TRUE CONFESSIONS OF A PLANT AHOLIC OK Prairiemoon2 here is a slightly abbreviated list of what I brought home yesterday from Avant Gardens. Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Ceramic' A miniature Golden Hinoki Cypress. aka Golden Ceramic, and Lynns Golden. Tight undulating golden evergreen fronds slowly form a darling miniature sculpture. New! Chamaecyparis psifera 'Tsukumo' A miniature bun-shaped evergreen with fine textured fern-like blue-green foliage. Cryptomeria japonica 'Tansu' This miniature evergreen reminds one of a sea urchin with its textural spiny green foliage. Slow-growing, it ultimately forms a 15' mound, and therefore is good in troughs.New! Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Gold Fern' A unique form of Hinoki Cypress displaying golden fern-like juvenile foliage on a mounding compact shrub. We found the foliage color is best in part shade. Growth rate is slow, only 3" or so a year. Ultimately a shrub of 4' x 4' Ilex crenata 'Jersey Pinnacle' Valuable for it's upright, dense, yet irregularly branched habit and it's glossy dark green evergreen foliage. 6-8'. Magnolia grandiflora 'Edith Bogue' Considered the most cold hardy of the evergreen magnolias, 'Edith Bogue' has survived -24° F albeit with some defoliation. It has a tight pyramidal form, reaching 40' or more with a width of 15' and narrow, lustrous dark green leaves with brown undersides. In June and July, the creamy 9-12" blossoms fill the air with a sweet, lemony fragrance. Hydrangea anomeles petiolaris 'Miranda' Description: Hydrangea petiolaris 'Miranda' is a new variegated selection of the popular Climbing Hydrangea. Leaves have a gold margin in the spring that fades to creamy white as the season progresses. White Lace cap type flowers. Bark has an interesting exfoliating quality. Slower growing than the species. Zone: 4 Code: hydapm Exposure: sun/pt shade Sedum telephium 'Bon Bon' Pink flower clusters and chocolate colored fleshy foliage adorn tidy 16" clumps. Blooms Aug-Sept. Plant in poor soil and full sun for best results. New! Sedum sieboldii October Daphne. A tidy blue gray hardy succulent with rounded foliage on sprawling wiry stems. The leaves take on pink tones when the cold weather arrives, which compliment the clusters of rosy blossoms in Oct. Prefers lean well drained soil. 6"H x 12"W Regularly $6.95 Sedum cauticola 'Lidakense' This Sedum forms compact mounds of rounded blue to bronzy-red foliage with terminal clusters of starry budded pink flowers in late summer. Sedum telephium 'Red Cauli' A compact sedum, smaller than Autumn Joy with bright red flower clusters above blue-grey, purple tinted fleshy foliage. 12" Sedum platycdus zone 4 sun/pt shade A distinctive Sedumthat forms rosettes of fleshy-blue-gray foliage that has delicately notched edges. Pale yellow flowers in summer on 4" plants. Slowly forms colonies to 15". Euphorbia amygdaloides robbiae Grow this Euphorbia in a protected site with well drained soil in sun or shade. It will reward you with handsome somewhat glossy evergreen daphne-like foliage and airy sprays of yellow green flowers in spring. Mulch in colder zones. Cunninghamia unicanaliculata- Known as Chinese Fir. Leaves are steele blue. Huge triangle leaves to 2 ½ inches long. Can take shade or full sun. This tree is in question by taxonomist. They believe it to be just a variation on the species cunninghamia. Zone 6 height and spread in ten years 12ft 8 ft. Acanthus spinosus Tha hardiest of the "Bear's Breaches", this bold accent plant has large shiny green thistle like foliage and 3' flower spikes with soft mauve blossoms. We have found that siting it in a well-drained protected spot and a winter mulch encourages blooming. Orostachys fimbriata A curiosity for the rock garden or troughs having narrow gray quilled succulent leaves with a purple flush. Chamaecyparis lawsoniana Treasure Island A yellow, miniature, globe of Port Orford Cedar. Found as a sport from Treasure Very tight little ball with yellow foliage. Found in Southern Holland by Wiel Linssen. Height and spread in ten years 1ft by 1 ft zone 5 part shade. Chamaecyparis obtuse Golden Sprite a miniature bun form of Hinoki Cypress with tiny golden yellow leaves on twisted stems. Height and spread in ten years 4" x 1 Chamaecyparis obtuse Emelie a miniature variety of Jap. Hinoki Cypress. Nice green foliage on a small bun shaped plant. Propogates well and looks great. Plant named in 2005 in loving memorie of Emelie Snyder, wife of Marvin Snyder ex-president of American Conifer Society. Height and spread in 10 years 10inches by 10 inches. Chamaecyparis obtuse Leperchaun A miniature variety of Jap Hinoki. Leaves emerald green and very small. Plant is a squatty conical form. Leaves have a tuft appearance. Plant found and introduced by JW Spingarn of Long Island NY. Height and spread in 10 years 1ft x 14 inches zone 5 The beginnings of a tender succulent collection that I wont embarrass my self further by listing. kt

sconti- There are many things you can factor in to minimize your capital gain on the house you sold if the profit exceeds the $500K exemption for a married couple. Start by taking a look at the IRS publication link below. Then, when you think you understand it, invest an hour with a CPA to make sure you've got everything you've entitled to. As far as the house you just bought, the deductions are going to be interest and property taxes. Here is a link that might be useful: Selling your home.

I sure did not overlook that one. We built a new home last year and the builder charged us sales tax! I was holding my breath to see if Congress was going to renew the deduction.

I think the suggestion to seek expert tax advice is sound, but I wanted to add something. On the strength of what you have reported here it would seem that you might be looking at nearly 109K of capital gains on the sale, less the cost of doing the subdivision which would include municipal fees, surveys, engineering studies, legal costs and anything connected with getting the land subdivided. However, I don't think it's as simple as that. When you paid 600K for the 85 acres it was a bulk purchase and it seems unlikely that all 85 acres were worth the same amount per acre. On a piece of property as large as that, there is bound to be land that is worth less per are (and therefore has a lower fair market value) because it was farther off the road, or had other development constraints. For that reason, the simple way of determining the basis value of each of the three subdivided acres: $600K divided by 85 (acres) times three, would not be accurate, and probably is misleadingly low. It may be that the land you subdivided was worth more per acre, even before it was subdivided. I suggest that you consider having the property examined by a qualified appraiser (not just a RE agent, unless he or she is also dual qualified as a certified appraiser) to help you determine what the true basis of the land you subdivided. To give a hypothetical example of what I mean: perhaps the three acres you sold were the only "view" lot, or had the only waterfront or access, or had some other very desirable feature of the overall tract. The remaining 82 may still have a decent spot for your new home but the rest may be overlooking the county dump and swamp land to boot. That's why each acre, or lot, needs to be looked at on its own merits, not just valued as if it was all equal. The subdivision almost certainly removed more than 3/85ths of the total value of the tract. A competent appraiser should be able to provide you with sufficient documentation for you to establish a correct basis, which will most likely increase the basis, and therefore reduce your capital gains tax liablity. But keep in mind what you reduce now will affect your basis when you eventually sell your house. However since presumably the new house will be your qualified residence, a large chunk of your potential capital gains will protected (assuming no change in tax code) at that point. HTH, Molly~