Suzy, how do the tender plants survive shipping...are heat packs used? No, Jo. We more northerly growers refuse to hang up the shingle and keep on keeping on. The tender plants come in on every imaginable means. Sometimes, if it's a large order, the grower brings them on their own heated truck. I even have one of those rescheduled, because the high that day was still below freezing, and the goods expensive. They come overnight on the familiar shippers, they are picked up at airports, they even sometimes come courier. And today, we went and got THEM! The bigger wholesale growers are pretty adept at shipping them between the worst of the weather fronts and put them in what they call winter pack boxes, it's like a box, within a box, within a box. Expensive way to move perishables, but still cheaper than frozen plants. The small liners (rooted cuttings) and plugs don't seem expensive until you look at a bench of the packs and realise there is a couple thousand dollars sitting in a few square feet. Michelle, I cracked up at your description of winter madness. I have worked in those facilities and sometimes I wondered if the staff were as grounded as the clients at times. It's all relative, I guess. My cabin fever is late coming on. It usually hits in January and by this time of February I'm in spring mode, even if the weather isn't cooperating. I think I did myself an injustice by biding through January without going a little mad. I feel like a big zit about to pop when I need to be the most functional. The sun did come out for about an hour before it set. The ice was falling off the trees in big chunks. The whole d*mned property is a hard hat zone.

I have emerged from the abyss otherwise known as the Guest Room..Ai yi-yi! Im sure that many of you are familiar with The Guest Room.."Where should we put this stuff?" "Oh, just throw it in The Guest Room for now." So there it goes and there it stays until oh-oh, a real guest is coming ! So you shove it all in the closet and warn the guest not to open the closet doors under any circumstances. I spent the better part of the day up there, and have effectively sorted and purged . Filled the trash tote and have two more 32 gal trash bags full and waiting in the wings. Put together a huge pile of salvation army items and lugged them down to the garage. Also lugged down 3 pieces of defunct stereo equipment to take to the electronics recycling next weekend. Discovered that one of the twin beds is sporting two mattresses instead of a mattress and box springs-it teeters at an odd angle as a result.One can only speculate how that came about ! Found a box of 45s. Cleaned out the cedar "Hopeless" chest, which had only two items of any value in it. Its the smallest room in the house , and yet an absolute mountain of stuff kept emerging. ! So it was a productive day..and beautiful weather as I gazed longingly out the window. I did take a break for some watering and deadheading. Everything is just bone dry. How great all the pics were for the birthday trio ! Michelle, I am going to get butternut squash next weekend at the farmers market and make a recipe I found for squash enchiladas. If it turns out Ill share Marian , you and Marie asked about the photo, it was a pic from Yosemite , taken by DS. Marie, maybe you will have some pics of the Bouvier couple ? Deanne- lol, youd probably need an extra truck for all your containers ! My DD is coming down for Thanksgiving and I told her to bring an empty car, because I am sending as many of the containers back up for her to babysit as I can fit in her vehicle. Mary, I have not read "The Road", but had in fact made plans to read all three of his border trilogy this winter. I am so behind on my reading list ! I have promised myself that I will get back to my book-a-week pace this winter. Thank you so much for posting the David Russell link- I have always loved classical guitar and dont have nearly enough cds in my collection. I will definitely order a couple of Davids ! Babs, glad to see a post from you no matter how brief ! Hope all is well. Mariann, isnt it nice to encounter the kindness of others ? I hope your DD is helped by the device that was sent to you ! I imagine that the protracted recovery period has affected your DDs attitude which in turn makes healing more difficult. I wish her the best ! Okay, time to take an evening stroll in the garden with a glass of cheap-o chardonnay. Greetings to all ! Kathy in Napa

This has been unusually good spring in my area. The roses started blooming the first week of May, probably peaked this weekend. Some of my HTÂs have yet to bloom so I suspect IÂll get another 2-3 weeks. I guess thatÂs an advantage to using diversity in roses, IÂm still in the experimental stage, but it appears even some HTÂs can have their place. Some small number of select roses will bloom continuously through the summer, but most sleep for me, too. During the summer months I look forward to some of my other favs: snapdragons, daisyÂs/cone flowers, and salvia/sages, agastacheÂs and annuals. The annuals this year will be sunflowers, zinnaÂs, and marigolds. The salvia/sages, and agastacheÂs attract hummingbirds and they can be a lot of fun to watch. The sunflowers attract birds so thatÂs fun, too. IÂm too lazy to dead-head, but while it costs me in blooms I make up for some of it watching the birds feed, especially on the cone-flowers. Lastly, thereÂs the veggie patch, most of which are tomatoes. I discovered heirloom tomatoes last year. They were so unbelievably good esp as bruschette. I donÂt miss my roses during the summer too much anymore; it gives me something to look forward to in the fall.

The pink Annabelle is coming...but not for this growing season but next...keep a spot in your garden for that assuming you can find one..I expect some nurseries will start taking orders later this yr for 2010 shippments...the White Incrediball is very hard to find this season, it is new to the mkt, I can only find a few online places have this for sales - Sooner Plant Farm, Garden Crossing, and Wayside...I got my Incrediballs some weeks ago from Sooner - trade gallon size, very good packaging, size is a bit small for the container, the plants were dormant at the time, now they are sprouting new leaves, vey healthy plants...so far so good...I have looked for larger gallon size Incrediballs around, searching high and low, but the wholesale growers told me this item is WHITE-Hot this season, the supply is limited and anyone would be lucky to find anything larger than the trade gallon this season...keep an eye on these items in your local nurseries and save some spots in the garden... http://plant-quest.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-pink-flowered-annabelle-hydrangea.html