Fun stuff, Spring is going berserk now and I am in gardening heaven. Not quite 80s yet but some low 70s and enough rain to make everything go. Dax, the smaller Picea pungens is 'Wisconsin Cream' that colors us mildly there because of about 1/2 day's sun. I think it will make for good scion-wood, hint hint. The engelmannii is 'Compacta'. -Will

COLUMBUS OHIO PLANT SWAP/POTLUCK II SAT. SEPTEMBER 16, 2006 Date: SEPTEMBER 16, 2006 (Tell your friends) Time: 10:00 - 3:00 Shelter house #5 Place: Hilliard Municipal Park on Veterans Memorial Dr, Hilliard, Ohio. Take outer belt I-270 & go west getting off at Cemetery Rd exit (go toward hilliard). 2 miles until right past Main St. Cemetery dead ends into Scioto Darby - turn right . Go a few blocks down & turn left onto Veterans Memorial Dr. First shelter house on the right #5 (same shelter house as spring swap). Material : Plant well-rooted cutting in pots, bulbs, shrubs, garden ornaments or junk art, garden magazines bundled up & gardening books. Please mark containers with kind of flower plus sun or shade. Use old containers, cups & for labels use plastic forks (or old blinds) with black permanent markers. Potluck: I donÂt know which is best the food or plant swap. Please bring a dish to share & utensils (mark your name) and any beverage. I will provide plates, cups & napkins. 10:00 - 12:00 People start arriving . Sign in at registration table with the # of plants, e-mail, sign up for door prizes & name tags. Donation jar for the shelter house which cost $30.00 to rent. Put your plants you brought to trade into there areas.(perennial, herbs, shrubs. Daylily, iris est.) Visit with other gardeners & view all the plants ready to trade. This swap is patterned after Beverly & Mimi fourth year plant swap. Last fall in September we had a small group of 50 traders but, lots of daylilies, iris & other plants !! 12:00 Enjoy our wonderful potluck. After lunch door prizes donated by our wonderful gardeners friends. Many thanks!! 1:00 Round robin: What we are all waiting for!! Round robin one everyone selects 1 plants. Round robin two everyone take 1 plants. Round robin 3 everyone takes two plants. Round robin 4 everyone takes three. Round robin 5 everyone takes 4 plants & so on. Everyone should be able to take as many plants as they brought. At the end there is usually a lot of plants left over for any one to take (some of use bring extra plants). Tips of the day: Please bring a wagon the help everyone unload there plants ( mark your wagon no trade). Folding chairs, table for plants, potluck dish & of course all these wonderful plants to trade. Any question go on line fellow swapers will help answer any questions. R.S.V.P : www.gardennweb.com./forums/get-together Then click on the Ohio valley or plant swap. You will find Central Ohio plant swap/potluck. IÂ canÂt wait until September for another swap . See you at the swap. Happy gardening!! Diane Garrett

Some of the comments in this forum just made me cringe. Many of you simply do not know what you are talking about. If you buy a Kymco (Agility line) Honda Mero, or Yamaha BWS you are buying a Chinese scoot! If you buy a Chinese scoot today many of the parts are made in Taiwan or Japan. In fact even if you buy a Vespa most of the bike is assembled and produced in Vietnam!!!! Don't dump on Chinese bikes just because. It isn't fair. Chinese scoots have improved a lot during the past 5 years or so, but like everything else, there are good Chinese Scoots and re are bad Chinese Scoots. How do you know which is which? Some Chinese companies make their own engines. Start there. SYM makes the TOMOS Nitro in China. Its their own engine and its a great, well-made bike (I own one.) Another is Linhai which is partly owned by Yamaha. If you see a Linhai motor on another brand don't buy that brand because Linhai does not sell their motors to any other manufacturer. Neither does SYM. In fact, Linhai is the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in China. Many of their products are marketed under the Yamaha label. These two brands and Benzhou are well made and up to the standards of Taiwanese manufacturers. (If my research is right Benzhou makes the Agility line for Kymco.) There are other tier-one manufacturers in China as well, just these three I am familiar with. There are mid-tier Chinese brands as well such as Pulse, Lightspeed, Chironex, Roketta, and Tank. Today Pulse is producing a beautifully made product indeed. The mid-tier bikes are often cheaper than the top-tier bikes, but can be a bit less reliable to own. With 2,800 scooter manufacturers in China there is a lot of junk being turned out too, but lots of fine high quality scooters as well. Another good tip is to make sure that there is an American (or Canadian) distrbutor and that the distributor has a large parts inventory. I called TOMOS before purchasing my bike and found out that they were operating from a warehouse that is 60,000 square feet in Canada. Do your homework. What is my point? When you buy a Chinese bike, you re really buying a Chinese assembled bike. The engine, carborator, CDI, ignition coil, and transmission are most likely Japonese. Heck the GY6 engine is screw for screw, casting for casting, part for part a Japonese engine!!! All scooters need repair and maintenance. Chinese scooters, if you do your research and buy a top tier brand, will be every bit as reliebale as anything else out there.

I think you have to be prepared that they may not last as long due to stains. I have an inexpensive PB sisal in my living room. With cats who sometimes throw up, it's a pain, though any rug is that way. The care instructions say not to wash the rug, but I would haul it outside and scrub the soiled area with a little bit of soapy water, and rinse. That didn't seem to be a problem with this particular rug. Someone else I know, however, had one under their kitchen table (believe it was the same one from PB though), and all the food spills from the kids destroyed the rug. The Woolite rug cleaner and whatever other products she tried also left stains. She hated it. I also knew someone who was working with a designer. She was told the rug was a bad choice with kids. That rug might have been a wool/sisal. It was a very expensive, fine rug. The light color might have been an issue with the designer too. She decided to get it anyway, along with white upholstered pieces, and just replace if they were trashed. The edge on mine rolled up at a corner or two. Not sure what you can do about something like that. As far as texture, I was surprised it was so rough when I first got it, though now I kind of like that stimulating feel on bare feet! I'm usually in socks though, so it doesn't matter. It's tough on kids, though, when they get down on their hands and knees to play. Your rug store probably doesn't want to deal with unhappy customers or those who want returns later, as it's just not a rug for everyone and the spills/stains can be a problem. I guess it's possible that their performance varies between manufacturers, as they may put stain resist treatments on them, or the quality/type of weave, etc., as someone above mentioned. I absolutely love the look of the natural woven rugs and will be venturing in again, though won't spend lots of money on it or expect it to last forever.