Yes silica sand can be used as a substitute for grushed granite. The size is similar and both work equally well I believe. I have used both silica sand and granite Al's gritty soil mix and plants seem to do well in both. The best place to find silica sand is pool supply stores (it's used for swimming pool filters) or perhaps in the swimming pool section in large big box stores (HD, Lowe's, Menards, WalMart, etc.). Typically it's available in large 50lb bags. At the local feed store I can purchase either 5 or 40lb bags of granite. I think the big bags of granite are roughly $10 or so, about the same as silica sand. I've included a link so you can see what the silica sand bag looks like but there are many other brands. HTH, Dave Here is a link that might be useful:

Jim, I think we've all done something like that at one time or another. Most of us just won't tell anyone about it. Layering is often used to propagate roses as all you have to do is bend a cane over until it touches the ground and put a rock on it. A couple of months later it will be grown to the ground. This would work with brugs, but they dont bend well once they get going. So I came up with the following way to layer "in the air" so to speak. The images below will illusrtate what I'm about to describe. A toilet paper tube was split and then cut in half to make two cylinders. For this experiment I used a rooted trunk that was coming out of dormancy early in the basement. It had two nice shoots going already so I used those. This particular plant roots pretty easily, so the timing shown below would probably not be as fast with a more difficult plant. But it should work. The tubes were taped around the shoots right where they came off the trunk. They could be placed anywhere, this is just where they started to go straight up. I then packed the tube with wet potting soil. And I mean wet. I had to squeeze some of the water out to make it moldable, but it was still pretty wet. Then I wrapped it all with plastic wrap to hold in the moisture and secured that with the Velcro strips. The plant was kept under a light on a timer. I made sure the trunk's roots had water as it was sucking it up pretty well. Basically I just monitored the pottiong soil to make sure it stayed moist. With the plastic wrap I think I only added water to them once or twice in a monthÂs time. Once you can start seeing roots in the potting soil, itÂs time to unwrap. I let these go for a bit past that as I was busy, but that just lets more roots grow. I then cut them off the mother plant and potted them up and by mid May they were nice sized plants ready to take to our bi-yearly plant swap. My sister, who lives further south, has been doing something similar with full trunks. Since her's come back from the roots, she takes a one gallon pot and cuts a hole in the bottom and splits it up the side. Then she wraps that around a trunk and fills it with dirt. By the Fall it has lots of roots and she just whacks it off at ground level just below the one gallon pot and mulches over the root ball. The now rooted trunk can be potted up and is ready to go in the greenhouse to be planted out the following spring as a full grown plant. And the mulched root ball will send up a new shoot which can be air layered again. If anyone is interested, I have this and the bucket growing method in PDF files. Shoot me an email and I'll send you a copy.

I agree Ken. I am not as by the book as I always say. Believe me. I think pruning in this 'style' which is simply 'pruning' is very worthwhile. I'm straight... Fredsbog, I'm examining a new book for me called 'Conifer Cold Hardiness' and the basic overall synopsis is that tissue of buds and wood needs to be hardened off before it is subjected to "winter winds." Furthermore, a chart is listed for cold hardiness and Sequoiadendron giganteum falls into a maximum threshold of -4 F or -20 C (USDA Zone 7) for this particular Genus. This book will help me to elminate the barbaric USDA zonal system. I already have in my hands and from Stanley and Sons (2) Sequoiadendron cultivars which they call 'zone 5' and I'm going to try them out here myself, but this doesn't look very promising according to this literature. At best, these babies need a lot of protection. I still have a lot to read yet, but here are notes and a conclusion from this book: "Conifers exist in a wide range of climatic zones with the highest number of species being found in temperate zones. Some coiferous families (Pinaceae, Cupressaceae, Taxaceae) are distributed over a wide range of climatic zones, whereas others (Cephalotaxaceae, Arauariaceae, Podocarpacae) are absent from colder zones. Southern Hemisphere conifers inhabit only the warmest climatic zones and their measured maximum from resistances are less than those of species from the equivalent zones in the Norther Hemisphere. Laboratory-determined maximum frost resistances of hardened cut shoots and leaves of conifers are strongly correlated with their climatic zones of origin, but their measured resistances exceed the air temperature limits of their climatic zones. Conifers from the coldest climatic zones tend to have buds with frost resistances that are equal or less than those of their leaves, whereas conifers from warmer climatic zones tend to have buds with frost resistances that are equal or greater than those of their leaves. Factors other than the maximum frost resistance of conifers should be examined to obtain a fuller understanding of conifer distribution." So origin as well as "meaured resistances" can further play into account, a tree that is supposedly a "strict" (USDA zone 7) with varying hardiness. Thus taking into account "latitude and altitude". This book furhtermore says: "(This chapter) has concentrated on the association of maximum frost resistance, trypically of ellaves and shoots of trees, with climatic zone and shown that the two are well correlated. Consequently, trees are unlikely to be damaged in winter and will be most susceptible to damage by unseasonal frosts in autumn (when the plants are hardening), spring (when the plants are (dehardening) and summer (when frost resistance is minimal). Frost resistance varies with both age and developmental stage so that seedlings and newly formed tissues are frequently less froost hardy than trees and hardened tissues. Seasonal hardening of tissues is associated with marked changes in frost resistance (e.g. Repo 1992; Sutinen et al. 1992). Shortening photoperiods and lowered temperatures are associated with increased frost resistance (e.g. Greer and Warrington 1982) while lengthening photoperiods and, in particular, warmer temperatures cause rapid dehardeining (e.g. Greer and Stanley 1985; leinonen et al. 1997). Distributional limits may not be set by the frost resistance of leaves and buds but by the effects of temperature, and other factors, on reproductive structures and their ability to set see, and upon the survival and maturation of seedlings. A fuller understanding of the distributional limits of conifers would need to consider such factors in greater detail." Conifer Cold Hardiness; Francine J. Bigras and Stephen J. Colombo (Eds.). ISBN: 0-7923-6636-0; 2001 Kluwer Academic Pulishers, Netherlands. Dax

I've been looking at all the different patterns of Lenox Winter Greetings china on eBay. WOW, so many and beautiful. This pair I found is from the Tartan series. A goldfinch and a nuthatch are the other two birds featured. Some of the other Lenox cardinal plates are just wonderful, but pricey with shipping added in. :o( Slinkey, I never see any really neat plates at my GW, just normal every day type stuff. So this was really a treasure shopping day...and to think I almost didn't go in to shop! Too funny, Candy. Guess that's one way to avoid becoming a golf widow..play yourself. I never learned, but all my time went to showing my dogs for over 35 yrs. I've got several bags of things to take to the Humane Society Thrift Shop, now I've got to see how to NOT shop there too. LOL. (guess more photos will be coming!) hugs, Karen