Sorry dear Rick, I thought this post has stayed a long time on top, so it should be moved down in forum...

Yes, I make the hoop as large as I feel like I can get away with. On my shelves, that's not really very big at all. But at least I can keep wrapping them around and around. The tricky part is wrapping it without clipping any growing tips downward. Sometimes I just wait until the vine's long enough, sometimes I don't wrap all the way around and rewrap it later. Having a few that I started on a smaller hoop, untangling the whole mess while trying not to break any vines, and retraining them to a larger hoop, I feel like my life is improved by minimizing that as much as possible :) Kelly, I took a picture of the topiary Thinker as well! But I particularly love how you caught that lady mid-laugh, on the right side of the pic. I missed Stonehenge and the cow sculpture. And I didn't get close enough to the peacock to see that it had those eyelashes! Too many people were taking pictures of it or with it. I felt lucky just to get a couple pics at all. It's interesting how different pics look with and without flash. I don't tend to use it at all. Makes for the occasional blurry pic but I prefer not to use it. With flash though, you can see all the little details of that bee (I think it's a bee?) Oh, I love sarracenia flowers. I have some pics of those too. Hey, where's your obovata pic? :) I wanted to see if you got a different angle on it. I only took the one photo.

Hi there! Did anyone go to the Philly flower show? If so, any good pix to share? I am desperately busy at work and could really use something pretty and cheerful to look at. :-) Jen

LPink, I can do the 5th so long as I give notice. It will be so nice to see you again!! Cheers! Susie