Fotis, I think I speak for a great many people here and say I am envious of your surroundings, your climate and your gardens. Your color saturation is remarkable and absolutely lit off by those red rocks and your bed composition! I see you get significant snows, but knowing roughly the climate of Greece, I assume you get very long, warm, dry growing seasons as well? Sounds like a perfect environment for many conifers. Shot a few more photos today, particularly highlighting some of my golden pines - also for comparison of different cultivars and their brightness, at least in my mild Pacific Northwest climate. For referrence, so far this Winter, we've had a total of 6 days of 32(0'C) degree temps or below, 2 days in the teens and most days have been about 50/35(high/low). I believe this causes milder colors in general, but many of my plants are still full of color. Pinus strobus 'Louie' Pinus sylvestris 'Nisbet's gold' Pinus sylvestris 'Gold Medal' Pinus sylvestris 'Gold Coin' - lacking Winter sunlight, so not as bright as... Pinus sylvestris 'Gold Coin' - full sun. Pinus mugo 'Carstens' Picea orientalis 'Daureas' - Much brighter in Spring/Summer but still hues of gold left. Interesting because from collectors I've seen in the Midwest/East coast, this plant is often solid green by mid-Summer. Abies concolor 'Wintergold' Chamaecyparis nootkatensis 'Boyko's Sundown' Pinus mugo 'Yellowtip' Pinus contorta 'Chief Joseph' - Still the gold standard. Sciadopitys verticillata 'Ossorio Gold' - Roughly the same color all year. Just wanted to add this photo of a doug fir that colors like this each winter. My hunch is lack of nutrients, though I don't know really. A couple others mixed with heather. -Will

Wow! If anyone says we are having a greenhouse affect, I will, blank my pants! lol Those temps are just ridiculous! Whhat gives? I can't beleive the snow you had Mike and for that area. Good golly! looks like you are just about to engulf your greenhouse into an igloo very soon as I did..lol Now, what's next, tornados? I is such a good feeling to ee the temps in there that warm right, those lucky trees. I lost my heat last night, ran out of oil. It was 55 in my home this am and it was 68 in the greenhouse. I almost slept in there this am.. Mike: The one thing that ALWAYS scares me, especially this time of the year is loosing the electricty while asleep or not home! Luckily, that is the one thing I can be grateful for. Pgde!!!! Now that is a bad dream you had! Oh wait, is that the real Macoy? Ice hanging from the fountain way down there in Tuscon? Your kidding, right?... What about your trees? How are they doing? Wow, and yet beautiful.. Unbeleivable... I will come back and show a few shots of my snow too, since it hasn't stopped for over a month. A snow storm about every two days! Mike

Moni, It was one of those on-and-off warnings. One day they thought it would hit us hard, and then another day they said it would go farther south and then they came back and said we 'might' get 1" to 4" but they were leaning more toward the 1". So, here we sit with over 6" on the ground (I haven't measured it lately) and more falling. The problem is that the forecast models were all over the place, and the meteorologists had to decide which model or models they had the most confidence in. A lot of them chose the wrong one! LOL It is a wet snow and our temps have hovered between 29 and 32 degrees all afternoon, so some of it has melted even as more has fallen. It is quite lovely but I hope it goes away soon. My Dixondale onions ship next week. All the birds in southern OK are currently eating out in the yard.....we're having a wild bird convention with everything from goldfinches (several dozen of them at three finch feeders) to cardinals, blue jays, blue birds, starlings, black-capped chickadees, doves, sparrows, crows, grackles, etc. There are birds everywhere. I need to go outside and let the 'garage dogs' out to run and play. I've been letting them out for about 15 minutes every couple of hours all day long. They like the snow, but they don't like it for long. I'll measure the snow while I'm out. Down in the D-FW area, I believe today's snowfall makes this the snowiest year since sometime in the 1970s. I know sleet and snow flurries have fallen in the College Station, TX, area and than across parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and into northern Florida. They should have real snow in some of those places tonight and tomorrow. Every day it seems like someone in the USA is having snow, and I guess this is the southern states' turn. Dawn

Thanks for the comments. Here are a few more pics! My sago palm is in a corner. I guess thats my plant hospital-no one can see it-but I can easily care for it. Windmill palm planted this year is looking good in shade. I think its on its 3rd frond . Next is a pic of my sabal domingensis, also newly planted this spring. Its pushed 1 and a half fronds this year. Not bad considering its in a pretty good amount of shade and still a pretty young palm. Also new for this year is my european fan palm. It has a pup on the side of it which is about to open its first frond. Sabal minor in its second year and growing very fast considering its a sabal minor! Its already pushed out a full frond and the second frond is unfolding. I wouldnt be surprised to get 3 fronds by the end of the summer. My sabal minors 'trunk'. It looks like it is actually growing above the ground, but maybe its planted too shallow. I think Ill have to add a little mulch in the fall since the roots are pretty exposed, but I think they have always been exposed. Do you think it should have some more soil on the top? NEW VOCAB WORD FOR ME! This is the 'hastula' of my Sabal domingensis. Apparently its where the petiole meets the base of the leaflets. On palmetto shaped fans its more spearlike. Im pretty sure sabal domingensis is a palmetto shaped leaf and heres a pic of the 'hastula' on it. And here is the 'hastula' on my sabal minor. So Im going to guess the longer the hastula is, the more coastapalmate (that palmetto shaped leaf) the frond is. I guess its a pretty good way to determine if a sabal minor is a minor or a palmetto at a young age. You learn a new thing every day! My new and first crape myrtle which is a crape myrtle zuni. They are starting to become pretty common in the area (maybe almost as common as southern magnolias). They are all in bloom now, but mine looks like it has about a week before the first blooms open. Heres my parlor palm and stromanthe in the shade doing well. They made it through 4 days of 100 degree weather in the shade with no leaf burn. I was very impressed. I have a peace lily in even more shade further to the back and it also had no leaf burn from the recent heat. Heres my tree fern which is growing at a pretty good speed. wsg89, Gardening can be very frustrating at times, and relaxing at others, but in the end its a great hobby. I think we have all lost a few plants. This year (from spring to now) I lost a bismarkia (I guess it didnt like the indoor atmosphere), musella (it just didnt like being shipped), one hibiscus, and definitely a few other plants also. Its disappointing to see plants die, but we learn from our mistakes and I definitely buy more than I lose! Greg, Thats definitely one of the reasons to by at a nursury. And you know the quality of fruit will be good on a grafted plant since it will fruit just like its mother. You just have to know which plants you have to buy grafted and which can be easily grown from seed. Laura, Thanks for the compliment. You have a beautiful yard also! I love those huge sabal palmettos and healthy pindo palms! Thanks for looking! Enjoy! -Alex