I ended up planting this tree that spring of 2010. The tree was just shimmering now that its been in the ground 4 yours. Quite slow growing but very dense. I was debating on adding this tree to my new landscape and saw the post about the bees. Apparently this species is toxic to bumblebees but not honeybees. I wonder if my neighborhood bumblebees would be busy enough with the other massive mature Tilia americana and the 100s of other natives around the area.

IIRC, Sterling Silver has always had a notorious reputation for being an uncommonly weak grower for a commercial release, but it was also the very first "lavender" hybrid tea (or at least, the first widely released one). No other hybrid tea release has ever quite matched its stunning color (yes, I'm a fan of that color). I've never grown it and probably never will, but I think the reason it's still available (in spite of all of its very real weaknesses as a garden plant) is that it is still the only one that blooms in that exact shade of lavender. Stainless steel approaches it, but it's not the same, either. Oh, and as an aside. I don't know if it's actually true, but I've read before that the lavender/"gray" roses exist due to the introduction of Rosa foetida into the hybrid tea breeding line (via the Pernettiana roses, if I recall correctly). Apparently those lavender/gray roses also inherited more than a few of foetida's weaknesses (hatred of pruning, extreme susceptibility to black spot, etc.)

My grandmother was raised by a mother who was widowed when she was very young...her mother lacked the resources to earn money... My grandmother had to quit school in the 4th grade she could read and write but certainly not well. Her mother also never had a thing growing up....they were poor farm laborers or other laborers. After my grandmother was grown, her mother married a widower who had inherited a few nice things from his wife....and so great grandma inherited them when he died. But since this was in the days before Social Security, she had nothing but some "stuff"....and went to live with my grandmother and grandfather....but my grandfather couldn't stand his mother in law and didn't want her living there, so she went to live with one of her sons....my grandmother's step brothers.....fully 25 years younger than she was. They lived in a one bedroom apartment and Great Grandma slept on the sofa and when they had company who stayed late, grandma laid her head on the kitchen table and tried to sleep. Gradually the "stuff" disappeared, either through neglect or it was sold, all but The Mirror. When my parents moved into a big old 1903 house with a 3rd floor with 3 bedrooms and a bath, they asked my father's grandmother to come live with us. she had her own bedroom and bathroom and room for her little rocker and dresser.....and she arrived with The Mirror under her arm, saying "Where I go this mirror goes"...When she had lived at her daughter's it was in the attic, when at her son's it was under the bed. My parents hung it over the mantle! I have it now....it's over my mantle.....a beautiful wide framed, gold leaf oval mirror. It's now part of my "stuff". Who doesn't prize things like that because Great Grandma who had nothing married a man who's wife came from a family that valued nice things and she valued the mirror as a nice thing that she had never had before? She saw that it wasn't left sitting behind the furnace and during the 5 or 6 years she lived with us, she loved looking at it. Now I love looking at it and remembering how proud grandma was to see HER MIRROR hanging in a prominent place of honor. Apes don't seem to value family history nor things and don't connect things to people who are no longer around. People are reminded of their history by artifacts....humans also have a sense of the aesthetic seemingly lacking in animals. Animals don't have museums where they see how their ancestors lived....perhaps because they are living just like their ancestors did. My daughter uses her grandmother's sterling, I hope she will pass it to her grand daughter. If I had considered it just clutter and sold it for the thousand or so I could have gotten for it, my great grand daughter would not, I hope, be reminded frequently of her great great grandmother's taste in silver. I also have my great grandmother's pie tin, the other great Grandma. It's very chipped granite ware, shallow and only 8 inches. Grandma Kissle used to say "Tis a poor crust that doesn't grease it's own tin."....so true on many levels. It's one of only 2 things I have of her's,....because when she could no longer keep house, her furnishings were considered just "stuff" ( but for the Havaland which her daughter in law snatched!)..The other is a peach pit, filed into a basket....which she gave to me, telling me how her father made it for her. All "things" are not Sterling and gold, but are precious because they cause us to remember that we are products of our ancestors. Annie, if you had a pair of beaded moccasins which belonged to you great grandmother, they would be worth likely a lot more than a service for 8 of sterling.....would you keep them even though they didn't fit your foot?

Thanks for looking Maggie. Having the spoon hold exactly 1 Tbs. was critical, as was that the material be sterling. The solution ended up being a sterling "tea caddy" spoon, which I found for my BIL on Ruby Lane. He corresponded with the seller who confirmed the volume of the spoon and is shipping it today for next week's anniversary celebration! And check this part....the one I found actually had the correct last-name initial engraved on it!! Amazing! Thanks again everyone for helping me out!