LOL - it's only "color-coordinated" because I went out and bought a huge bag of 240 of those red solo cups at Costco for transplanting. It was super-cheap, and I plan to reuse them until they fall apart. All the other cups (purple, yellow, and white styrofoam) I just found in my cupboards, desparate for anything to use. The "trays" are old box lids, covered in plastic garbage bags to make them waterproof (I buy the garbage bags at costco too, they're my kitchen bags, and a box lasts me a really long time). The lower shelves (on the ground) are a mess of pots and gallon milk jugs holding water. I also have that heater, two bags of potting soil, and two 10 inch pots with dahlia tubers started in them littering up the floor (not enough light on the center shelves for the dahlias, I didn't think). Needless to say, there's not much room to actually "move" in there, but enough room for me to do what I need to (water and pot things up), if I'm careful. ;-) Once it's too hot for you to keep stuff inside, you can clean everything out, and then have a chance to get organized for next year, right? I'm trying to figure out how to turn this one into a really big dehydrator this summer...

Thanks for getting the joke, gardengal. It was a pleasure to demonstrate that I can troll my own response better than anyone else can. Of course Sequoiadendron is much hardier. But the problem is it is also much more suspectible to disease caused by our muggy summer conditions. If you were to blend the Mason-Dixon line with the new USDA zn 6/zn 7 line, you would get an approximation of the east coast boundary between areas where Sequoia (coastal redwood) and Sequoiadendron could be grown on the east coast. Sequoia south of it, obviously, and Sequoiadendron north of it. Even north of the Mason-Dixon line, the several Sequoiadendron at zn 7 Planting Fields arboretum looked pretty bad. OTOH I'm pretty sure I saw one at a garden in Carlisle, PA, zn 6, that looked reasonably well. Nights there are probably a wee bit cooler, and I suspect you could grow them all the way down to Georgia on the highest mountain tops that stay in the 50s at night. Go too far north though, even zn 7 is still going to be too cold for Sequoias. One supposes that the Polly Hill arboretum, for example, has tried them and they aren't on the plant list for a reason. (still meaning to email them about strange tales of a monkey puzzle that dies back in some years yet persists)

I have searched and searched for the pix of DD's wedding-I have scrapbooked them, so I KNOW they exist...just can't find them. I tried to scan the book she had made, but can't get that to work either. Sigh. The wedding for DD1 is going to be lakeside (did I already tell this?) and much less fancy than her sisters. But a FUN party in any event. We're planning things like lawn Yahtzee, and instead of a guest book, we'll have a 'photobooth' where the guest can write a sentiment on a large card, then have their photo taken. The kids will always be able to put a face to the name. I'm having it catered, it's just so much easier than trying to figure out the logistics of bringing in food. We might do huge bunches of lavender and tiny pots of succulents for the centerpieces. She's bought a bunch of paper lanterns that are battery powered, covered with orange & red cherry blossoms, and we're going to use a lot of bright orange, pink and purple-Indian colors. Her wedding will cost about 1/3 of her sisters, but that is mostly due to the different setting, number of guests and photographer. DD2's wedding had a premier DJ (best money spent EVER), pro photographer, and catering for 125 ppl. We spent a total of maybe $1000 for decor, flowers, favors, etc. Most was all done DIY, but it was fantastic. The owners of the ballroom had asked if they could have pix for their promotional materials! As soon as I can figure out where those pix are, i'll post them. And start posting the ideas we have for this next wedding. Oh, and by the way-that light fixture is hideous, IMHO.

Thanks for all your hard work Karen! Can't wait to read it in its entirety. Jodi-