Hi Peggy!...lol....scrooge?....you?....I dont think so! :) I myself,as you know,have had issues with rules also.I dont think there is anything wrong with having some rules,if you dont have any,it leaves the door open for those who want to take advantage.There is absolutley no reason for you to have to pick up extra postage! I would do as Jim stated he would do,return the envy empty! You asked me for 3 stamps and I felt that was more than fair for the amount of seeds you sent me!I think it was somewhere around 10 packs,so the way I look at it $1.23 is a great bargain for 10 healthy packs of seed!:)Anyone that wants to request 10 packs of seed from you then wants you to send it on one stamp is nuts and I think it is only fair they get an empty envy postage due! Sorry,call me a scrooge too! I attached rules to my SASBE offer and had wonderful results,I feel good about every seed I shared and feel as if every person I shared with genuinely appreciated it.It comes down to this...rules discourage certain types of people,if someone is just trying to get all they can from generous people like yourself,they see that you are not just going to hand your seeds over to them and move on.You will notice,I am sure,that once you tighten the ropes a little you wont have as many responses,but I bet you wont be picking up as much postage either! I think it is great when a person offering SASE puts all their expectations right up front,that lets everyone know right from the door what is expected from them.I dont feel that there is anything wrong with expecting simple things from people,such as the right amount of postage,proper mailer,ect..it is the least they can do for free seeds! If someone feels that it is more than they are willing to give they can just move on from there and find an offer that better suits them!Newbies will also benefit from some direction.Alot of them (including myself in the beginning:)),are confused on proper SASE protocol and I have been asked many times what is and how to do SASE.So if it is all right there for them they have no questions on what to do and what not to do.Really Peggy, I feel rules help everyone involved,sender and receiver.Picture this world with rules....now picture it without! Scary!

"I did the indoor seed thing one year, but don't want to deal with all that work and all that "equipment". So I plan to just put some seeds in the ground outside, once the danger of frost has passed, and see what happens. I mean, isn't that how nature works anyway?" That's the basic premise of wintersowing. As for tomatoes, melons, eggplant needing to be started indoors. Not with wintersowing. I wintersow mine in early April and have never had a problem, even growing my tomatoes in pots that way. You should check out the wintersowing forum and enjoy starting your seeds that way. No need to start them indoors. Fran

Ok, so-- 1) I'm somewhat inland- we get more sun that SF-- temps regularly reach the 80's and 90's in the summer, very rarely over 100, common morning fog burning off well before noon. 2) Common butterflies in the area-- Western Tiger Swallowtail, Pipevine Swallowtail, Anise Swallowtail, West Coast Lady, Painted Lady, Monarch, skippers, perhaps the Mourning Cloak as well. All that's from other butterfly gardeners though, as I'm pretty new to this. Perhaps if Joe posts on here, he can give a more detailed answer about what we have around here. I'd love to hear if people have had personal experience with the bushes-- how they grew, how fast, how high, lots of butterflies? etc etc I figure you guys have got to be the real experts on that.

Julia, I grow Eryngium ( Sea Holly) 'Sapphire Blue' and love the blue color. However, please be aware that it should be grown as a Specimen plant, as it is very slow growing. I have had this for three years and it is just now a clump. This is Eryngium 'Sapphire Blue.' What I recommend over the Sea Holly ( Eryngium) is Echinops ( Globe Thistle.) This is a much faster grower than Eryngium and you can get it in different shades of blue. Mine is a very vivid blue. I took this at Bud Bennett's this past weekend but he has the same exact kind I do. It has the name 'Blue' in it but I'd have to look it up. This is Echinops ( Globe thistle.) Please be aware that both Eryngium and Echinops are "sticky"- i pruned both of these back this past week and you need thick gloves to do so! I really like the spiky Liatris as a companion to daylilies. Here is a closeup of Liatris 'Spicata.' Spiky texture is good w/ daylilies. Look at how Bud Bennett used Liatris in the landscape. Repetition of the same plant creates a great effect. Over view of Bud's garden. He used a small something in the Alium family at the front of the border. I asked Beth Creveling and she didn't know what it was, so I figure no one but Bud could tell us the exact name. But see how the Globe Thistle in the background stands out . You also know I'm very high on using coneflowers as daylily companions. PINK DOUBLE DELIGHT is one of the doubles which is very vigorous. The white double 'Coconut Lime' died on me last winter : -( This is pink double delight Echinacea: Hope this helps!