Hi Desirai, With respect to your zinnia that died unexpectedly, I have had that same experience from time to time. I usually "perform an autopsy" to see what went wrong, and I have found that usually the problem is a bacterial stem infection that started from a small wound in the stem near the soil line. In a few cases, I have found that a stem borer larva entered the stem, so I split the stem to find the borer (and killed it). Fortunately this sudden death problem is fairly rare. "Do you think I could plant now and get some growth before winter? " I do. Zinnias usually form a main stem flower bud in about 6 weeks from the time they come up. Green seeds are slower to germinate because their living seed coat is impermeable to water, but the coat will die and become permeable in about two weeks. So your green seeds could be starting to bloom in about 8 weeks from the time you plant them. That's about 2 months, so they should be in "full bloom" in about 3 months, which would be some time in September. I don't know when you can expect a first killing freeze, but since you are Zone 7b I would guess that your first killing freeze would be in late October or possibly in November. In other words, if you plant your green seeds now there is a good chance that you will be able to see their blooms, pollinate or cross-pollinate those blooms, and harvest viable green seeds from them before your growing season ends. As I mentioned before, you can speed up the germination of green seeds by "breaching" the seed coat to allow immediate contact with soil water with the embryo inside. I use an X-Acto knife to cut the seed coat to do the breaching. My favorite method is to cut the petal off of the seed and then pull open at least one of the "side wings" of the seed. I prefer to use a curved blade like in the picture. First I cut the petal away, closer to the seed embryo than in the picture. Then I place the knife into the edge of the seed so as to just "miss" the embryo (grin, X-ray eyes could help here) and, letting the knife blade anchor the seed, I use my fingernail to pull the seed a little ways from the blade. The knife blade holds the side wing stationary and my fingernail pulls the seed open a bit. It takes a bit of practice to get the hang of it. Any technique that gives the embryo access to water works. If you should accidentally cut the root tip off of the embryo then it can't grow, but if you accidentally nick the cotyledon part of the embryo, it probably will grow with a small missing part of the cotyledons. Whatever you do, be careful not to cut yourself with the X-Acto blade. It is razor sharp. And work on a surface that you don't mind nicking. A cutting board, plastic or wood, would work. I use an inexpensive folding TV tray from Walmart that has a plastic surface. It cost less than a good cutting board, and is handy for a lot of things. If you have questions about any of this, don't hesitate to ask. ZM

Hi Alex, " I can't even get into the garden! There's a heavy pile of snow/ice gluing the gate shut. " Clearly you have a much more arctic climate in Michigan than we here in Kansas. The top few inches of our soil have thawed, although it is still hard frozen a few inches down. I am hoping that our soil will thaw some more this week, because there is an area of my garden that has a lot of rocks in it that I want to rake out before planting it. Right now the rake teeth just sort of "bounce off" of that still frozen layer. Incidentally, you have mastered the "blockquote" thing quite well. There are a couple more HTML things that are easy to use, and handy sometimes. They are "b" for bold and "u" for underline. In these examples, as before, I will use square brackets to indicate the HTML, and let angle brackets, which you don't see, cause the actual execution of the HTML. Sometimes, [b] if you want something to stand out a bit [/b], you can use the "b" command, and [u]if you really want to emphasize something[/u], you can use "u" to underline it. You can [b][u]combine the two[/u][/b] if you want, or [I][b][u]use all three [/u][/b][/I]. There is another HTML command, the "font" command, that is somewhat more complicated, and somewhat more capable. You can use it to [font color="red"] change the color of your text,[/font] but I don't usually have a need for colored text. Incidentally, there are an amazing number of colors at your disposal. I just picked red because it is a simple example. You may or may not have noticed that I used the "font" command to change the typeface of this paragraph, up to this point. I used the [font face="Georgia"] command. Most, perhaps all, browsers let you set a default typeface, and this forum itself probably controls its fonts as well. I sometimes enjoy diddling with details, but I hope the phrase "the Devil is in the details" doesn't apply to me. Back to the weather, we are having a nice sunshiny day here. I know your weather will improve and sometime this Summer, when I am sweltering in three-digit heat, you will be much more comfortable. More later. ZM

Laura, I've been meaning to write ingredients to rid Mites. Sorry, I didn't get to it sooner. Everytime I was about to, something came up. :) I've used this recepie so many years, I no longer measure. But, adding a little more of this or that won't harm a plant. That is, all but Fish Emulsion. I'll get to that. The night before spraying, I fill (about 3/4ths full) a 16-20oz spray bottle w/warm water and add 1-2 cloves of peeled garlic. Following Day: 1/4-1/2 teas Hot Pepper. 2-4 drops Dish Soap, 'Not Dawn.' 1/4-1/2 teas orange/lemon/lime or grapefruit juice. As a preventative or to kill Scale, and some other types of insects, 1 capful of Fish Emulsion. Mix thoroughly before spraying plants. Spray under and upper leaves, stems, and trunk. This mix can be kept for weeks, but shake the bottle so ingreients are even. Fish Emulsion: To prevent/kill Scale, in addition to above ingrdients, I add 1 cap of Fish Emulsion. WARNINGS: Leftover insecticide w/FE should be discarded. Fish Emulsion has a fishy odor. The smell can last 1-3 days. Although I'm not thrilled about the odor, I'd rather deal with it a few days, than find Scale on my plants. Since FE is organic there's no need to worry about inhaling or pores. It's totally harmless, won't burn roots/leaves. BTW, use a new or well-made spray bottle. Old bottles, especially when used frequently, don't work as well, or can drip. I used to use peeled citrus rind, but the peels clogged up spray bottle. In its place I use citrus juice. Mostly Lemon. The lemon that comes in a yellow plastic, lemon-shaped container. Preferably unsweetened. The same thing happened w/garlic. I used to chop 1-2 cloves, but pieces clogged sprayer top. BTW, before adding garlic to water, I squeeze each clove in water bottle so liquid blends in. Toss in squeezed garlic cloves, too. Hot Pepper. I've been using Cayenne Pepper powder, but any hot pepper will do...the hotter the better. These ingredients deter and kill Mites. Mites dislike the scents, so they steer clear. Eish Emulsion prevents and kills Scale. A friend who owns a Citrus nursery in Fl told me they use FE on ALL their citrus to keep Scale away. Not long after she told me about FE, I ordered an Olive Tree. It was delivered at night. I set it between two Citrus trees. While misting, I noticed a brown lump on a leaf. Taking a closer look, the entire Olive was Scale-packed. Not to mention the closest citrus branches. I phoned her to get the exact Fish Emulsion dossge. The Olive and Citrus were first isolated then sprayed. Within two days, all signs of Scale were gone. Since spraying, none of my plants had this awful bug. Ever. This happened, I believe, 1999. That's it. Spraying every other week should keep Mites at bay. (without FE) BTW, Fish Emulsion is an organic fertilizer. I spray plants w/the complete mixture before coming indoors for winter. Not only to keep insects away, but a last foliar feeding. If a plant is budding or flowering, don't spray, or refrain from hitting buds and flowers. Anyway, this recepie works for my plants. Considering the amount of plants I have, and each from diferent nurseries, I either have a Plant Angel or plain lucky..lol. Give it a try..can't hurt. I avoid chemicals, 'except a few fertilizers.' Let me know if you decide to give it a try and how it works..Toni

I get the same thing from the Georgia clay soil here if left on my skin for too long. When I was a child in suburbs of Chicago I once got hives from playing in the snow. My mom rushed me to the doctor. They said I had an allergy to snow. I know that sounds crazy, but later I chalked it up to it being snow made of acid rain. When I moved to Georgia I get the same reaction to the clay soils. So my theory is I have a PH allergy to the acidicness of the clay soil. I just came inside after it happening now. It a weird way it’s good to hear others have this strange allergy. I was edging with an edger that has a blade cutter on it not the plastic string. It spit up some soil on my sweat covered leg and clung there. After a while it felt like I was standing in a fire ant mound covered in bites.