Most of my hibiscus only seem to bloom at the new growing tips. I have noticed with Hula girl that I sent out a bloom in the middle of its stalk - it pretty stick like right now, still recovering leaves from the winter...i think this is the pic of the flower it put out straight from the main stem and not a growing tip...I haven't really noticed this behavior before - but i am perfectly fine with more flowers on the plant!

"Hula Girl" is a tropical species, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, that needs to be overwintered indoors. I've read articles stating they should go inside when the temps fall below 50ð. Here is a link that might be useful: Winter care for Tropical Hibiscus

Wow, we have this swap wrapped up already! Way to go, GIRLS!! :o) Ya'll are awesome, as usual! Theresa~ Great box, I know you'll enjoy every bit of it! Sounds like it was good timing, too. Dottie~ "And bamboo is so ungrateful! Every time I helped one up, it slapped me in the face." ROFL!! Oh, goodness...I can't help it....I'm still wiping tears from my eyes. That is some "liberated" bamboo! *giggle* It reminds me of when my brother held a door open for a "liberated" woman! She slapped his face & told him she wasn't helpless. Good grief! I told him to not let it bother him, she probably just wasn't used to southern hospitality. That's how we raise 'em down here- you ALWAYS open doors for ladies (and even a few gents now & then, if you're first in line). Now he asks before he opens doors.."Uh, are you liberated or southern?" LOL! So I hope that DH replenished your wine supply for you. Sounds like you had quite the day & you certainly need some relaxation! Laura~ The bird watching sounds like a great activity for the family. We have TONS of birds here- chickadees, titmice, cardinals (hundreds of these!!), wrens, bluebirds (funny time of year for them!)...so we will definitely have much to report! :o) The weekend is almost here! YAY!!! ******** MARGARET sends to CAROL~ received CAROL sends to HEIDI~ received HEIDI sends to THERESA~ received THERESA sends to LAURA~ received LAURA sends to MELISSA~ received MELISSA sends to MARGARET~ received ********

Oh, great thread, Lindac! I love reading everyone's memories. I grew up in my grandma's kitchen. (My mother was and is an abysmal cook and never wanted us in the way when she had to cook). Grandma's kitchen was always full of music--or Paul Harvey. She kept a radio on the window sill between the kitchen and the back porch, and it was always on when she cooked. The kitchen had a black and white tile floor, and when Grandma waxed it, we kids always wanted to sit in a chair and watch it dry. I have no idea why we loved that so much, but I suspect Grandma encouraged it because it gave her a much-needed break from us. The stove wall had ivy wall paper, and there was a curtain over the cabinet below the sink. The first thing we saw as we walked in from the dining room was a narrow wooden work table with a pull out drawer; it always had a big glass canister full of Planter's peanuts. The icebox and, later, the refrigerator was next and the back door to the porch right behind that. The kitchen table where we ate most of our meals was on the back wall. We only used the dining room on holidays and when we had company. On Sunday nights, we got to eat in the living room while watching Lassie. If Sunday dinner had been a beef roast, we ate roast beef sandwiches. Otherwise, we had BLTs and we ALWAYS had Campbell's vegetable beef soup with it. To the left of the kitchen table was the sink wall. There was a big window full of African violets over the sink, and a huge porcelain drainboard attached to the sink. My sister and I both had long, thick hair, and Mama or Grandma would have us lie on the drainboard to get our hair washed. I know there were curtains on the window, but I don't remember what they looked like--maybe they had strawberries on them? The gas stove was on the last wall. There was a black metal match box on the wall and a metal grease pan on the back of the stove. The coffee pot was always there, too. On especially cold days, Grandma would open the oven door and let my sister and me use it as a table, sitting on pillows on the floor and eating in the warmth from the stove. I remember sitting there in the fall, too, waiting for the parched pecans (from our trees and picked out by my grandpa on the front porch) to cool enough to eat. Beside the stove was the flour crock--a huge thing with a dough bowl covered by a hand-carved lid in the top. I think Grandma made biscuits in that bowl every day of her adult life. They were our staff of life. We'd eat them with bacon, ham, or sausage and eggs for breakfast, Grandma and Grandpa crumbled the leftovers into buttermilk for lunch, and we'd have a fresh batch for supper. Often we had them with tomato gravy. At those rare meals when she didn't make biscuits, Grandma always told us we'd have to make do with light bread :) Fruit and vegetables were almost exclusively from the garden, canned in the big old pressure cooker. Any time it came out, we kids got shooed out of the kitchen amid tales of a great aunt who'd been killed when a pressure cooker exploded. It took years before I could try canning food, and then I had to buy a new canner even though Grandma's is sitting in my pantry. All the canned food was stored in an old cabinet on the back porch. Strange--I don't remember ever eating outside except when we had watermelon. Meals were always inside.