Loretta, I have 4 siam ruby reds, that I left outside thruout the winter. I covered them in February when we had the 2 weeks of freezing weather. I covered them with a sheet and bungie cord, with 4 inches of mulch. All 4 made it thru the freezes. The one that I planted on the South side of the house, did not even freeze back, it is doing great, its about 4ft tall, and has pups. The 2 I planted on the East side, did not freeze back to the ground, but did have to be cut back, they are about 2 ft tall right now, no pups. The one I planted on the North side froze back to the ground, it is slowly coming back. I did not know where to plant them, so I planted them on diffrent sides, the one on the south side, seemed to multiply much faster then the other 3. I have a sprinkler system, so they were watered every other day, even when it froze. This is zone 9b coastal, Rockport Texas. I hope this information helps you. Barbra

Haven't posted much but I'll be there. Joy- I am bringing you a hosta for some bog sage. I can bring seeds of stuff also. Vickie- sweetshrub? I have it but not sure if someone else had you down. It will be there either way. Also do you need some "Little People" toys? I cleaned out my attic and found these toys. I would rather give them to someone I know but not sure if your grandbaby has out grown these. I have the barn and the house.They are a little dusty :0. Rootdigger- what am I bringing you for the hardy begonia? For the swap table I am bringing some yarrow and foxgloves. I also have some tender plants like coleus, alternathea "Joseph's coat", purple wandering Jew, and black elephant ears. If you can baby the first 3 you will be able to take cuttings and have more plants for the spring. The ee should be hardy but I wouldn't plant them out until the spring and then they should be hardy next year, well at least in Raleigh they are hardy with mulch. Watching Sandea Lee "Semi homemade" to get some food ideas. Its going to be chilly Saturday! Shannon/Dirtrx

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*

@love_the_yard I was at the Lowes on Atlantic Blvd the other day and there were huge discount racks of all kinds of stuff. I got ground orchids 1 gallon for 3.00 -they are the orange flowered ones. No name on them except 'Ground Orchids' lol. I am pretty sure they are the tropical types and will have to overwinter in the gh in our zone grrr. I saw Belotti passiflora, white and pink mandevillea, and a bunch of annuals and other perennials on the discount racks. I think they were getting ready to put some 3 gal roses on there too because they were in the process of pulling them from the display and moving them to the discount area. I also saw some 3 gallon Sting Ray alocasias that were good size (I already had some of those). I might go back this weekend and see what's left on the discount racks though lol. We also have the 'wild' green alocasias on our property. Last summer one had a leaf as big as the hood of my car! I am thinking of making a huge fountain base or birdbath with a few leaves (concrete casting). They are soooo big! I don't like how they invade my flower beds but if there are few off by themselves somewhere they don't bother me. These things do reseed like crazy as well as make runners. The huge one by my car last year made about 50 seedlings. Hopefully most of them froze cuz I only see about 10 over there now. I keep my Mickey Mouse Taro in pots. It likes to go out the holes in the bottom of the pots and start new plants all over the place lol. It is definitely the cutest EE !! I saw some at the Ace Hardware in Mandarin that were obviously MM taro but they had them labeled as "Variegated Sting Ray" and a big "WOW!!" marked on the sign in front of them. Reminds me of the ebay seller ads. That Ace is normally a great place to find unusual things (in their gh) so I was kinda surprised at the mislabeling. I got a 3 gallon black Bat Plant last year. It was great and flowered nicely then one of the dumb roosters came and ate up the blooms grr. It is still doing good and overwintered in the gh where I only light the heater when it goes under 32F. So I think they are a little hardier than zone 10b/11. I have another baby black one and a baby white bat that overwintered in my somewhat cool gh as well. ~SJN