"Shrek" is my kids' favorite movie. If you are familiar with the movie you might remember the scene where donkey asks "who would want to live in a place like that?!" Well I would. It's pretty! And the whole walk there was covered in moss and flowers. Lovely. I wear whatever I'm wearing (usually jeans and a T or tank) to work in the yard. If I KNOW I'm gonna be doing dirty work I put on my OLD jeans or overalls and the ratty sneakers. But mostly I just end up getting my "good" jeans dirty. I have been known to pluck weeds on the way out dressed up for a wedding or a party. Dirt under the nails is constant and I have to keep them short. And, to stray from the clothing topic, I credit weeding with sending me into labor with my daughter the next day. One of my husbands favorite pictures is of me out there on a little stool weeding the day before she was born. Or it might have been the mexican food we ate that night... -Ais.

Our capacity to understand the long history of life on earth is limited by our relatively short life span, and very short recorded history. If by the "period of modern human history" you mean the last 10,000 years or so, then the list of what would be considered "native" to North America is much longer than it is now, and would include organisms like the Proboscidea and Camelidae. Ten thousand years of history for one primate species is minuscule compared to 3.5 billion years of life on this planet, and is still an arbitrary and meaningless demarcation. Most floras have been written in the past 100 years, are generally incomplete, and only tell us the species occuring in an area at that time. Still useful information, but is more akin to a photograph, and gives the false impression that the flora of that region is somehow static and unchanging, when in reality it is constantly changing and dynamic.

You are soo right pamghatten!! Two daughters home from college made a "snap chat" story --posting a pic of 'ALL' the nativities they found in our home. They got to 50. They missed two that we know of. LOL!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!! I have always coveted the sets that have many many different shepherds, animals, etc. The Fontanini line is great for that!! Maybe if I had such a "complete" set one would be enough!!

Nice link Bourbon! I do know about the Champaca. I've tried sprouting the seeds a few times without any luck lol. I may just order a plant. Its another one I would have to put in the greenhouse though and I am running out of room. One of the reasons I started adding more roses is to have more color in the yard during the winter months here plus I don't have to put them in the greenhouse like many of my plants. I really need to move further south! Champaca is also called The Joy Perfume Tree. Chanel no 5 is supposed to mimic the Ylang Ylang tree. I am probably gonna get shade for this but I don't really like Chanel no. 5 lol. I do like the smell of the Ylang Ylang tree. Something must get lost in the transformation to perfume. I haven't smelled the Joy perfume yet. This is a great website to search and read about tropical plants. I have only ordered seeds from here because a lot of their shipping seems high but its a good resource to read about stuff. https://toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/garden_catalog/cat.cgi?uid=Michelia_champaca I also have a couple Michelia figo aka banana shrubs which I can leave out in the winter here. It smells just like bananas and vanilla. They aren't as widely grown in North FL and they were when I lived in Louisiana but they should be.