shastensis, According to Dr. Bob Zybach of Oregon the old growth in the Northwest was comparable to today's old growth over a century ago in the settlement era. He studied fire history in the state of Oregon and believes most of the trees were second growth when the white man came. Zybach has said reports of Douglas fir in excess of 300 feet are mostly stories that cannot be documented, and he has said that the city of Vancouver BC was a prairie before the white man came. I think his views are the minority opinion. He was a reforestation contractor for 20 years, so I value his input. Most estimates I have seen suggest between 70 and 90% of the biggest and oldest Douglas fir forests have been logged in the past 130 years. In some places like Southern Vancouver Island up to 99% of old growth fir is said to be gone. One need only look at the hundreds of old logging photos of giant fir and cedar to get an idea of how large the lowland forests once grew, and in places like present day Seattle, and Vancouver BC. To deny all of this pretty much tells me one would have to be a lobbyist for the timber industry, but that is just my gut feeling.

Tom: If adelgids are not accidentally transported to your area, the "natural" movement of the infestation should leave you untouched for many years. By then, if some control method using these beetles works out, people will know what to do by then to protect the hemlocks. But, and here is a depressing story, the nectria/scale disease was no where near my Western MD timberland, and was not expected to get there for a long, long time. Then, some jerk, decided that he would bring a truckload of firewood down from his place in Maine to Kempton, MD, which is about 4 miles south of my land. Of course, the logs he brought were from dying beech trees--all infested with the disease. So I not only will lose my hemlocks, but also my beech trees. Carrying firewood from Maine to the mts of western MD is as wierd and senseless as it gets, even forgetting about the fact that he should have known better, seeing the beech trees die there. Lets hope no one decides to take any hemlock trees from some infested area up to Wisconsin! Oh, as for the beetles--they are trying several kinds--I think at least three, but I have not kept up on the details of each kind. One issue of concern is that one or more of the beetles they are trying feed exclusively on the adelgid, making it difficult to get a population built up BEFORE the infestation starts, and after the infestation starts, it is difficult to get the beetle population to catch up with the numbers needed to make an impact. There are all kinds of complications facing these efforts. --Spruce

Thank you Dr Larry, yes I realized it's quite hard to judge those beauty. Our judging criteria for Bromeliad are: -Beauty and hamony of the whole plant's appearance in foliages, form, color and others. -Quality of foliage and others. -Conditions of display of the cultivar's characteristics. -Conditions of mannagement for cultivations : existing or not damaged by disease, insect or weeds etc. -Uniformity of exhibition plants. -Distinction. Unfortunately, this's the first time for Brom contest in our East Coast, so the organizer didn't class every categories for contest. Cryptanthus was not in the list !!! and sure, don't think about my spineys. LOL BTW...I've been success in making Cryptanthus hybrid. I've about 5-6 months yr old 10 crosses form yours and other parentages. Some are quite remarkable, especially from C.argyrophyllus crosses.

Here is one I didn't know about. Looks like they LOVE the high summer rainfall, and deep sandy soils of southeastern Virginia! The best Cryptomeria I've ever seen on the east coast (probably, anywhere! I've never been to JP or CN) was somewhere in Norfolk but I doubt I could ever find it again. http://bigtree.cnre.vt.edu/detail.cfm?AutofieldforPrimaryKey=660 Time for those folks to install a lightning arrester for that tree! Or make sure the church spire is well grounded so that it diverts the charge LOL.