Ok, don't lob a snowball at my head but for some reason this year I am not in the whiney pre-spring stage. This winter has seemed to go by fast and while I am of course looking forward to spring, I am not in the least unhappy with winter. We're going through some of our coldest temperatures right now as usual, with overnights well below zero - but I'm ok. What I am most happy about is that suddenly the days seem appreciably longer. I love being able to watch the sunset through the bare trees *from home!* instead of seeing a bit of it as I drive my 40 minute commute home and then have it be darkening as I pull in the drive. Still, a pot of mini roses to fuss with wouldn't be a bad thing at all. I've done that before and ended up with as many as 5 nice little plants that went outdoors in spring to become a pretty border to my front flower bed. Hmmm...I'll have to go shopping after work today. :-)

bbfan10 - other than the heliopsis, your list looks a lot like mine did the first year. My dogwood trees from that year are now just under 30" tall. Most everything sprouted with high germ rates except for columbine. I grew apple and pear last year for a neighbor. This year I'm growing apple, dogwood, Japanese red maple, threadleaf Japanese red maple, beauty bush, red twig dogwood, spirea & St. John's wort in addition to perennials including Baptisia sphaerocarpa 'Screaming Yellow,' white baptisia, pink turtlehead, Japanese anemone, crocosmia 'Lucifer,' hardy geranium & Jacob's ladder, among a long list of others. Glad you enjoy the photos. Posting them always makes me see the garden through others' eyes since I can see all the "areas in need of improvement" & work that needs doing. They are definitely coming along but they want to look like nan6161's garden when they grow up. Mine are still crawling on hands & knees. I guess I'll save the flats for the Spring then for starting my annuals? Why give annuals less soil to grow in than perennials? Annuals are garden workhorses that bloom non-stop from Memorial Day until the first frost and some even beyond that. Alyssum bloomed here until Thanksgiving last year. I winter sowed annual seeds same as for perennials. I don't do a lot of annuals but they develop roots same as perennials. I don't use flats for growing anything from seed now I've learned about winter sowing.

Hi Jane - it's Maureen - you've been helping me with orchids...now maybe i can help you with hibiscus. I have a few tropical hibiscus that i've had for 3 yrs. I still have 3, i did have 5 but 2 of them didn't make it overwintering. But that being said, i bring my plants inside when it gets cold (not yet in my zone) and let them go dormant in my basement....they don't go completely dormant but drop a couple leaves. I water just enough to keep them alive, not too much or they will die. They bloom better each year for me so i would definitely put it in your basement if you can. I get very very little light in my basement and they do fine come spring.

Kathleen, you found some very pretty new dishes. I'd really like a closer look at the black and white ones--looks like fancy circles but I can't tell exactly. Your white dishes sure coordinate well with so many other dishes, don't they? I really love your fruit plates--so colorful. You know the candle you already have could go well with them--just change out the lemons to pears and it would be a perfect match. Even your yellow placemats work. Lots of possibilities. Food looks yummy. For your photography of it, don't you need to add a sprig of green, or a curled slice of fruit? You know, those fancy touches like those cooking shows do. And for it, guess you don't even need to show a whole place setting (their loss), but just a solid background that really makes the plate and the food "pop" in the picture. Can you tell I've watched too many cooking shows? LOL Glad you are having fun. Can't wait for the rest of your goodies for this week. Luvs