Hi Beverly, To answer your Q?, I did go to Darby Creek Nursery,me and my friends went there after the swap. But they didn't have a good sale like they did last fall.We left there almost empty handed.But we had stopped at Shroders off of 71 on our way to the swap and before we got to the swap. They have some really good sales on their plants.That's where we bought most of our plants that day. On our way home we stopped at Seely's. I ended up buying 4 Hostas and Jacquie and her sister Bobbi bought 4 or 5. And we were loaded for bear.LOL I was in so much pain I couldn't hardly stand it. But It was fun.I couldn't unload my car and lucky for me I have some very able friends who don't mind helping or doing for me.Oh!! If I only Had My Legs Back!!! What's this Beverly about you having a Hosta Sale on the 30th? Did you sell them for a business or are they your own??Diane had emailed me with the info and date, But I didn't get the message till after the day of your sale. Sorry I missed it. Hope you did a good business!!! Hope you and Betty had fun at the swap.Fill us in on the Goodies you brought home!! Keep in touch!! Granny57 Todays Memories Are Tomorrows Treasures May You Have Many Yesterdays!!!

I was happy to find the link here to the High Line park and spent some time looking over their website yesterday. I love Piet Oudolf and haven't found a project that he's done that I don't like. I've often wished I had a sunny lot that was just a little larger so that I could have adopted more of his plant choices. So since I'm not able to, I always enjoy seeing g*ardens that he has had a hand in and this was no exception. I found the whole project fascinating! The website has 118 pages of photos to look at, which is almost as good as being there. [g] Looking at photos of what it looked like before the r*enovation and what they accomplished was really inspiring to me. If I lived in a city, which I really wouldn't enjoy...lol, I would LOVE to have something like this in my neighborhood. As a matter of fact, I was quite disappointed when Boston did over the Greenway that they did not ask Oudolf to come and design something for us. What a change from the graffiti covered structure that was there! The views from that elevation and the addition of the glass railings in different areas, has changed that whole area into something much more livable. All the buildings around it have spruced themselves up. Examples pulled from their site.... To go from this..... To this.... I am surprised that you didn't enjoy it Ego. Of course, I haven't visited there, so maybe it is disappointing in person. I guess for me, even if Oudolf had not been the g*arden designer, if they had just cleaned it up and planted it with anything green and used it as a park, I would have thought that was a better use of what was there then other options. I did read that 70% of the annual operating costs were provided by Friends of the High Line but even if public funds were used to r*enovate this area, I think it was a good i*nvestment for so many reasons. I thought that with that narrow long space to work with and to also include sitting areas, Piet Oudolf's s*tyle is difficult to accomplish. Comparing it to Chicago where he had tons of open space, it's quite different. I did take a look at the p*lanting list and see many of the p*lants that he has used in other projects. Thanks kt and carl for bringing this neat park to my attention. :-)

We are currently working with Nassau and Suffolk County on getting a minimum 5 Acre location for a nursery. We have a 3 acre location being developed in Old Brookville. While there is a trade off between the full root system of an easily shipped 3-5 footer(Trachy), our feeling is that customers will want a legit looking palm asap so the minimum 8 footers make sense. I'm hoping that the palm's maturity will spark quicker regrowth of its root system within a max 2-year period. So during those two years, at least the customer will have a palm of substance to look at and brag about. We will be offering a 1-year guarantee on all palms provided the customer uses our winter wrapping service. We feel the crucial months for protection (before establishment of the palm) will be Dec-Feb...Possibly first 2 weeks in March. Hey, the way I see it, covering a palm in NY for 3 months-to have palms isn't that bad. Our targeted market is pool owners-who are used to officially closing/covering their pools, BBQ, deck chairs....OK, so now include your palms. A ritual they are already used too. Shipping will be choreographed to spend as little time in transit as possible. We are currently speaking with different nurseries in GA & NC. Obviously, dealing with NC would provide us with the closest and most cold hardy of the species. Our goal is to get our nursery up and running ASAP so we can get our 1st generation of NY'ers followed by future generations-hopefully winding up with "New York Tough" lines of different palms species. We will also be test planting Dates, Sabals, Washingtonias, Yuccas and Agaves this spring to see how they cope with the next winter. I'm also going to be getting some Jubaea and Butia Hybrids. We will be experimenting with chemicals, sprays...trying to stay away from anything requiring electrical. One thing we will be working with is Beet Juice. Believe it or not, there is a company that has a patent pending on beet juice as an ice melt. In STL they use it instead of salt to melt the roadways as it is all natural and not corrosive. Can beet juice lower the core water temp freezing point inside a palm? Maybe, wont know until this winter. I just hope it doesn't dye the darn palm red :). Also, purely by accident, I discovered that I have seepage form a broken line in my leaching field where cesspool water is coming up. The grass in contact with that water is lush, growing and green as can be while the grass around it is frozen, brown and lifeless. A fertilizer rich in potassium and nitrogen may do a NY palm well in helping survive a winter. Each area in the US is different, even if they are listed in the same zone. There are Fortuneis on Long Island that are 20+ tall over 45 years old living on Long Island-no protection(Not having anything to do with me...www.nypalms.com. Our goal is to get them through the first 2-3 winters and then they should be able to cope. Butias may require winter protect for 5-10 years or until they are at least 15 feet high. I'm really looking forward to experimenting with other species and sharing the finding with all of you.

Those photos are beautiful. No concrete, no asphalt, no sidewalks, no urban blight. No Starbucks. (I have never been to a Starbucks as we don't have any of that stuff around here.) I understand coffee costs $5.00??? But the heat is a problem for me though. Some love the heat, but I absolutely hate it. It went to 87 degrees up here last week end the kids were jumping into the rivers to cool off. That night it went down to 42 degrees and we all slept comfortably. But the responses are quite interesting. Some believe that God meant for man to walk on concrete and nothing less will do. Others will never consider living in a suburban, let alone urban setting. Some will never leave the seaside, while others think all you get is a shack there. Some believe people literally living on top of each other is the way to go and others think that anything less than 5 acres is confining. Some talk about having fine stores nearby to buy things, while others have no need for more "stuff". I love northern New England. I love when the leaves start to change in mid September and reach their peak around Columbus Day. I love the lack of urban areas. The biggest town in Vermont is Burlington with under 40,000 people. I love walking down my dirt road on a snowy evening in December and smelling woodsmoke in the air, knowing families are gathered around the hearth. I like the fact we have no streetlights. But there are plenty of people here that would consider my lifestyle backward. That's what makes this country so wonderful!