Well, I did try a couple! I wanted them lightweight, so I cut pieces of styrofoam(from a pkg), into circles, covered them in muslin circle, hot glued edges together, then took strips of checkered homespun(red) and brought it around in 2 directions to make the stripe..turned out good...did it before i went to work yesterday, so not done yet.....didnt get it tea stained yet.....will try to post pics if and when i get them completed thanks for your help

I know of a place where you can get exactly what you want discounted 25% ... but you would have to do some legwork. While I was home for Thanksgiving in Kentucky, I visited a lovely decor/gift shop that I visit annually and to my dismay they are going out of business. Everything in the store is 25% off. They had a lots of the xtra large ornaments in red and lime green, as well as oversized gold trumpets and violins, etc. They had even decorated an area exactly as you describe in your message - a thick garland draped over a long window dripping with the oversized red/green, and there was another tree in the store with a "music" theme that held all the oversized gold instruments. I think with the discount most of the pieces were about $10. There was plenty left when I visited there Saturday. As for the legwork...well, you would need to look up the store and call them and arrange for shipping, etc. It is "Especially Yours" in Pikeville, Ky. I know that seems pretty odd, but I just couldn't resist letting you know. Good luck!

I wholeheartedly second Soilonthebrain about Medicine Garden, its like tossing your money into a black hole. ------------------- The Elder tree rhyme that I know goes: Old Lady of the Elder trees Please give me some of your wood, When I grow into a tree You may have some of mine. ------------------ I think Mandrakes are fun and interesting, I've been growing them for several years. The "cheapest" place to Mandragora officinarum/ officinalis/ officinale (which are all the same thing) that I've found is: Horizon Herbs (USA) http://www.chatlink.com/~herbseed/ Mandrake is US$9.95 per packet of 13 seeds, although the postage is a killer. The usual germination rate is less than 10% Another seed source is B & T World Seeds (France) about 10 seeds for EU$18.00 http://www.b-and-t-world-seeds.com/homepage.htm Womandrake - Mandragora autumnalis sometimes M. vernalis Apparently has the same medicinal properties, has a slightly higher germination rate up to 15-20% and is much easier to grow. Seeds are cheaper - US$4.95 for 20 seeds at Horizon herbs. B & T World Seeds 1 packet (I don't know how many this contains) for EU$11.00 or 1g seed EU$33.00 Mandragora autumnalis plants are available from All Rare Herbs - at $19.95 (I think) email - mcplant@hotmail.com Remember if you buy seeds overseas to check with ICON. ICON is the Australian Quarantine Inspection Services import conditions database. http://www.aqis.gov.au/icon32/asp/ex_querycontent.asp Man and womandrakes are loved and eaten by slugs, snails, caterpillars, white fly and red spider mites here in Adelaide. They are VERY prone to root rot (even with our 410mm annual rainfall), usually from the crown down, if keep too damp or in too heavy a soil mix. They will also drop their leaves and go dormant if kept too dry. Yes, this is a poisonous plant, it is also rare and endangered in its natural habitat, and while I don't recommend that you grow it in your veggie patch, to make a rule that it should not be grown because part of it is toxic would consign many plants commonly grown to oblivion eg daffodils (poisonous bulbs  cardiac glycosides), wisteria (seeds  convulsive poison), oleander (all of which poisonous  something like 10 leaves will kill a horse) and there are many others. This is not including plants like foxglove (Digitalis spp) and Monkshood (Aconitum spp) which are common cottage garden plants, both of which can make you ill just by handling them under perfect conditions. The Solanaceae family has many toxic plants like henbane, belladonna and the like but also many that are not, tomatoes are only poisonous if you eat the leaves, potatoes if you eat the berries or green tubers, eggplant, capsicum not at all as far as I know, and people only think they've been poisoned by chillies. Of the other genus in this family Lycium sp are used in Chinese medicine, Pituri was traded across the continent by the Aborigines, and death by petunias seems...

Lilium formosanum is a great lily! They have a few clumps at the Botanic Gardens in Hobart, which I visited yesterday. They aren't flowering yet but they are sooooo tall, taller then me. I'm going to go back in a few weeks and take some photos, they are very beautiful. Lauren