Ah special places. Nice warm cozy feelings. Thanks! I like your visual Suze. Don, heavy happy sigh. Naval Post Graduate school. Mmm. Bronzed beauties. I do mean the guys. Coppertone always brings back that memory. That and the big ball room I could envision the ball that had taken place just seeing the confetti on the floor. Mommy in her ball gown and daddy in dress whites. Aw, that makes me cry now. They were a beautiful couple. My first place after leaving home? You guys make me see how spoiled I have lived even if I've never lived in a mansion. Do you want to know about the dorm I lived in or the first real home I had after I left school? I'd waited a year to attend MTSU. My best friend throughout high school was a year behind me and I wanted to wait for her. I spent that year making friends at my mom's office, thinking, insurance, ick, but I can stand a year. Ended up loving every minute of the camaraderie and fun we had in that office. Little did I know I'd do that for 17+ years!!! But I digress. Staying in school during the week and at home on the weekend, we alternated driving "home". MTSU is known as a "suitcase college" for just that reason. There is nothing to do there, so everyone leaves. It was a reasonable size room with two huge windows that overlooked the lawn and trees the size of buildings. It was one of three of the original buildings built in 1911 for Tennessee Normal school and it smelled, looked, and felt like it. We'd have to take our key every time we left the room because the door automatically shut and automatically locked. My roommate friend came to be too dependent upon me having a key and one day she asked me if I had my key I said no. You shoulda seen her go ballistic! Good thing I did have it, but I think she learned how much she took me for granted. In those days, dorms weren't co-ed. Ever. There was visitation on Tues/Thurs for us, next door it was Mon/Wed and as I stated before the grounds were empty by midday on Friday, so no need for visiting. The hours were 6-9PM. How archaic? Since it wasn't co-ed, if the handyman came to fix something you'd hear "Man on the Hall!" once they entered. That's because there were only two bathrooms total for the whole floor and one might be in half dressed mode. It had two toilets and two showers, three sinks and a couple of mirrors. People would hang out in the halls smoking. Clove cigarettes were popular then and the halls would smell of cloves all day long. Not so bad I guess, coulda been cigars. There was good food and you could get anything you wanted that you'd get at home, from baked chicken to huge sandwiches. But no fast food. We had a vending machine in the lobby of our dorm and my friend would "borrow" enough to buy some candy while we studied (she paid it all back one year much later on when she paid for a trip to Disney World for me). Dr. Pepper and peanut M&Ms. Always brings back studying thoughts. And we had one tv for the whole dorm! We'd try to finish up lab work (beakers and scalpels away!) by 3 so we could watch Days of Our Lives. Those were the days. Little did I know how good they'd be. My grandparents had paid for the first year, my mom was too poor to pay for anything else, and I didn't know how to apply for and get FAFSA. Phooey on my high school for not telling me. Shame on them. I was poorly equipped. But I went to back to work at the insurance place and found a friend who introduced me to my first husband. He'd attended MTSU. He'd sold cars where I bought my first car. He'd even worked at Willis Corroon! Which is where he'd met my friend. We'd all go watch the Nashville Sounds play or hang out at Bennigan's eating and telling jokes all night long. Greg and I married and moved to Murfreesboro on the river. It was a beautiful place that had leaves that looked red and gold in the fall, pines that looked lovely sprinkled in white snow, and then the red and gold trees would be covered in blossoms come spring. I guess they were Bradford pears. That place was a two floor townhouse. It had a grill in the kitchen and huge dining room. There was a wood deck out back and you could sit with your morning coffee looking at the lazy river and trees or watch the fog lifting. It's also the place were I met the love of my life, Keegan kitty. He'd sit on the steps and headbutt Greg with such love and deference. Greg would call him Keegan bunny as those tiny little legs would hop from step to step until he reached the top. And the reason he picked him out is because he was orange and white, go Vols! I hated UT. At least Keegan was cool. We'd spend our weekends with TA, Jay, Rita, Kathy, Kenny, going to ball games, eating out, or just telling TA to shut up ;) He worked for TBI and said he loved to take homes from "widows and orphans", boy he was a pistol. Some days we went to the ball games, some days hockey, and some days they'd watch NASCAR. One particular New Year's Eve we had a party where Kathy and I sat talking to each other and staying pretty sober. There was a friend of a friend who got noticeably tanked and we saw eating dip with difficulty. We didn't remember it being chewy, so we went to see what was going on. The jar had been dropped and had broken glass in it! Kathy and I never forgot that. We were silly kids having fun. I miss those days some days, but mostly not.

I know nothing about propagation, but hydrangeas are so easy. I take my cuttings after blooming is over. Take a short cutting (4 to 6 inches)from a branch that does not have a bloom. Strip off all but the top two leaves. Dip the cutting in some rooting hormone, then stick it in a pot of light potting soil to within an inch or two of the top of the cutting. Put the pot in a shaded area (I use my front porch), water it lightly - don't want it to be soggy. Check every few days to make sure it is adequately watered. THIS IS IMPORTANT: Spray it 3 times a day with a little water. I just use a standard spray bottle with a fine spray. That's really it. Sooner or later it will form roots. If the top leaves look droopy - dont' worry. If they die - oops, start over. I have not had them die though and I don't have a clue what I'm doing. In the fall I heel the pot into a sheltered garden bed and leave it for the winter (although as I learned from my neighbor this year, you can leave the pot lying on its side in total neglect). It will go dormant, like all hydrangeas. Sometime in the spring, new leaves will sprout. Then you can do what you want with it. Understand these are not professional instructions. They are just really, really easy to root. Someone told me layering works well too, but I haven't tried it. Right now I am trying to root witch hazel, and it does not seem to like my method. Still, I have plenty of suckers to work with.

Hi, merrybookwyrm (love your screen name!), & welcome to the Texas Forum! There are 3 threads on this page about the swap, just look for Ft Worth in the title; there's also a duplicate, which is being allowed to drop off the page. The Swap is in the park by the Ft Worth Zoo. From I-30 west of downtown Ft Worth, go south on University. Turn left at Colonial into the park, & follow the trail around to the ballfields on the right. Turn in to the parking area, & you'll see a pavilion in front of you with a whole bunch of garden crazies & all their plants & seeds & artwork & lunch delectables. It's Saturday April 10, & we start some time between 9 & 10 & "swap til we drop", usually around 2. hope to see you there!

Thanks again. Yes, I admit I plant somewhat closely for impact. Even when you think you've given things enough room, you sometimes need to reconsider! I found this pic from 2012 of the rear bed (against the woods) and you can see my original arborescens planting locations with the daylilies behind. I cannot believe how much everything has grown since! But each year I'm always moving things, sometimes once or more monthly throughout each growing season (the neighborhood probably thinks I'm nuts!). Even things that need moved only a foot or two I don't mind doing, because that's another hunk of solid clay I'm loosening up and allowing for root expansion! Other things have naturally spread voraciously as well, like the daylilies, irises and fuzzy-leaved rudbeckia (these are no joke!). Hostas are even getting huge now. I'm at the point where I'm composting overexpansion; wish I had time to give divisions away or sell them! With the most recent transfer of non-bloomers to containers, I find there is a reasonable amount of room for everything with the inventory as-is. I will be cutting in Invincibelle Ruby and Incrediball Blush soon, but those are the only immediate plans. I also prune various items throughout the growing season, as new branches always seem to be growing where they shouldn't. Guess only by chance really, but I subconsciously seem to like the way the Japanese hydrangea gardens are laid out, like a sea of flowers. Without an overabundance of rain (fungal issues) the hydrangeas are very happy planted closely around one another. I will be using large stakes and fencing for Annabelles next year though, as they still manage to spill over onto neighboring macrophyllas. For me, some things seem to bloom more profusely in shade, while others don't. There's really no rhyme or reason to it I've found yet. *shrug* At the current time, I would tell anyone to go ahead and try planting at the woods' edge and see what happens. If adding a completely new bed you'll probably need to chop through some tree roots unless the bed is partially raised by fill or new soil.