I'm too far from Illinois but have hosted similar gatherings here in Oregon and been to several in Vancouver BC mostly people who have met on pond forums but we all garden too. It has been very very enjoyable to meet online friends in person. Go for it. :)

I have Nor de crimee,Prudens Purple and Black Prince in the black/purple range. Oh,and black sea man. This is my first time in almost 20 years to grow tomatoes so I have no clue what will produce well. This is totally an experiment to see what does well here on the hot muggy shore.

Sorry I have not responed sooner. I have been away from this forum for a bit. The plants pictured are Giant Zanzibar Castor Bean, Musa Sikkimensis 'darling giant', Mexican Sunflower and some Yellow groove Bamboo hiding in the back. For those I talked to about basjoo bananas, I lost all my potted bananas this winter during a -15f event. The plants just never recovered. The good news is the mother plant and 2 pups over wintered and are starting to send up shoots!!

Wow, thanks everyone for your kind words. I find it so hard to be objective since it is our house, so I really appreciate the positive feedback. Graywings, we're in Cincinnati, OH, not South Dakota. It's a little too cold there for me, too! ;) xamsx, we've discussed taking the evergreen down many times. We'll defiinitely keep it under consideration if we feel we're not getting the showings we want. You mentioned backyard and this house actually doesn't have one. We're bordered on three sides by streets. The backside of our house has a three car garage and a parking pad large enough for three cars. The side yard is very nice, though, and that is what you see in the one shot. Unfortunately we're limited to 15 photos on the listing. Jane, we're on .5 acres, so a nice size lot for an urban neighborhood. deanie1, we've considered rugs many times in the 5 years we've been here for the rooms you mentioned. I personally have decided I don't like rugs under dining tables, but i agree for showing it would be nice to have one. The problem is both those rooms are 19x16, so it's not like we can just go by an 8x10 rug to fill the space. If you have an idea where we could find an inexpensive 12x15 or so rug, let me know! Thanks again everyone! We had our first showing today, keepng fingers crossed that more will follow! cintijen