Yes pagrdnr, it's a Culebra and that was a bloom from a couple years ago. She dropped all the blooms last year when she was knocked to the ground by high winds due to the fence issue.

Ciao all, I hope everyone had a great day out in the garden today. I know it's a back to work day for most people, but my goodness, what glorious weather to be outside. Thanks to all of you for such interesting trades and also for your knowledge and wisdom regarding perennials. I have SO much to learn about them still, thanks for your patience in answering my newbie questions. Tristan grabbed some things from the middle circle which I have no clue regarding the names of the plants or what sort of care they need, so as soon as I'm able, I'm hoping to post some pictures of them for ID. I'm so excited about all the lilacs! They're small, but I know they'll fill that space nicely and I can't wait to discover what colours they turn out to be. I put the dahlias in full sun and just barely covered the root/tuber/rhizome thingies. I hope that's what they need. Tomatoes/eggplants/peppers/tomatillos/basil all got a full day outside and tomorrow will be their first major dose of full sun. I'm hoping to get them in the ground before the weekend. Duane finished 2 additional tomato beds as a birthday present for me and got all the 8' stakes in this morning. The soaker hoses are all in place and now it's just a matter of waiting a few days for the plants to get fully hardened off. Big hugs to all of you, I wish the weather had been more pleasant but it was still a very fun event and thanks again to sydseeds for organizing the swap and for everyone's wonderful enthusiasm and generosity. Get planting everyone!! Julianna

So far, along with the the packets the boys took to school, we have planted hostas (about 10 of them) 2 bleeding hearts, 10 dahlia tubers, another 10 Allstar Strawberries, another type of canna tuber, marigolds (12 plants), Salvia (12 plants), Snapdragons (36 plants), Dusty Millers (36 plants), Alyssum (36 plants), wave petunias (24 plants),Lily of the Valley- 20 pink, 20 white. We have also planted marigold seeds - 4 packets (BIG packets), Cannas- two types 4 packages, Brazilian Fireworks 1 packet, Pride of Barbados 1 packet, 10 packets of Morning glories, 10 packets of perennial sweet peas, 5 packets of Forget me Nots, 10 packets of 4 o'clocks, 10 packets of Salvia, 5 packets of Lantana, 5 packets of butterfly weed, 5 packets of Ice plant. That's the count so far today. We're not finished yet, just came in to eat dinner and rest a bit. We'll work inside sowing more flats here in a little while :) Not sure how you're converting plants to packets of seeds, or how many seeds you're considering a packet. I know that a one of those marigold packets filled 2 72 count flats. But, however you're tallying it up, we've done a LOT of planting today! So, any ideas on how many carried through today? Or about how close you got to your goal? Kathy~ heading back to the seed sowing :)

Hello Ladies, Fate saved me from the butterfinger, the machine was only taking exact change and I only had 3 quarters, so was 5 cents off.. I had some dried apricots instead :) Let me say it was no easy feat getting back in here. They no longer take payments by mailing them in, so I had to deal with paypal. Last year I gave up on them. I forgot my password from an old account and my credit card changed and I didnt keep the old one.. so after tons of email back and forth with them I gave up. This time I just made a new email and tried to make a new account.. again I had all kinds of issues and it ended up that my cookie settings were too secure. So after the 10th try it finally went through.. all that for $15! but its over and done with. They also toned down the security here at work so I can reach the site again, that could change again soon but hopefully im not here at the hospital much longer. Ive been lurking though, and keeping up a bit with whats going on. Its good to see some new names and always good to see the ole timers (no pun intended!). For thoes who do not know me; I found the site when I started on the SS plan about 5 or 6 years ago. Im a guy :) 34, and live in southern NH, about 60 miles north of Boston. Ive been overweight since about the 7th grade, got down to a slim 170 pounds when I was in the army and ballooned up to 260 about 3 years after I got out and stayed there a few years. Thats about when I found this gem of a place and since then lost and have maintained 30 pounds. I never expect to get back down to 170, I wasnt very happy or comfortable that thin anyhow, but I would like to get back down to under 200. Low carb diets never did work well for me, I lost a whole 1 pound on the Atkins plan, and nothing on SS after over 2 months on each. The way I did loose weight was cutting out the junk food, fast food, and pre packaged crapola, and exercising! Last month my Dr dropped the bomb on me and told me im a diabetic type 2 and my blood pressure is on the high side, so now I have more reasons than vanity to drop some weight. Ive made some pretty decent lifestyle changes so far, cut out a lot of salt, made the computer at home off limits (mainly because I sit in front of one all night at work), stopped smoking, but still have a few to go. I need to exercise more and get off the night shift. The problem I seem to have is that I work overnights, so when I get out of work im beat. It also makes it harder to find people to do activities with as im sleeping or working when they are off. I also work every other weekend so that doesnt help. So thats my story and im sticking to it. Whats been new? well im waiting to hear on a new job. I will find out wed/thur. Its days and I would be managing a product line for a petroleum company. They pay is nice and its a 10 min walk from my place, and it would be great to go back to a normal 8-5 job and have my weekends off. Im keeping my fingers and toes crossed. Ive been datting on and off, some good some bad, but always interesting. Ive been seeing the current vicitm since last july. Weve been taking it fairly slow and really only have been serious about it for the last 4 or 5 months. I was working an odd schedule last fall and she was busy trying to sort out her health, so we would be lucky to see each other once a week. Thats gotten a little better. There is more to the story, but its long and complicated, perhaps another day :) To help us get more exercise we just bought kayaks. The budget was kinda tight so I ended up getting a recreational one that is good for flat water paddling on lakes and easy rivers. Its a Palmico 100, and I got a good deal on it over the web by getting it shipped to a local store where I can pick it up soon I hope! Its a plastic boat and only 10ft, but I was able to pick it up with all the gear for just under $500. I only have a 12 ft wall to store it on, so that kind of limited me as well. There is a huge lake about 5 miles from my house where I can plop it in and get some exercise and a nice view. Its our towns water supply so there are no large boats, swiming or jet skis allowed, so its nice and quiet and has lots of wild life, a good portion of it borders the Audobon societys preserve. I cant wait to get up there and paddle around in the mornings. We also plan to do some river and camping trips this summer. Well that about wraps it up, a small book too! Its good to be back and nice to see you all, take care everyone and keep the faith! John