home Depot Inc.'s 11 Landscape Supply stores for $22 million. Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based Ram Realty Services said in a statement that it is evaluating the portfolio to determine which of the sites will be sold and which will be redeveloped. The sale includes five stores in the Atlanta area and six in the Dallas area. The sites range in size from 4.5 acres to 9 acres and contain a former Landscape Supply store building of about 12,000 square feet.

Yes, tree oracle, I agree about the oaks. I grew up in the city but on a street lined with maples. I was sorely disappointed when I moved to "the sticks" but discovered that I had all oaks, which don't come close to the brillant fall display of the maples. In the fifteen years I've been here, there have only been two great years of color on the oaks - and this is the third. Sadly, between the hurricane, the snowstorm, and then the windy days we've had lately, the show didn't last too long. I thought this season would be a dud, but there really has been some great late-season color. Much later than usual, and, despite the above-mentioned leaf loss, in general seeming to last longer into the year. I think of mid-November as rather drab and dreary, and it's been a beautiful, colorful month so far! By the way, the burning bushes have been absolutely phenomenal this year! What a two-edged sword - so gorgeous, yet so invasive... Dee