I'm still hanging around! (thought you got rid of me, didn't ya? Bwah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ahhhhhhh!) Brief Summary: I am the lucky Mother of 4 children and Grannie of 6 grandchildren. All gorgeous and exceptionally bright. The four youngest are very precocious, but well-behaved. The two oldest are adorable, but not so well-behaved. We are a multi-cultural and racial family. A beautiful rainbow of children from various cultural backgrounds. I was born and raised in southern California - 6th generation Californian on my Mom's side. My Dad was born here in central Oklahoma - 4th Generation Okie - he retired back here. I moved here to Okie from Louisiana with my kids in 1980. Now married to the most handsome, loving, gentle man in the whole world. My kids and grands claim him as "Dad" and "Grampa". My Dad says he's the best thing that ever happened to this family. Yes, indeed-y! :) We live in rural, Central Oklahoma on a southwest-facing high ridge, of sandy, worthless, alkaline soil over layers of sandstone bedrock. We have our own water well. Weeds and Bermuda grass are my best crops. This is ranch and farm country. Cattle, horses, wheat and various kinds of hay are the main crops in this area. The locals think I'm strange. I know they are! We have chickens, dogs, cats, and a green water turtle. No cows or horses. Our neighbors all do tho'. I'm an artist and gardener - jack of all trades, master of none. Disabled. I take care of the "ranch" and herd the cats. DH is originally from West Virginia, but was raised in Holland and Scotland. Hi dad is from Illinois, and his mom from Scotland. His family moved back to the states to Tulsa when he was 13 yrs. old. He is the Environmental Quality Manager for a young & small aerospace company up in Tulsa. We rescue animals and love wildlife of all kinds. DH does not care for snakes, however. I grow flowers, trees, veggies, herbs, and work too hard at trying to recreate a Country Cottage Garden on this high & dry rock of a place. ----------------------------------------------------------- Eduarda and I are good friends. We keep in contact year round. She is just fine, but work is keeping her hopping. They just took a break from it all - a holiday to the beach. I got a beautiful postcard. Timmy, her adorable, loveable pooch, is doing great too. hey are having severe heat and dry weather too. They even had a tornado there in her town - I think it was last fall. Did some damage to the elementary school, during school hours, but not to their home. Very freaky for Portugal! Anyone hear from Lorna in NM lately? I haven't heard form her in ages. Haven't heard from Rose in a long time either. Hope they are both okay. ~Annie

I wish I had more time to stick around, but we wanted to get up to Cougar Mountan before it got to busy. Thanks to Jim for the wonderful bamboo, its beautiful *G* I sat the bag up to fill with water and saw a little 1/2" new culm coming up, so tomorrow I'll plant the two clumps. Thnks to Teresa for the ferns, and Shilpa for the day lillies. As my trees and bamboo grows up taller, and I get more shade I'll have lots of sun loving plants to trade as time goes by. Kendal *we made it up to the falls in good time, and got out just as a rush of people with their kids started up*

Dear ccckoball, Everything on your "have" list would be of interest at the exchange. I have seen tree peonies and they went like hotcakes. Meeting and Greeting is reason enough to attend. There will be others at the swap who will be hosting exchanges later in the spring and summer at private homes. These are really nice events. As for plants, the less common it is the more likely you will have takers. Trade ediquett is very subjective. Some attend with a coveted rare plant and will settle for nothing less than an equal trade. What's precious to some is common to others. For example, one new trader attended with a double daisy which a close friend has passed along to her. The sentimental value of the plant exceeded the horticultural value. In my mind, there is some personal attatchment with every plant I trade, so I really liked the thought of that daisy in my garden and I gladly made an exchange. It's subjective. And it's really fun. I always bring divisions of things I just want to give away and if it results in a trade, so much the better. I never come home with less than 20 new things for my garden. In fact, there are trades where I wished I had come home with less :) You will see well over 100 different cultivars/plants among the traders. In the end it's less about savvy trading, and more about the getting together and sharing stories and plants from our gardens. Hope to see you there Saturday, Regards, Jim Eichner

There are several brugmansia (Angel's Trumpets) enthusiasts in the Puget Sound area. Some of us will meet at the Green Elephant swap to exchange cuttings. If there is advance indication that people are interested in learning a little more about these wonderfully addictive plants, with their exotic beauty and amazing fragrance, a brief introductory talk and propagation demonstration will be offered about 11:15AM. Learn about where these plants come from, how they're grown in our area (greenhouse NOT required!), their growing requirements, how they're propagated, brugmansia forums and society web sites, brugmansia nurseries, etc. Do you already grow brugmansias? This is a great opportunity to meet friendly fellow enthusiasts. Connections made here may well lead to new friends and/or future trades! This is a very informal get-together...come join us. IMPORTANT: If you are interested in hearing a brief talk, as mentioned above, please email me. We will put together this talk only if enough visitors reply about wanting to attend. (click image for larger view...then place cursor in lower right corner of pic & click the button that appears) Patrick patricklee888 at comcast dot net