Well I went to both the Canada Blooms and to the International HOme & Garden show. First of all, the success at gardening marketplace doesn't compare even close to Canada Blooms but if it's seeds and some basic bulbs you are searching for, it offered such products. The show carried seeds (via Humber), some hostas, some succulents, african violet cuttings, some dahlia, gladiola and lily bulbs.. some tropical indoor plants. There was a good display of plants but I wasn't there to look into that. There were a number of local plant societies offering membership. At the price of $14 for an entrance fee to see this section specifically, I found it to be disappointing. However this was a house & garden show and so lots of different home improvement trades to look into. Now for the Canadablooms. I can say there was an improvement although not as big drastic as I would have wanted. Fiesta Garden was there, Humber Nurseries, Sheridans, Sobeys a number of lily and hosta bulb sellers, Florabunda and Urban Harvest(which offers organic vegetable & herb seeds), another selling live herbs, another selling tropical plants and another selling violets. There seemed to be more tourism booths than there were plant or seed sellers. There were far more garden inspired booths (from marble fruit table ornaments to clothing to painting). A booth that sold many decorative garden accessories for those inclined to create their backyard paradise. Another booth that sold rustic country wares like trellis and cold frames (I really enjoyed her booth)... A booth selling jams, another selling lotions, etc.. well you get the idea. The education booths normally set in the upper floors and the area just outside the main hall were located to the marketplace area as if to fill up vacant spaces.... At least the rag merchant wasn't there although there was a booth selling cleaning products. I like the exhibits although everything except one was predictable. One display caught my eye which was the wild outdoorsy pond, half still covered in 'ice' and the other half in spring... It was rustic and beautiful. I didn't have the patience to go through lines for the other exhibits. I had wished displays were far more open so the eyes can peer right through and enjoy the scenery. What I think the event missed out on, was the lack of the vegetable gardening trend display. No one capitalized on this trend which is a shame.... Even Michelle Obama has started a backyard vegetable garden in the White House. The entrance fee is $18.00 and being that I know Toronto, I know parking is always expensive. So I went down via the GO train and took the skywalk to the event. I still think that the convention site is too expensive to hold these events. The organizers should start looking for other areas to hold an outdoor event and for a larger Marketplace and in a warmer month. I just think it's time. So my rate of satisfaction from going to this year's event is modestly higher than last year. I still look forward to more improvement next year around. And I hope Canada Blooms is going to avoid the fate of many gardening shows in the States which ended.

Here's what I have: pink flowering lamium purple flowering lamium yellow corydalis sweet woodruff yellow flowering ornamental strawberries (berries great for birds in fall/early winter, grow well in shade) pink/blue lungwort blue lupins 1 chestnut tree seedling to a loving home! (this year's seedling - 8 inches high) summer savory chocolate mint 1 plastic bird feeder, tower style, nothing fancy wood chip mulch (please bring a bag to trade or fill: I'll also take empty potting soil and other thick plastic or nylon feed bags) tomato seeds, asst varieties tomato seedlings, varied 2 HUGE black plastic pots the approx size of a 1/2 barrel sunflower seedlings purple lunaria seedlings Himalayan impatiens seedlings Egyptian onions 3 twig trellises about 2 1/2 foot tall Here's what I'd like to trade for: pink flowering ornamental strawberries berry bushes/canes: red and white currants, black and red raspberries, gooseberries, etc. dahlias and cannas (not fussy - just some pretty ones for my mom's garden) lemon verbena ferns snowdrops daylillies flagstones styrofoam grape boxes (they're shallow w a similar size lid and about 2 ft x 2 1/2 ft, avail from grocery stores, I use as seedling trays in greenhouse) shop lights (need a couple more in greenhouse) Susan

I've seen weeping alaskan cedars in my neighborhood and they do not really resemble the one in the picture. The one in your picture is a bit more fuller and less 'weepy'. Maybe its another kind of cedar? Ianna

+blakrab NoTex - thank you for the picture; yes I got cuttings of exactly such looking tree - it was in flooded site, government tried to clean site and tried to cut (badly) tree. It had exactly same looking leaves, big, rounded, rough, very leathery. And it was growing almost in a water. Very young mature tree, maybe 8-10 y.o. I also have Illinois Everbearing and leaves are almost the same (this is very young tree, under full sun), except that glossy: What I noticed from past experience, seedlings of different species may look the same until mature age; seedlings of Morus Rubra may look the same as seedlings of Morus Alba first few years. For example, I have 1 year old seedlings of Morus Alba which look the same as my Morus Nigra: rough not-lobed leaves. But under sun in backyard it started mature, stared becoming shiny. All mature fruiting wild mulberries in my area (I have about 15 at golf-club border, and about 3 in small park) have very regular and very shiny leaves, absolutely sure: M. Alba, super easily propagated by birds, all my neighbourhood has it as weeds inside hedges etc. But seedlings of Morus ALba, or for example new branches after heavy cut, have very lobed and much bigger leaves. Pictures of my 14 y.o. heavy-pruned Weeping Morus Alba Tatarica, leaves and buds, it looks the same as what I found in a park, except that size of leaves 10"-12" and small sharp teeth on leaves margin on a variety I found vs. big rounded teeth on margin on Tatarica and size is twice smaller: Logically thinking: I found 3-4 years old seedling with 11" huge leaves in a full shade, sharp small teeth on leave border, etc.; I suspected it to be Morus Rubra. But: if it is seedling then we have mature tree around? No we don't, what I've seen (mature, fruiting) all have regular small shiny leaves. SO it is just nice specimen, 10-th generation+ hybrid, maybe some influence from M. Rubra: shade tolerant, flood tolerant, huge leaves. Government listed 300 M. Rubra in Ontario, and published map of distribution. I am wondering what happened? did we have 30,000 rubras last century? And M. Alba is "invasive" - how can M. Alba kill M. Rubra?