My sympathy to all living in this region of horrific winter, and late freezes this year.I am so sad-I live right on the lakefront in a small ohio community.My second rose bed(5-6 yr old plants) is nearest the brutul winds coming off the lake. .I lost eight roses this year!! My most mature and beautiful rose, About Face included.Had searched for over four years to find "Amelia Earhart"-one died and my fingers crossed for the second..The constant freezing and thawing was soo bad that they were heaved out of the bed!! My more protected bed on the east side of the house lost none out of 14... Only compensation is that I am getting a bit wiser and looking and both own-root, and the roses developed in Canada to replace...I WON"T be caught like this again!!!

I have not considered bananas, We are way to far north to grow any variety and expect production. It can be done with a lot of work and probably lots money. My best guess would to choose out the fastest fruiting variety and get it growing around January to February. Start indoors and set outside about April 1 with a cold frame protection. You WILL need a heat source for the soil. Heat the soil to about 70+ F. This in turn will keep the air and leaves warm. When danger of frost is over you can un-protect your plant but you will still need to heat the soil to over 70 F in to June. Warm soil is the most important need of any tropical/subtropical plant. At this point your plant will either produce or not. It is much harder to extend the growing season because we get low quality light with very short days and our plant is to big to cover. I am growing figs this way. I start my fig tree from cuttings this July. I will grow my fig tree indoors under a 13 watt CFL till February 30. I will transplant the 4-6 ft tree into a 30 gallon container and continue growing till April. I will set the tree out side and allow the root to pass through to the ground. I can expect to produce 100 - 200 figs/tree. The fig tree below has 72 fig on it I will be producing another 30 figs before it lost its leaves in last night hard freeze. Steve

If you are talking about email spam I don't get any. I used an address that was unique with letters and numbers which made to no sense at all to anyone or any software they use..... but me. Some people use their name or parts of it with numbers and there is software out there than get your email from that and forwards. Anyone I give my email addy to is told "don't send me forwards". I also tell every one who puts me on an email list to use BBC so the address is not exposed. The few I did get I blocked on my servers email site. The companies that sent me info that I didn't want I unsubscribed and I was told that just lets them know you have a working email. All the companies like that have stopped sending the emails. Always have at least 2 email addresses and use one for family and friends and one for the net. I once got an email with over 50 email addresses exposed. I did the "reply to all" and told them to look at all of their exposed email addresses. I also explained about BBC. One person emailed me about it and asked what BBC is. another guy emailed me and said "where did you get me email address". I told he it was exposed in the list of addresses at the top of his message. He apologized and thanked me for letting him know. That had to have been bouncing around the net months or years.

Pinkmountain - I’m glad you decided to continue the discussion. I’m going to be dropping off the thread, but I hope you and others can continue it, if there is an interest. I appreciated the way you have shared your efforts to restore habitat. You are trying to do something about a situation that is really frightening. I realize that and am not really any different, I find it frightening as well and I’m sure we all find the world’s problems overwhelming. I can’t speak for others, I can only say that I have had lots of enthusiasm along the way to also do something about it. Have made the attempt with the resources I have. I’m still making the attempt. I could have used more support and encouragement at different times but wildflower and conservation groups in my area have other goals and agendas that don’t really reach out to people who are just trying to do what they can and need it to be made more accessible. So, I suppose they were doing the best they could and we are all trying to do the best we can. I just popped over to the Native Plants forum and not a lot happening there from my perspective. Not a lot of newcomers being nurtured. And Houzz has not even put a link to the Native plants forum and apparently no one there seemed to think to complain about that or to follow up until there was a link in the directory. A simple thing really. Everyone on this thread has made an effort and expressed an interest, just by contributing to this thread. I was enjoying hearing from members that I already know, how their interest is growing in natives and how that has been working out for them. And hearing from GW members I don’t know, like you. I started this thread because I met someone on another GW thread who was explaining how they had been working on a property for 4 years on a riparian area and I wanted to hear more and maybe see some photos. They had only posted to GW 3x and I thought a newcomer, maybe it would be helpful for her to see if there was anyone else here doing the same. It happened that she’s had trouble signing into Houzz, so she hasn’t posted yet. But the atmosphere on the forums here in regard to natives, I’d have to say it is challenging. From my perspective, any effort or interest on someone’s part in native plants is something to appreciate and celebrate and build on. People need to be met where they are and nurtured and encouraged by those in a position to do so, if that's at all possible. Maybe it's not. They have limited resources, challenging properties, time restraints, energy restraints, competing priorities and yet they still have an interest in trying to do what they can. They would appreciate being heard and supported. Certainly it is an approach that has been very successful over time in many endeavors to draw people in and encourage their interest and support. And this limited exposure I’ve had in the past week or so to those on GW involved in native plants, I’m sure is not the whole of it and maybe there are people here that are being welcoming and supportive. This is just what my experience has been as a newcomer to natives at GW this week. I am impressed by the scope of what you personally are trying to do. I share your sorrow over lost pristine natural areas and mature trees. I’m sure a lot of us do. I wish you good luck in your efforts.