Hey Ken, Talk about "eye candy" how about that recent purchase that you came across? That's some good stuff!!! LOL!!! Thanks for the email!! Hope you received my reply!!! Statenislandpalm, Sorry that I missed your post... Thank you so much for the great compliments!!! You are right on with the Jungle Golf site at the beach!!! They probably were the very first to plant Sabals here in VB. I even called them along time ago when I first thought about trying to grow them here at my house... We used to wrap them in black plastic to winter them over!! LOL...we sure have come along way from the early eighties (late 70's) when they first planted them!! I'm glad you had a great visit here in Vb...Pungo Palms has some great things!! Looks like you had a car full of plants and trees when you had to head back north!! The pictures on the other post of your plants and trees look great!! Have a great summer everyone!!! P.S. I did manage to capture some of that rain from the last storm!!! Hopefully that liquid gold will help my plants like it does for the guys in the midwest!! Big day coming soon Don!!! : ) Laura in VB

That must have been fun to walk around a place so close to home and check out all the cool palms.As far as what you said about the protection methods,I think people would be surprised at the difference putting a clear frame of any type over palms or cactus makes.There are quite a few cactus that grow in places that go below freezing,and even below zero in many cases,and that includes several of the Trachycarpus palms,what a difference keeping cold rain, dew and frost off of fronds and petioles in winter as the water makes its way into the crowns and refreezes over and over again.Nice pictures!I made my "final" two purchases to fill in my last couple of spots I had open for this year,a sabal birminghamn and a echinocereus caespitosus for the cactus garden.Good luck with yours!Post some pics when you get everything planted

Hello everyone!!! Hi Greg!!! I have always enjoyed taking pics...I would love to take a class sometime...but I just love looking at things from a different angle!!! I really miss the old cameras...35mm where I could manually work the camera..I do love the digital cameras..but I feel that I had more control from the old timers!!! "trying not to show my age!!!" LOL... Jim..I would love to see pics of those icicles...I find them quite fascinating...I especially love the ice covered tree too! There is a pic when I sign onto the photobucket page...there is an ice covered tree that look like yours..check it out!!! It;s a beauty...but yours was more massive than this one... ncpalm...I wish that it will be 2 months...more like 3 for us...The sabals are very hardy!!! But I'm not going to take a chance on the weight on the fronds...My hubby helps alot...when he needs help tying up the boat during hurricanes...I don't complain...because I know that he will help and paybacks are great!!! LOL... Take care everyone...Happy New Year!!! Laura in VB

I live in one of those areas hit by the tornado. I was returning from taking my GD to the dentist. In a snap, the traffic got jammed so I took an exit to avoid what I thought was a wreck. Turns out that several others had the same idea and we had to skirt trees in the road and saw cars with windows blow out. It was raining hard and the wind was strong and I had seen dark clouds but did not actually see the funnel. I immediately realized that we had just barely avoided getting directly hit by the tornado. The worst hit area was near the hospital which is at that exit. There were sirens and emergency vehicles everywhere and emergency people on the run. GD and I were caught in the traffic for over two hours then had to take a very long way home because of downed trees and power lines everywhere. It was so quiet other than sirens and so unreal but it was very real. What should have been a 45 minute trip home turned into four hours. Thus far, 200 injured, one death and huge amount without a home, many businessses completely demolished. Neighborhoods are being evacuated, school closed tomorrow and the area is now in a state of emergency. Never been that close to a tornado before, hurricanes many,many times but there is hardly any time to react to a tornado. I feel bad for those hurt by all of this but I was ever so glad to get home to a standing house.