Yeah, remember '94 or whenever it was.....there was actually a day here in Appleton that the high temp was something like 20 below zero! That's Farenheit for you limeys and Europeans. Was talking to a nice young couple from Germany a couple weeks ago when I was down in SW Florida. When asked if we here in WI get "below zero", I knew he meant below the freezing point of water, lol! Straightened out that point of understanding. This indeed could be the year of weeding out some questionable plants, my present observations of these C. lawsoniana not withstanding. Up in that same location I have a few Green Giants which, to date, have been utterly fit for life there. Also, a couple dawn redwoods. I'd not be surprised to see any of these plants succumb. Oh well, was never a high-percentage gamble. Then again, who knows? +oM

Britt, That's a lot of wonderful news and some great photos. I'm glad all your hard work, attention to detail and research is paying off. There are not too many years when we have March temperatures running 20 degrees above average for such a long period of time and are able to plant our warm-season crops as early as we can this year. I've been enjoying every bit of the warm temps too and planting like a maniac, trying to do all I can before next week's heavy rains make the garden too muddy to walk into. Just remember that you'll need to be able to cover up and protect your warm-season plants if a late freeze or even a chance of frost hits. It is still a little on the cool side for blackeyed peas. Southern peas dislike any cool weather and we are supposed to be quite a bit cooler next week after the big rain system hits. You can direct-sow southern peas in the ground when the air temps have remained 65 degrees or higher at planting depth for three consecutive days. The assumption is that once the soil temps get that warm, they stay there, but that's not necessarily true. At this time of year, with a freakishly early warm-up, we may see soil temps on something of a roller coaster for a few more weeks. My soil has just hit the right pea-planting temperature this week here in southern OK and I haven't planted peas yet because I expect the soil temp will drop back into the 50s next week. I generally like to wait until soil temps are near 70 before sowing southern pea seed. They'll emerge in soil at 65 degrees, but will lack vigor and will be prone to disease if the soil temps go back down lower than 65. Last year's early warm-up was hard on the cool-season peas, and mine stalled for a while during a warm spell early in the season and then they resumed growth and began producing after it cooled off a little. They haven't been too happy with temps in the 80s this week either and it is sort of like last spring all over again, but I expect next week's rain and cooler temps will please them a great deal. I think it likely that your cannas will be just fine. They bloom very well for me with only morning sun through about 11 a.m. and no direct sun after that. They are mostly in dappled shade even in the morning hours, except for the first hour or two after sunrise. They've bloomed well in their present location for about 10 years. Dawn

Thanks grandms & mikie. Actually, when I turned on the computer today there was a notice from MS to DL IE7. Must be huge, it took 5 min. with cable connection. I like the ability to make print bigger and smaller. That always worked well on GW and email but didn't work on most sites. But now EVERYTHING is too big. This post, that looked normal last night now has me scrolling back and forth to read! Hoping someone can lead me to a setting to change? Or maybe I should start a new thread? Sandy

I solved this problem by putting a pair of metal heron statues in the water of the pond. The real herons think that my pond is already "owned" by those two fake ones, so they fly on to find another spot. (One year I removed the fake ones early, and soon it was occupied by real ones -- eating my Koi fish!)