Wetsuitor: The only ones I dug up this year were 4 washies and a sago palm, each of which would take considerable protection here including heat. I will be leaving those in when they get 2 big to handle, but the washies seem to take root distubance very well and overwinter well indoors. There is of course some set back and it is slow to get growing in the spring, however I'm not ready to get into an elaborate heating system yet. I'm trying to work out my kinks this year on a trachy. Plus my wife would kill me if I had Jim's setup! I live in maybe the coldest winter 6a in America. This will be my 3rd winter here, the lowest low each of the past 2 years is -2, and -8F, HOWEVER, it is the norm to go 3 weeks at a time never getting above freezing. Last December and January, we had 9 days that got above freezing during the day, and most of those were in the 33-38F range for highs. We also had 2 3-weeks seesions of consecutive below freezing weather. The other problem is that I generally don't see grass from Dec.1 to mid-March, it never gets warm enough to ever melt the snow. Last year I lost 2 decent sized trachies and a sabal palmetto, and my minors and needle that survived received considerable damage, the minors burned 98%, the only things left were the emerging spears. Needle had spear pull with surving pups. That was with frost cloth wrapped unheated leaf cages, which provided 0-30% damage and no losses the year before.

Flaurabunda, it's so funny you mentioned cameras. I was reloading some ancient photos into Facebook last night and it's quite startling to see how much my photo-taking has changed. Back in 2009 (the year of Gemini), I did not know how to handle my camera with the right sun exposures but even so Gemini was always beautiful; to this day save for Folklore and with Penny Lane (growing in sunlight) I've never seen a more perfectly formed rose. Kansas heat ruins rose shapes save for those 2 roses. Gemini always looked good no matter what the lighting; constantly spiraling, and your photo just reminded me so much of what she once was before she died. I loved that rose so much and she was a sport-fragranced one too. Double the Agony of losing her.... I'm afraid to get any other Gemini save from J&P because so few Gemini's have the deep coral, and I still hope to find one just like it.... I also check my local nursery but no dark coral Gemini yet...I bet you are probably being "too modest" or not breaking the hard truth for fear it'd make me "insane with grief" lol. Anyway, your photo of her was very "Haunting" and beautiful-- I felt like it was seeing her all over again.... I also forgot to say, I love your "Wall of Fire". Just brilliant! :D

Trailrunner, I'm not going to be much help with the beadboard. Home Depot offered two kinds: 1/4" pre-primed for painting, and 3/8" plywood. We bought the 3/8", and it seemed much heavier and more rigid than the 1/4". I don't know the size of the sheets, but I can tell you they were lying flat in the plywood aisle at HD. All I did was pay for them.....my son got them home and onto the porch, and the contractor took it from there. He installed them over the original double-plank (hemlock) construction of my old farmhouse. We used the same beadboard for the ceiling as well. I hope this small amount of information helps. Susan

Hi Danielle and Jason, When I saw Annie's attractive pics ... ... I thought that perhaps I'd made a mistake, when I visited. I should have asked to have paid a visit to your sleeping young ones ... to have more or less met them (even though it'd have been a one-way street, they being unaware). Would they have felt more or less betrayed ... ... to have been visited, in the privacy of their bedroom, with them unaware, defenceless ... by some ... stranger? But they could trust that, with Mom and Dad there ... they were safe. In at least 99 out of 100 instances, I think, even if Mom and Dad weren't there ... they'd still be safe. It seems to me that most folks are decent, trustworthy ... ... it's the others that we hear so much about. Put a small dot with a pencil in the middle of a sheet of typewriter(?) paper ... ... ask someone what s/he sees - s/he'll say, "A dot". Not mentioning all of the wide expanse of paper that carries no mark. I hope that you have a lovely, late summer weekend in that lovely province: though I spent only 7 years there ... it took hold of my heart. ole joyful