Pam: . Initially, I thought it was an incredible hybrid... then I decided it must be dyed through its circulatory system... upon closer inspection, I noticed there were some leaf-shaped non-blue bract sections and a bit of overspray on the leaves. I concluded it was a white poinsettia variety that had been sprayed by a fine blue dye mist. I considered it beautiful and it lasted several months. I think I paid $10 for it at Target. I saw some blue and purple ones at an upscale florist the other day but the price was too silly to tempt me. Calliope: While the water-meter-inspector dude from the village was here last week and I was chatting him up as he worked, Izzy fetched up what I assumed to be a half-eaten catnip mouse to me... but what turned out to be a semi-dessicated, heavily masticated real mousie (or parts of one anyway) that had died of apparently natural causes in our basement. Don't ask me how or why, but I maintained a calm conversation with the inspector without revealing my horrific discovery, whispered to Izzy to fetch up the other pieces, calmly tossed them, washed my hands, and re-joined him in the utility room as though nothing had happened. I don't know if I was more horrified or amused... or why I felt I needed to hide the presence of ex-mice from the utility dude... Blech! As for Christmas preparedness... I pick and choose what I do. I'm waaaaay too susceptible to holiday rage otherwise. I made a simple wreath for my front door with sugared fruits, gold and pearl "berries," a pretty bow, and pheasant feathers... and that is the sum of our holiday decorations. I have bought numerous gifts for my niece and nephews, my parents, and a couple small but meaningful ones for my siblings. I made several batches of bourbon balls, and intend to give a container of them to each of my coworkers. I finished a batch of Crema di Limoncello and Crema di Orangecello (from the recipes posted here) and bottled them up tonight. I will give a bottle of each, along with a container of bourbon balls, and jars of the stuff I canned this fall to several of my neighbors. Steve told me he wants to baked stuff with me, so we'll do that this weekend, and freeze it for our upcoming trip. Other than that, I have three parties to attend, and then we're off to ND to visit my family (including the CT residents) for over a week. I have to be very careful not to overdue stuff or it triggers insane anxiety in me. There's lots I choose to not do during the holidays so I can enjoy it. I'm about as done as I'm going to be.

tjicken~ I had no clue which one you were talking about and had to go look it up. LOL! (tags have been lost over the years.) Wow! It will be great if it ever blooms. He's had it about 5 yrs now with no blooms. He liked it because of the color and shape of the needles. Thank you for sharing the name. Oh and I found today the comon name is Arizona hedge hog..lol! I'm in Tucson, Arizona. :) puglvr1 and emerald.. Thank you! Yes he is proud and has to take care of his plants on his own when he asks me to buy them! He grows sunflowers and a few others types in the summer, and helps with all garden chores in general. It started when he was 3. What little boy doesn't like dirt! LOL! But I think mom got more excited over finding worms than he did. LOL! And now that he's older, I have to keep them a secret or his dad and him would be heading to the lake. :) Emerald~ thank you! I tried that and the glue just didnt want to give... it ended up taking all the needles with it. It was on pretty thick. The plant is o.k. though. I do have one small fish hook type that blooms each summer. Just showed up in my yard next to my barrel cactus.

Hi Sharon, Definitely poinsettia, and usually the "classic red" ones (though any color is pretty). I usually keep my plant around, put it outside in summer, then forget to water it and just chuck it(even though usually it can be revived and sprout new leaves). My Christmas cactus doesn't bloom because it's in the computer room where there is alot of artificial light. One year, when I was living in an apartment (and had a great windowsill for plants) I did an experiment. If I put my Christmas cactus in the middle of the room where it got some natural light and lots of artificial light, it didn't bloom. If I put my Christmas Cactus on the windowsill where it got some natural sunlight during the day, it would bloom even though at night it got some artificial light. I think the natural sunlight it got during the day helped it determine that day lengths were getting shorter. I really have to "revive" one of my cactus, however. It's from a cutting from a plant that my grandma had (sort of passed down through the family through the years) but very rootbound and never blooms. Glen

Oh, Brenda, those dianthus are such a soft pretty color! And you have them potted so beautifully. Thanks for posting them. ~Betsy