Thank you for your warm welcome. I appreciate it. It's nice to be able reach out and touch you guys and have some back and forth. Oh, and BTW folks, I left poor Mrs. B R Cant off my list. Don't know how I could do that -- she's such a good one. Sabalmatt, how nice to know you're within hollering distance. I work just north of I-20 and east of Mountain Creek Lake at the university there. I'd love to see your rose list.

Hi Theresa, Where are you in Kentucky? I`m in Louisville.I`m finished with my pond cleaning..and now starting on a bog garden behind the pond. My koi are very active now and I was so surprised at how much growth they had during the winter!I didn`t realize how much I missed them during the winter. They have been following me around the pond the past few days begging for worms while I was gardening! I would love to see pictures of your pond and garden! Carrie

Woodland Park rose garden in Seattle has grown full-sized delphiniums. Many others are sold and planted here. Surely they have them at Butchart Gardens, in Victoria. Maybe someone at your nearest town has nice ones as well. I'd ask about cultural methods at a place like this. Doubt many home gardeners are liming theirs, but it could also perfectly well turn out that if you conducted your own little survey you would find out the people with the best ones were, in fact, doing this! The thing about changing pH is it takes a huge amount of lime to change it even one point, each point representing a major gradation. If you put on enough to make such a change all at once it is hard on the soil system, so you have to do it gradually, over a period of years. Meanwhile, if your plants are growing without the altered pH anyway, maybe they don't really need it that much. Maybe there is actually another factor that is limiting them, rather than insufficient calcium.

Simple Country Lady, we vacation every year near Rhinelander. We stayed at Oneida Lake one year. Beautiful country up there. Glad to have you join us. Welcome Cathy! I'm from Oak Creek. Hubby and I have an aunt and uncle in West Allis and I also go to a vet there for my pets. Hope you both keep coming back! Kat