Thank you everyone! Already I'm starting to see flower buds forming on my dianthus, the nicotiana and a verbascum has a flower stalk on it too. When it stops raining I'll take pics of the entire beds to show you what they look like. Proudgm, I got my plant markers from Paw Paw Everlast Label Co. I just used a paint marker and wrote the names of the daylilies and hostas on them. There really was no planning involved, I just grew a bunch of seeds of plants that I wanted to try and then found places for most of them. Some of them I had planned where they were going to be, like the ones in the Dracula bed, but a lot of them I just started sticking them here and there to fill up my new beds. Now I have more seeds I'm going to start to fill in the bare spots, some this summer and some this winter. Starting from seed is much easier, fun and rewarding the WS method than indoors. Plus, much easier on my bank account! Karen

Good choice! They really do seem to require a lot of babying to look good here. There are plenty of other palms that love it here, so I agree it's better to get one that doesn't struggle here. Pindo is a great choice. I've seen so many clumps of queen palms where a Mexican fan palm seedling (Washingtonia) pops up and thrives where the queen palms struggle. Keep us posted on your new babies. Thanks for the fun post! Happy gardening, Grant

I would like to say that it is also possible that the woman who owned the dog before taught the dog to be hostile to men - I think it is wrong to blame men for the problem without knowing the entire history. People very often teach or transfer their own fears/phobias onto their animals, and if a woman shows fear of men when she is walking her dog, the dog will learn that men are not to be trusted. Some women are more paranoid than others, and I have seen this happen in such cases. I think it is more likely that the owner is to blame for the phobia than that the dog was treated badly by a man. If a dog is treated badly by one man, that is not enough to cause a general phobia, but if a woman shows fear of all men that she encounters while walking her dog, then that is a very strong case to make for the phobia coming from the owner. There are lots of dogs who have been trained to be hostile to people of different races, and this is also taught by the owners. I personally think that there are a lot of women who get large dogs primarily because they have a fear of strange men, and this fear may be justified for the women, but when it gets transferred to the dog, it becomes more irrational, since most men are harmless and should not be singled out as untrustworthy people. The men I have known have treated dogs equally as well as women, and yet I have encountered many hostile dogs that were owned by women. My boss has terriers (I forget which type), and one day she asked me to come to her office when she had one of them (I'll call the dog Surrey) in her office and had me wait at the threshold. Surrey barked wildly as I stood at the threshold, but after I entered the office, the barking stopped. Then I took Surrey for a walk. As it turned out, Surrey had a fear of men only at thresholds but was otherwise fine with us. I think this is a fear that could have been learned, but Surrey died a tragic death in the Northridge Earthquake before the dog psychiatrists could determine the cause of the phobia. I think people should be very mindful of what fears and phobia they may unconsciously be transferring to their pets. I also want to say that I think most women do not train their dogs to be hostile to men, but I do strongly believe that there are plenty of women who do. I personally have a phobia of large dogs, due to having been bitten by at least three of them on separate occasions when I was fairly young, but I do appreciate the Great Dane next door that has reduced to squirrel population in my immediate vicinity.

You sound like me....the animals are your "clients"...you are there to serve them, not the adopters, is that right? So many groups around here (because they have sooooo many coming through, I guess) will adopt to anyone who wants the animal. My goal is to see that the animals never go into another shelter/bad situation ever again. And, of course, I will take back/re-home ANY of my "kids". This is very rare, because I do take so much time finding the right home to begin with. I do work with a rescue group and until a few years ago I actually kept up with my own group (just an assistance group) that helped other rescue groups and the public. When I have time again, I will get that back up and running again. When I got a digital camera, I started placing all of their pics (some with stories if you click on the images)...it is seriously out of date (about 4 years), but I plan on updating it on winter break...I have a scanner, too and plan on placing the pre-digital pics on there, too. Some of my cute toots (probably my favorite success story is Lexi...click on her...she was the first three-legged dog...Romeo had three legs, too): Here is a link that might be useful: My Adopteds