Karen: HID blubs, ok. Good to know. Re: garden hose inside - too funny. Yep, dragged one through the office one day, (from front to back ) - the next weekend, I had a spiget on the back deck. (grin) And shoulda seen the look on his face when I told him I wanted to "water" in the green room, so, not only heated - a drain in the floor that DOESN'T freeze. . .if looks could have killed. . .(grin) 200 x 75? Wow. . .wish I had the space. That's bigger than my lot! (grin) Sorry about the bill for your propane, man that's awful. Putting in a seperate furnace and a/c system for that side of the house. Staring down the barrel of a 15K bill just for my "green room" not including the plumbing. . .man it's a killer. . .all because I have this "jones" to feed. (grin) But he's the one that suggested "sky lites" and I said NO - they leak, not if, it's WHEN. (grin) NO SKY LITES. I'll just use grow lites and misting stations. Purplenana: re loving us. You're right. He shakes his head, sighs, walks away, and just laughs. It is love - they tolerate soooooooo much. . .although, he was just yelling from the kitchen. . ."See? It's a cult! I told you!" (He was laughing though.) He just "helped" me take my brugs back out, the "Arnold Schwarzenegger" of plant moving. Broke off part of a triple "Y" that I was going to send out, ARGH! "I'yyulllllllll heuuullllllllp youuuuuuuuu. Deyuuulllll be fiiiiine. It will beee baaawwwwwwwwck." (sarcastic grin) It's in rooting hormone and soil as per Karen's advice. 3 blooms and 19 leaves. (grin) Told him, I don't need the WWF of plant help! (very big grin) Too funny. Karen, fantastic area. I hope you don't get an early blast. If mine were in the ground, would have had to cut them by now, and then put them in the bubbler.

Think of it as 50:50 in a very broad sense, Alexa. I'll tell you what I do know. Witches' brooms: when seeds are collected you have about 50% chance of getting dwarf's/mini's and the rest will become trees . Usually this is a sign that the broom has been pollinated from larger growing trees or if the witch is living in the host tree, it is being pollinated by the larger host tree. I've grown a substantial amount of seedlings from an Arborvitae called 'Wintergreen'. The bonus for me is I got the seeds from an arboretum full of other selected-cultivars... therethru increasing my chances significantly of variation. I can attest that none of my seedlings look like typical "Arborvitae" seedlings. Not a single one of them..... This regard will hold true if you were to visit any vast collection of cultivated forms of trees and shrubs. My last example is that I grew a little over 100 Japanese maples where the seed came from a garden containing an immense # of cultivars. The seedlings (again, none-_ appeared to be "normal" Japanese maple. I can't speak for the Hosta world but it would seem to me that just getting seeds of the best cultivars - hand crossed with other best-cultivars could bring about astounding results... Dax

I can see all your points, but really MOST of their customers probably aren't rural, and don't have this problem. I'm sure they just aren't aware of how important it can be for those of us in this situation. I emailed Betty, not to have her do anything about my situation, but to let her know that PO Box customers might appreciate a heads-up in the future. They're super-busy right now I'm sure, and I'll bet they just have never thought of how much it could matter to some of us. Incidentally, I had the same thing happen last year with a perennial order from BC. So I knew full well I should ask for a shipping confirmation, I just forgot. I'm just glad that they will ship to a PO Box at all, there are so many companies that just WON'T, I guess because they only ship UPS . . . now that's annoying. "Yeah, for the address, um, tell the guy to take TWP Rd 521 to the W for 12 miles, then turn south, take the first left past the bridge . . ." I swear, the next company that tells me that they won't ship to a PO Box, I'm going to just ask the person on the phone if they'll ship it to me personally, through the mail. I recently had an even bigger package-fiasco with one such company . . . I still don't even know what went wrong, except maybe everything. Ah well, thanks for the support, and I'm glad to see so many of your familiar names still here! Really, though, please don't blame Betty. I can imagine being in her position, and I don't expect she knew this problem was a possibility. Happy gardening, until next time!

thanks everybody. new update: my 7pot flowers have started opening, as have my serrano. I am thrilled. still no open flowers on my ghost though, they keep falling off before opening. why would they do that to me? I take such good care of them! and that's how they repay me.