I'd like to hear from Amyta about what she's done with that Persian Shield. We kind of hijacked her thread trying to get Kathy's urn filled. Anything that I have that is borderline hardy (Persian Shield, Pentas, pineapple sage, shrimp plant), I take little cuttings in the fall and keep them in an unheated utiltity room with windows, where it never freezes. If the outside plants make it, I have bonuses for another use even if it's just to give them away. Kathy, the only other deep purple plants of a size suitable for your urn in sun that I can think of would be purple Basil and Perilla. Oh, there's another option for your urn: salvias with purple blooms. It's hard to get a plant to take off and not die in full sun without giving it a little shade for a day or three and enough water. Sometimes a plant will just die for no reason. I had one pineapple sage of five just turn up its adequately watered little leaves and die this week. It was established, not newly planted. Nell

Hi Guys- On the mint, I think you need to find a plant that does well where you are. Keep it in pots (It's invasive, and manages to escape the pot...) I clip the flowers...most of the time..and when it begins to look scraggily, I divide it up. Lemon grass...the last time I bought lemon grass (It was years ago..) I got a healthy looking bunch that had some roots (just a few) I stuck 4 stalks in a glass of water on the window sill for a couple of weeks, and then planted it in the center of whiskey barrell, with other herbs around it (which was very pretty, until it ate its pot mates). To harvest, you have to get down and pull/cut it out by the roots (the grass blades are sharp) You use the white bulby part in Thai cooking, or you can just kind of bruise the bulb and throw it in a pot of tea. It gives a wonderful lemon flavor-with out being sour. This year I am growing sugar cane, stuck a couple of pieces (from the oriental grocery store) in a pot--It took a while to sprout.. Maggie

Diane, I get their catalogs/coupons all the time and have for years. As far as I can remember, I've never purchased anything from them and I doubt I ever will. I have very specific reasons. First of all, I was taught growing up that "if anything sounds too good to be true, it probably is". That makes me believe that they only offer the "$25.00 Off" coupon for one of a few specific reasons. Perhaps it is because no one will purchase from them otherwise because they get terrible reviews at the various review sites/watch dog sites. Perhaps it is a gimmick, and they jack up the cost of their products and shipping/handling accordingly. All I know is that a legitimate company that sells high-quality merchandize at a fair price and that has great customer service does not have to resort to using $25 coupons to entice folks to try them. If they are a top-notch company, they wouldn't need a coupon like that to entice people to buy. That's just my opinion, of course, and you can totally ignore it. I do visit the review sites, and this company's reviews are negative quite often, especially the last 2 or 3 years. That alone keeps me from becoming a customer of theirs, but it is not the only reason. I've also noticed the company reads at least one watch dog site and responds with the same canned statements, but if you read the negative reviews that pop up constantly, you (or at least I) get the impression the company's canned response statements are more about PR than about changing things and pleasing the customer because the same issues pop up over and over again. If they had a genuine desire to improve their operation and please their customers, they wouldn't do the same things wrong year in and year out. Another reason I choose not to send them my money is because they have contracted for customer service to be performed (apparently quite poorly) in another country. I am opposed to giving my business (and my American dollars) to companies who eliminate jobs in this country and ship those same jobs overseas. It is important that American companies keep jobs here in our for our citizens and legal immigrants, and it is more important in today's economy than it ever has been before. They don't list the ingredients in their fertilizers, or at least they didn't the last time I checked. I won't buy anything if I don't know what is in it. One person on a review site said he or she wanted to buy an animal repellent that sold for a very high amount. I remember it was between $35 and $40 for a pound or two. After they finally got someone to tell them what it contained (which was not easy), the sole ingredient was blood meal. You can buy blood meal in a local store for a whole lot less than their price. That sort of incident reminds me why it is always important to know what a product's active ingredients are. Finally, there's been an issue with private credit card data being compromised and more than one person on the review sites has mentioned having this happen to them. In some cases, let's say I ordered something, but when I got the order itself or the order confirmation, it contained your identifying data, including credit card info. How the heck does that happen? It bothered me when I read one reiew that detailed that. It really bothered me when I read more than one. I won't do business with a company that is that careless with my data. We all remember that Johnny's had their data compromised once and I know it can happen to anyone, but when it happens over and over and is seems to be an internal issue, it makes you wonder why they don't care enough to fix it and prevent it from occurring again. Many of their negative reviews include people receiving items so late that they no longer need them (like beneficial insects that arrive very, very late and are too late to save the plants from whatever pest was attacking them) and also involve people getting frustrating and wanting to cancel an order but then being told they can't cancel because it has already shipped. Of course, then they don't receive it for weeks, so they know it was not shipped. Also, they loudly proclaim they have a 'money-back guarantee' but then, if you exercise your right to demand your money back, they often block you from doing business with them in the future. Hmmm. Sounds like someone doesn't like being held accountable, doesn't it? So, that's how I feel and I hope you're not sorry you asked. : ) To get an eyeful just google their name and "who owns who" and you can see all the companies affiliated with them. Many of those companies have less than stellar reputations among experienced gardeners. Now that they've purchased Thompson and Morgan, I expect it to go straight downhill, and I hate that because I used to love T&M. Since T&M now apparently contracts their customer service call center offshore, I likely won't purchase from them again...back to that whole idea that companies doing business in America should keep their customer service people here and keep our economy humming. Dawn

Eh Gads this darn crickets!! My dog is too dumb to go after them and the cat is too old! I am trying to encourage the birds to come around by placing bowls of wild bird food around. Its my hope they will eat the crickets! We'll see!! Drew is doing ok...trying to adjust to a whole new school envoirment and such. He is a pretty adaptable kids so I think he'll be ok. He doesn't mind taking the bus! It picks him up right at the corner so I can watch him from the lanai while I sit in my bathrobe with my coffee-much better than schlepping him to and fro! Amy will not be coming home as much this year as her school is over an hour away and now that she is back into her school routine and dance routine she is pretty busy. YES she is working the Eagles games again this year so who knows which celebs she'll see this time!! My commute is not all that bad...its about 35 minutes most days and a little less when I go in early or leave late...best to avoid the rush hours!! I am considering switching stores...being that the stores in NJ are a different union, I would lose my seniority and pay if I transfer to a NJ store however there is a store in South Philly which is right off the closest bridge to me...it would take roughtly 15=20 minutes from here. Plus I am friends with the co manager there-in fact he already knows I was thinking about the transfer LOL!! But I want to wait until Frank gets transferred to a NJ store at his night job-then I will switch Drew to a NJ store...he is the last in seniority now so he won't be losing anything plus he can ride his bike to work-something he could never think of doing in Philly!! Can I just say I am LOVING my new kitchen!! Its an eat in kitchen LARGE and even with my dining table there is tons of room to groove. The lady who owned the house had the kitchen done about 3 years ago and while in the throws of the work, must have gotten sick and stopped her work and put the house up for sale. So while we looked at this house we noticed several large boxes in the garage maked Thomasville-the same maker of the kitchen cabinets. After we moved in we noticed the boxes are still there!! Seems she ordered more cabinets and for whatever reason just didn't install them. So once we get settled we are going to rip into these boxes and see what we can do with this FIND!! I did find navy blue curtains to do with my color scheme so its coming together nicely. I also found a nice living room group on Raymour and Flanigan. Its small and tailored and I think it will fit. The living room is only 11 ft wide so finding something nice and small is proving to be a challange. Since we have the downstairs family room to kick back in the living room will now be a semi formal space. So I think a little creative planning will be in order!! I will post pics real soon!! Cheers! Susie aka Riverhopper23