Floramakros: I _DO_ win because no one here, including you, has offered a single substantive refutation of anything I've posted on the issues initially raised in the Pinus thread and later those separated into another thread by me to keep things organized. (Except Resin on the very minor issue of where to collect the best C. florida for NW Europe; and because I'm a reasonable, not highly defensive person, I agreed he probably had a good point at least w/respect to the UK proper.) You seem to consider an ad hominem attacks on others - most recently calling me an "idiot" - to be a valid way to argue. I have a BS degree in biology from a top 50 rated US university and worked in one of the country's leading toxicological research labs after college. (but since moved into another field, since having to wear a ventilator mask at work can be a major downer!) Is that my qualification for being an idiot? Is that why my arguments are routinely debunked by other people (not!)? Look, I've been here for 7 years longer than you, and I was actually on gardenweb since its inception under another user name. We've had troublemakers come and go. Guess who's looking like the troublemaker recently? I came into the Pinus thread having seen your earlier posts and having thought of you as another positive contributor. I'm sure you forget but I responded to one of your earlier posts about Pinus strobus in California, in the hopes of it being helpful _to you_. I see you insult the original poster ("we get a troll"), and then get into a tussle with Salicaceae/Jason. I TOTALLY ignore this drama initially, and comment only on the validity of your argument about the theoretical plant SCPalmnut could purchase. (post 23) I point out quite reasonably that a clone in the nursery trade doesn't constitute "rare DNA". By definition, nurseries and arboreta don't sell out their last mother plant of anything when running a grafting operation. That's why they've grafted it. We reasonably assume that SCPalmnut was not going to visit the grove in Mexico and smuggle out cones of an endangered species! (not that they aren't already being "wasted": "Like other pinyons, the seeds are edible; this represents a threat to the species' survival, as the majority of the seeds produced are harvested, limiting natural regeneration of the pines." per wikipedia) Remarkably, it's always been obvious that I agreed in general with you discouraging SCPalmnut, I just dared to attempt to make the slightest correction to why you were criticizing him. To respond to a post that completely ignored drama, guess who turned on the drama: "So we should stop giving our infants vaccinations because there's a chance they'll be hit and killed by a school bus at the age of 10 anyway...that's seems like pretty twisted logic..." I took this affront _to reason_* as an invitation to put you in your place. For someone like me, that meant using logic to debunk your faulty rhetoric, not tell you you needed therapy. This is where I made my one and only mistake - by continuing at all. I probably should have realized no one was taking your silly vindictiveness seriously, but I didn't. And yes, I got a little high handed in my response. (_I_ can recognize when I'm taking things a little too far, unlike some people: HAHAHAHAHA) But there's a big difference between saying "HAHA" in a post and suggesting the other person has mental issues ("Definitely seek therapy" as you said to me): instead of actually trying to respond to anything in my original posts, since this point in the narrative you have done nothing but attempt to insult me and accuse me of lying. You were apparently aghast no one else was buying it: "Please someone else say something, sheesh". History repeated itself as I point out the plant may not be able to grow in SC or FL, but is not extremely sensitive to humidity if McPotts (how fitting) had grown it in a pot in Virginia. Believe me, I've had protea seedlings last from January to June, and literally DIE a couple days after the first humid, sultry Virginia evening. I know all about the problem of maritime plants in humid climates. Again, for whatever reason this perfectly valid contribution to the thread completely enraged you. If there's anything wrong with this precis of the current state of affairs, do feel free to let us know. I will no longer comment on "L'affaire maximartinezii" itself, although of course I will defend myself from further ad hominem attacks in this and any other thread. I'm willing to move on in the sense that I will see you again as any other poster who was making and hopefully will continue to make positive contributions. (You notice I didn't triumphantly cheer your announcement of departure; would have you done the same if I had said I was leaving for good?) Let's just say we had a "misunderstanding" and call it a day. * - i.e., not to _me_. At no point have I responded to your attacks on me by attacking you in the same way; the statement I made about an "elephant in the room" was quite clearly a rhetorical device and not some kind of threat, as you kept trying to make it out to be in an attempt to drum up nonexistent sympathy for your side of the argument. This post was edited by davidrt28 on Sun, Dec 2, 12 at 8:50

I had a couple of pink flamingos in my yard for awhile. I named them 'Tongue' and 'Cheek'. They finally died. I think of,embarrassment.

Hi Caterinms, I sort of agree with brickeye in the respect of the 'One Solid' wall enclosure is a bad thing in a flood area. I believe the reason is that your foundation may float in a bad storm. Imagine your basement as a large bathtub. You have walls and a concrete slab. I agree that it will not be 100% water tight and some water will seap in. The failure mode is if the water rises sufficiently fast such that your basement become bouyant enough to shift. That will essentially take out your foundation. I think it may be worth looking into housing building techniques in Dubai. The artificual island homes build on reclaimed land have water tables just below the surface, lots of sea water pressures. The technology I used is Dutch which allows for basements below the water line. Granted however that there are fewer storms of Katrina magnitude in that area of the world. In your situation what would it take to add the extra four feet of concrete height? Also could you try and divide your basements into smaller enclosed chunks? This will add cost, the question is how much? Also I guess is will it look different to what you have already in mind. 4 Feet of fill is alot of fill dirt, and trucking will be expensive. Just an idea, say you did not fill. Your house would not be anchored, and your door will be say 4 feet above grade. For aestetics, you would like your house anchored to grade. Maybe there is a deck, porch, or other structure that may facilite this? Difficult to suggest in that I cannot see your picture for some reason. From the height requirments, it is almost as if the best solution for your location would be to build the house on some sort of stilts, almost like a pier. Then you would not have to bring in all that fill. Stilt houses are quite nice. One example is the Farnsworth house by Miles van der Rohe. This is sort of late into the process to think about a redesign, but I think some sort of redesign is required in that I think the local inspectors are not going to sign off as is. For piece of mind, I think building it higher is better. Also you would get a better view. Warmest regard, Mike.

I'm z7a, 5700 ft high desert. Most of my roses are in raised beds and containers. I have lots of mature trees and the soil was covered with black plastic and 8 inches of rock for 62 years. I can't even image what would happen to a poor rose if I just plunked it down into the poor ground level soil filled with mature tree roots. Oh my. A mature tree is an wonderful investment that somebody else made a long time ago that you get to have. I would never cut down a mature tree just for roses. And I am crazy about roses. I'd just focus on the magic of shade and shadow and do roses elsewhere. One of the reasons I started focusing more on containers rather than just going without where I couldn't do a raised bed, it was from eating at a favorite cafe that has absolutely magical outside dining. It was the way pots of plants, even potted trees, were fitted within stone walls and pergolas and mature trees and string lights. And I realized how fantastic container gardens can look. I notice when I'm in someone's beautiful garden that my favorite spots are the ones where both ground plantings and container plants are combined. I love pots. I even have a large climbing rose growing in a container. I cut out the bottom of the pot so it's open to the ground and filled it with amended/enhanced native soil. I just add compost/composted manure on top every year. Also I line the interior of my pots to stop root circling, which I sometimes think is the "secret sauce" to container gardening. And of course if the pot bottom is cut out, you create a kind of hybrid pot/raised bed environment. When there's a will, there's a way. I'm originally from a climate and topography that's perfect for roses, and while I love where I'm living now, I absolutely sometimes miss the ideal growing conditions, where roses can grow like weeds. But my spouse always says "Oh please, ANYBODY can grow roses there...you're something special, here. " Haha! As far as a continual blooming rose, the closest for me is a polyantha "Ellen Poulsen". It's a blooming machine with very little rest between flushes. After that I would say "Sexy Sexy" is my quickest rebloomer. The miniatures are a whole different league, the turnaround can be days instead of weeks. When you have enough roses, there is always something in bloom anyway and the anticipation for the next flush can be wonderful. Actually, I just now realized, Bonica is without a doubt the closest I've ever experienced as continual blooming. It always seems to have blooms on it. I forgot about Bonica! Sorry, Bonica, I do love you. The only caveat I have about raised beds is if you build them within a trees drip line, that sometimes trees can be sensitive to the extra soil on top of their feeder roots and may possibly decline.