Fruit- MSU (southwest area of the state) had this posted a week ago: -------------- "Peaches moved through bloom quickly last weekend. Bloom is ending with fruit in the shuck in many orchards. There was a good peach bloom in parts of Berrien County and some growers are blossom thinning where bloom is heavy. Areas where the winter lows did not fall much below -13 degrees Fahrenheit have a good crop, -15 F have a light crop of flowers often in the tops of the trees, and areas where the temperatures fell below -17 F have few if any blooms." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- If she's determined to have peaches, then go for it. They'll work in Wisconsin, but view them as an annual and know that any winter, any one nite and they'll be toast. At least for me in my yard, I'm done with peaches. I've dug out 3 peaches so far this spring and plan on removing the last 2 this fall. My view after this winter is apricots are a touch hardier then sweet cherries (at least Lapins), and maybe a touch less hardy then Japanese plums (at least Satsuma)...but all 3 are very close and all 3 did flower, although super light (Satsuma probably had the most flowers per branch). Lapins sweet cherry opened exactly 4 blooms over the weekend AFTER the tree had leafed out. I'd suggest Tomcot apricot. You could also try a hybrid plum if you want something very hardy, plus they are pretty trees and smell wonderful for about a week every spring. You could also try a Japanese plum or even a sweet cherry, brown rot is a beast around here with our wet/cool springs.

Thank you, Marie!! Just finished moving as many little trees as i could into the greenhouse. Tied the big Plumeria to the deck rails and watered the containers three times today so they will be extra heavy.... I hope it isn't as bad as they are saying... It's so hard to figure out what trees go inside and the others that have to stay outside. :-( I was thinking of you when I was watering the adeniums .. I know the wind and rain will ruin the ones that are open... Your post about the rain played in my mind... Just as I write this, I'm watching the weather channel... I think i will head outside and do more.. Argh!!! Thanks for your concern... Laura

Frankly, I'd rather be abducted by faeries..)) with the opportunity to come back of course I think..we're not built to be overstimulated like we're now.. we're also not built to be extremely understimulated. Boredom inspires creativity; it's healthy to be bored from time to time..you start thinking, imagining, noticing details..but the extreme lack of stimulus can push one to madness. It just rarely happens; but it's a known thing. The other extreme though, being constantly bombarded by information, can very easily bring on anxiety etc We always filter of course ..otherwise would be impossible to handle it...only the tip of the iceberg of information we get is accessible to us, which is a pity but also a blessing..but I really think that what happens now is majorly overwhelming. Most people are always online, always, at least seemingly, within reach..me, I at least don't have iPhone etc(for which I get constantly reprimanded by friends and family..I'm constantly trying to explain myself and they just don't seem to get it) DD says: -Mom, but if somebody sends you something, or remarks on something, and it's not important, you can just ignore it, you know? No, I don't know. Isn't it rude, to ignore someone? Who doesn't deserve it, who probably waits for some sort of reaction, even minimal one, some acknowlegement? I'd be struggling for my mental survival.. I know it might be really, really useful sometimes..but what with in between these sometimes?.. And if something/somebody is not that important, why to have this constant access to each other? Here, it's different..people write, you have a choice to write or not. There, it seems to me it's my choice is either to say something or to forever hold my peace lol

My sister became a lawyer in the early 1970s, and she had to put up with a lot because she was a woman. Men in the law offices only wanted women to be eye-candy secretaries, whether they were competent or not (most were not), and it irritated my sister that she could not hire a secretary based on qualifications. In the mid 70s, she moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas to teach law at the University of Arkansas, and that was worse than Texas. If she had moved to California like I did, it would have been easier for her. In 1972, my congressional representative was Barbara Jordan, and I considered her to be another trailblazer. I saw her at political rallies in Herman Park, across the street from where I lived in 1972.