My "Dark Star" seems to die every year, much in contrast to my other coleus, which usually live through the winter. "Religious Radish" was awesome, and I had a few other named varieties that lost their tags, so I have no clue what they are, but they did well also. "Rose Trails" did very well. I'm waiting for it to sport off another "Dark Trails", because that one died. I found a replacement for my heirloom trailer, but it isn't thriving. Living, but not doing as well as I'd like. All my NN's did well except the lance leafs. They aren't as hardy, I don't think, but so pretty! Now I want a Sedona!

Lars it seems there is no one chart which describes the temperatures accurately here as there is such a difference from one end of the island to another. The south is much warmer and Santa Cruz - the capital city about a half hour drive from here on the east coast - has another temperature range again. Here's the official temps for Santa Cruz from the Spanish Office of the Environment: Coldest month Dec....mean temperature is 66.2 F. (19C) Warmest month Aug.....mean temp is 77F. (25C) Yearly mean temp is 70.16 F. (21.2C) That's taken from a study 1971 to 2000. Another range of temperatures comes from the north airport - Los Rodeos, and still another from the top of the volcano area. Sufficient to say that it's shirtsleeve weather during the day most of the year - except when it rains, or if you're hiking up on top of the mountain when there's snow LOL. One of my ex-work colleagues in Ibiza lived for years in Costa Rica and her sons now live permanently in San Jose. She told many stories of her interesting life there. One of my cousin's sons has also settled somewhere in Costa Rica. I hear many Canadians have retired there because of the beautiful climate and peaceful life. Lars if you like hiking then this is hikers' paradise. Our German friends love coming here and spending many days climbing all around the ravines and the volcanic area. There are many hiking groups here which organize and transport folks with buses to the main starting points for hikes from the easiest to those reserved for experienced alpine climbers. It is a common daily sight to see people walking around wearing German hiking shoes, shorts, walking poles and knapsacks. They will have just come off a bus after having been somewhere up in the mountains. The large older crater area at the base of the volcano is called "Las Cañadas" and it has an amazing lunar-like landscape, part of which was used in filming the original Planet of the Apes. You can see plenty of images of that on this Google image link. Teide is the name of the volcano. There was a cable car which ran nearly to the top which may still be in operation. My brother once took it and walked right up to the existing crater where it was hot, and the air was thin. Another beautiful hike is to the mountain hamlet of Masca. (Click to enlarge the photo at top left corner.) There the roads are so steep that I am nervous even driving in a car. There's a very steep hike from there down to the sea, where a small boat will pick up the hikers, but it's really for only the most experienced mountain climbers. Needless to say I haven't done that myself but I love to see the photos LOL. Ilisa I think everyone is feeling the cold right now even in Europe. A friend just e-mailed me that it's -0.4F in Munich, Germany right now ! Guess I shouldn't complain when I have to wear an extra sweater at night ! SharonCb

Thanks Texanjana I thought you'd appreciate how lovely your DR is going to look with lighter walls and dark cherry furniture. The rug...she has a puppy and went out and closed the doors in the DR, but forgot to lock the swinging door to the kitchen. To her horror, her puppy chewed a little piece of the Persian rug in the corner. She called her rug man, (the gentleman that sold her the rugs) he picked up the rug and took it into NYC to be weaved. They wanted 1250.00 to repair it, but he got it down to 1000.00. It was a perfect repair, you can't tell which corner was repaired. The culprit ...Atticus

Thanks FrozeBudd. It is a big job moving everything outside for summer and back indoors for winter. My basement runneth over as I try to organize them into their cubby holes just to keep them alive. I still have about 20 extra large pots to move indoors before Monday (our first freeze). The plants get bigger, new plants come in faster than old ones check out, propagation makes things worse as space is limited, and I am another year older. UGH! This is from last December Confetti on left, Hugh McLaughlin on right. Not sure what is in the back. Amelia blooming, Cowardly Lion (striped rhizo), and it looks like Big Mac (glossy green) Helen Teupel (purple with silver edges) and some unknown silver curl. Flirty Girl (a seedling from Ozzie Johnson who is a member of our begonia club) Jack Black with a cluster of blooms My Special Angel (polka dot cane), Taconite (large dark green leaves), and U450 or U540 (seems like the tag was mislabeled) is the silver leaf with dark veins. rexes from Walmart or Lowe's (Exotic Angel nursery) Proud Mary various begonias I propagated for fun.