" " I think of Obamacare as the END of free socialized medicine for example lol." Yeah...exactly. I definitely see Europe, Canada, and the rest of the first world discontinuing their socialized medicine, because the tea party says Obamacare is unamerican. In other news, China will feel sorry for us and forgive all our debt to them, and the Middle East will decide Israel is so well run compared to other countries in the region that they deserve much more territory. " That is good. I have a love/hate relationship with the system of Romney and Obama but I think making everyone pay for insurance fixes the math for a few more years if done right. Let me explain. The OLD Reagan era system was the FREE socialized medicine. I have a bum friend who went in and had her gallbladder removed on your and my dime under that system. Was it life threatening? Not immediately. Is her credit hurt? For a few more years, but with that $10,000 she saved she can buy a car with cash lol. Reagan, Nixon, Carter, they just couldn't tell that folks would demand insurance companies spend every last dime they had to keep them alive into their 80's. No one did anything about this treatment before payment system and we (me and you with money) just paid for everyone's free healthcare. Now at least folks will be scared of filing a tax return if they don't have insurance. I was at the auto repair shop today. If I can't afford to get my MarkVIII repaired I either have to do it myself or it dies. There is capitalism at work. Just like at the vet where hand me down equipment and lighter regulation still left my mother in law the choice of going bankrupt or watching her rat terrier die from a probably curable tumor. Oh well. But yeah, back to the topic. Mother nature doesn't care if you get cured or not. I more or less do. On my more cynical days I just don't want the poor people layin in the street waiting for Jesus to cure them uglyin' up my neighborhood and sharing their germs with me. Most days I recognize if I ever need some silly expensive genetic treatment myself I better help you pay for yours.

I totally agree that wintersowing is the BEST hands down for perennials. With some annuals it is a different story. I haven't been able to have larkspur work at all with wintersowing. Last year they sprouted & I put them in the ground but they remained teeny tiny. They even bloomed while VERY small-my California Poppy were bigger than them. This year not even one sprout! The others I have trouble with wintersowning are corn poppies and peony poppies. Transplanting them is brutal. I make sure to plant when very small but they end up dying anyways. I am definitely going to try direct autumn sowing them and see if that works for me. But I will still try wintersowing them because others have success and I don't like to give up! Then again for some annuals like California Poppy, Cornflowers, Balsam, Zinnia, Cosmos, Scabiosa I have no trouble. I haven't even needed to wintersow cornflowers or California poppies since the first time I wintersowed because they reseed for me every year! Along with corncockle. Just like every other gardening technique there is alot of trial & error with whatever type of sowing you do. This post was edited by ladygladys on Tue, Jun 4, 13 at 0:14

Oh, I'm sorry. I know what it's like. We've had crazy weather for the last several years. The drought took half of my best stuff, actually, I took it out and didn't put it back (will this year, no drought now), had a tornado, now over 17" of water this year alone so I've got drainage problems where I was trying to get a new garden in, in the fall. Which means all the bones are still in pots. Half of the "bones" are now dead, since we've had a horribly cold winter. Someone is laughing at the gardener these days!

Thanks annafl. I do miss a lot of the south Florida tropicals (especially the poinciana trees and the orchid trees and the bougainvillea. (Although I don't miss the traffic at all!) But you work with what you have. We're a really big state with lots of different gardening zones - so I think it's important for people new to the state (or gardening in the state) to learn what they're going to be dealing with. In addition - we have issues with windstorms. I lived in south Dade during Hurricane Andrew - and those all those huge ficus trees that hadn't been pruned in 25 years - what a mess. Sometimes too little rain - or too much rain. Water restrictions (and increasingly expensive water). And lightning. We had a tall pine hit by lightning a couple of years ago - threw big pieces of wood more than 50 feet in all directions. Then there are the fire dangers when you don't clear out underbrush and/or build too close to lots of trees. When we had our bad drought here in the late 90's - I think it was 1998 and 1999 - the whole of Flagler County was almost evacuated (3 big fires threatened to converge and burn down the whole county). If you drive up I-95 today - you'll still all the burnt trees in Volusia and Flagler Counties along the side of the road. So - in addition to buying the right plants - you have to put them in the right place. And - if you buy in a place that kind of looks like a forest - it might not be safe. The State of Florida has many educational materials about building safe in places like this. And I'm with natives and veggies. I will baby my husband - but not my plants. So when I want to try something new - I buy a little - see how it does. If I like it and it performs as expected - I buy more. Robyn P.S. And we shouldn't forget about the dangers of noxious exotics (no laws against many of them - but we shouldn't plant them).