If anyone wants to know how their advice turned out: A website says we have "Merrimac Fine Sandy Loam". Observation reveals sandy gravel on one side of the property, a thin strip of compacted clay near the road. I did take ken_adrian's advice and contact my county soil conservation office. More helpfully, I found the New Hampshire State Nursery and the New York State Nursery. Great places. I planted three potted Beach Plum which all took. I planted a large number of bare root ones from the county, and a couple seem to be still alive (though it is too early to say). I planted a potted American Persimmon which is doing great, and two bare root ones that promptly died. I planted four paw paw, two of which survived, two of which fell prey to someone's weed wacker. One of the bare root Pitch Pine survived, none of the bare root Blue Spruce. This Spring I planted a number of bare root Black Walnut. One died, the rest seem to be doing great. (Best success rate in "plant and forget) so far. Also planted the NH State Nursery "Christmas Tree Package" of White Fire and White Spruce, which so far seem to be doing well (though it is too early to say...those were tiny.) I've gotten a number of potted English Holly, Blue Princess Holy and Blue Prince Holly, which survived. My transplanted rescue and mail-order potted American Holly have all died. Another of the original, developer planted maples died of wind damage. Many others have lost limbs. No salt issues, just wind.

Fall Plant Swap Schedule Mission Statement: The first priority of this plant swap is to have fun and enjoy the fellowship of other gardeners. Secondly, is to share some of your overstock plants and to collect some new plants in return. Date:__November 4, 2006 Time:__11-3pm_________ Place:__Mary Kahrs Warnell Forest Education Center, 5960 Hwy 17 South, Guyton, GA 1. The first 35 minutes will be for checking in, collecting tickets, and setting up your trade table. A check in area will be set up where you will receive a name tag and a ticket for each plant, seed package, or other items you bring for trade. You will select your spot for set up. Put your items not for general trade under the table and put up a reserved sign. A table will also be set up for you to leave your potluck item. 2. We will start the day with our speaker Gail Lutoswski. Ms. Lutoswski will be speaking on the native plants in our area. 3. We will then have 5 minutes to view all of the trade tables so that you can have an idea of what plants you want to trade for. 4. After the review we will begin the trades. A whistle will be blown and you will go to a table that has a plant that you want. You will select one plant and leave your ticket in the cup then return to your chair. After one minute the whistle will be blown to indicate that the trade is over. The first three rounds will be one plant each. The next three rounds will be two plants each. The next three rounds will be three plants each. 5. After nine minutes you will have a chance to check over your new items and what is left of your original items. If you wish not to participate in the next round you will cover your table with a sheet or blanket. 6. The next round will be a mad dash. You will have three minutes to trade for as many plants that you wish. 7. We will then take an hour for lunch and visiting. Door prizes will be given away at this time. LetÂs find out what grows best in your gardens. 8. After lunch any special trades or pre-arranged trades will take place. 10 minutes. Anyone not taking part in this section is asked to help with the lunch clean-up. 9. If you have any plants that you just donÂt want to cart back home you can place them on the Free for the Taking table. Anyone can select however many of these plants they want with or without tickets. Any extra time we have will be spent visiting and admiring the center. Clean up and departing words. * Please contact Sandra at RJDBlues@aol.com or 912-772-8384 with RSVP or any questions.

The plant swap and get-together is now scheduled! We will even be having a guest speaker, Gail Lutoswski the director of the Warnell Forest Education Center. Date: November 4th, 2006 Time: 11am thru 3pm Place: Mary Kahrs Warnell Forest Education Center, 5960 Highway 17 South, Guyton, GA. We will be holding the event at the outdoor classroom, a large deck with semi circular bench seating and a fireplace. The facility has an indoor classroom that will seat 50 in inclement weather. The Facility also has a kitchen we can use if needed. You can review the centerÂs web site at http://warnell.forestry.uga.edu/warnell/kahrs/. I will be posting more information as the date nears. Please contact me, Sandra Duncan, at rjdblues@aol.com if you have any questions.

I wouldn't plant any of those in the ground, except maybe the bay laurel. I've had one in a pot for years now, in Olympia, which is a bit colder than Seattle. But, it gets shoved into a slightly sheltered corner in the winter, and being in a pot it's not subjected to the waterlogging that plants in the ground get in our cold wet winters. Of citrus, grapefruit is much more frost tender than oranges or lemons. Lemons are quite frost hardy actually, but still not enough to plant in the ground up here. They need to come inside in the winter. Grapefruit need a LOT of heat, much more than Seattle will give. I don't know much about the kaffir lime. Coffee can take a very light frost, but we get actual hard freezes here. It went down to 9 degrees at my house two different nights in late December, and that's not terribly unusual. Our ground was frozen hard when it started to snow. I got over a foot of snow, and there was enough snow on the ground to make the roads impassible to my ordinary little car for 10 days. The snow is gone, but now the soil is waterlogged, and very cold. Most of the plants on your list won't take that. Ficus religiosa is just plain tropical. It will not tolerate frost. I'd leave them behind. You can buy the bay laurel at any nursery up here. You can buy citrus and coffee for houseplants as well. I know that Buddhist temples like to have a Ficus religiosa planted on the grounds, but I don't know what temples in cold areas do about that. There's one in town but I've never gone there to check it out.