I've been researching on-line, and it appears that some people can be allergic to oils or sap from vegetable leaves, including zuch and squash-family (also tomato and carrot). The rash or irritation tends to be worse where your skin actually comes in contact with the plant because the little spiky bristles on the plant break the skin and the toxins get in, but apparently it is possible to also spread it when you get particles on your hands and touch other places on your body, like with poison ivy. Long sleeves/pants, gloves, and a bandana around your neck help, and the "wash gently afterwards" is good too. I still get some irritation even through long sleeves and pants, but I'm not wearing super thick material in the summer heat. But what we're experiencing is worse that what other people (who aren't allergic/sensitive to the plants) experience from the bristles scraping them.

We are not alone!!! I got it too and at both my email addresses. I had changed my email to my netscape one because I like the netscape email better than hotmail. So that means the addresses have been harvested for some time!! I am not really put off by this either. It is not often you get mail regarding an interest. Some of its looks interesting to me but my cash resources will not be spent on botanical literature since most of what I need I just print off the net since it is for my own reference. I much rather buy plants instead. Too bad they were not offerring unique Chinese ferns etc. for sale and distributed like the way Wistuba carns are distributed in the USA!! Now that might be interesting!!

At least I get a good laugh. Must be nice to be so perfect and to be able to tell others what they do wrong.

Lately, the pop up ads and sidebars have increased. There was contact info to ask GW on one of the threads about Houzz. I used Ad Blocker, but it has to be refreshed often. I realized that posts with words appearing green are search terms that trigger an automated progr...m to attach ads on unrelated topics. I usually try to go back to change it. When posting, the word AV is safe to use, but not the word pl...nt. We will have to chat in code to avoid triggering pop-ups. But with automated word correction features, that is not easy. Joanne This post was edited by fortyseven on Fri, Feb 6, 15 at 19:13