R_N: Bare root trees and shrubs are not necessarily supposed to show up at the time of last frost (it's ~ 6 weeks before that here). It's fine to plant a dormant plant/tree now even with temps going well below freezing. But not if they've already begun putting out leaves and shoots. This is about the time I generally receive and plant bare root fruit trees, and it has worked out well, as almost all of them were received still dormant. The problem with these blackberries is they have started growing already. Something that the local berry plants are not doing yet; they barely have started swelling their buds.

I'm bringing Tall Bearded Iris - 4 varieties many Lily turf, Liriope muscari many Rosa "Archduke Charles" 1 Rosa "Comte de Chambord" 1 Rosa "Teddy Bear" (miniature) 1 Agave desmettiana 1 potted and a few pups Seedlings of Abutilon palmeri, Indian Mallow 5 or 6 Lysiloma, desert fern 1 or 2 Cordia parvifolia, Littleleaf cordia 6 Schinus molle, California pepper tree 1 Cordia boissieri, Texas olive 1 Maybe something I can't think of right now. I'm also bringing stuff for specific people.

Well its turning out better now.The bride to be and everyone saids.Its a rehersal dinner and that means dinner.Not drinking.So im fine with that. Even with 65 possibly showing up.The extras are out of state guests coming in the day before the wedding.I can live with that and does seem like the thing to do.As long as im not getting a bar tab im ahead of the game. I do not want to sound like a Cheap Skate that I am LOL.Or that I have something against my daughter inlaw to be or her family.Because I do not they are the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.My son did a good job picking her.They went all thru school together since the second grade.They have been together 6 years now.She went with him to Arkansas and Texas when he was in the USAF.She worked hard at both locations.She also went thru the same thing we did while he was in Iraq.Her family let us know personaly that they were praying for him.That meant alot to us. They have now moved back home and are doing well.They bought there first home 1 1/2 years ago and Yes I would say the Honeymoon is pretty much over LOL.They are now ready to start a family. We are happy for them and are looking forward to Grandkids. These wedding are stressful but I think everything is now falling into place. Now if we just did not have a few no RSVP responses. Then theres my handful of relatives brother included who is to backwards to go.Does not like crowds even if it was a small wedding.My sister inlaw who can not go anyplace without insulting someone.My other brother who is going but refuses to dress up.If it were not for that everything would be looking good.

Maybe subconsciously I WAS trying to be snide..I dunno...I do know that it is rude to show up without an RSVP, and this was not a party for toddlers, my daughter turned EIGHT and most of the attendees were the same age. Right up until the day before the party, my daughter kept asking the non-RSVP'ers if they were coming to her party, and she kept getting a lot of "I don't knows". Not really sure I understand that one....do parents (or children) hold out until the last second to see if their child has a better offer for that day? I do know that I purposely mailed off these invitations (instead of having my daughter hand them out), and that in addition to the invitation itself there was a seperate piece of paper inside the invitation that was addressed to the parents of the child. I had written sort of a "disclaimer" stating that this was a Halloween party and that we had done our house up like a haunted house and that it would be scary. I stated that parents were welcome and encouraged to stay and that if they thought their child would be frightened that I would please request that they stay. I put the RSVP information on the invitation itself, as well as in the parent note, along with a statement that I needed a firm headcount as of 10/27 (the party was the 29th). I gave my home phone number, cell phone number and email address for RSVP options. I did have a couple of people RSVP on the 28th, which was not a problem, I was able to make up a couple of extra goody bags. The cost of the goody bags was not the issue here, although each goody bag did come to about 7 or 8 dollars x 24 (the number of children who RSVP'ed). The real issue here was that after going to all the trouble of asking (almost begging) for an accurate headcount, that I still had people show up who had not RSVP'ed. None of the 3 non-RSVP'ers seemed disturbed that they hadn't received a goody bag (all the kids got little trinkets and candy from the games), so the non-RSVP'ers did not walk away completely empty handed. They were included in all of the games and festivities and were not slighted at all from the party fun. The ONLY consequence of not RSVPing was the lack of a goody bag. I WAS not prepared with the extras, I thought I had covered that base pretty well (didn't think I needed any), but when the doorbell rang and there were kids standing there that I had not planned for, it was a little too late and I was pretty busy running a party for almost 30 kids to worry too much about it. Bottom line, my opinion is......If you don't RSVP, don't expect the host or hostess to be prepared for you or your child when you show up unexpectedly. Teach your chldren about RSVP etiquette as well as good manners and common courtesy. All of these things are important and kids might as well start learning them at a fairly young age. Thank you to all of you who understood that I wasn't intentionally being rude nor trying to slight any of the children. For those of you who don't agree, that's ok, we're all entitled to our opinions....this is just mine. jiggreen