Donna. thanks but there is a problem with its blooms, which is that the rod does not grow high enough. Dan I would love to have that kind, in fact most of the hippe I have are from seed, grow it is very nice from the beginning. I have several species but few pictures of flowers, here are some. crinum

Hi, I just had to butt into this thread and defend the astonishing variety of plants that can be grown in Southern California's zone 9. We can and do successfully grow lilacs here, as well as fruits of all varieties requiring winter chill. I grow six foot tall delphiumiums, foxgloves, and towering hollyhocks. In fact, I can think of no popular perennials that cannot be successfully grown here. These grow handsomely amidst the bananas, palms, philodendrons and other tropicals we can also grow here. There are thousands of acres in California that are planted to perennials for the booming cut-flower trade, and they are a breathtaking sight to drive through. It is in Florida and the deep south that many popular perennial cannot be grown, and it is chiefly because the nights are too hot. In California, our nights drop into the 60's all summer, with rare exceptions, and plants love this. Also, the majority of annuals are winter blooming here because our winter climate is much like an English summer. We have warm sunny days, and cool, dewy nights. We start "biennials" in fall, and they are in bloom six months later. Our perennials tend to bloom earlier here, with peak bloom beginning in late April. Believe me, Monet himself couldn't paint a lovlier perennial garden than you can find here in California. Sorry if I sound like a Subtropical loyalist, but that is exactly what I am:-)

Susan, Our biggest adventure is just getting out of the driveway. For the last four nights, including last night, our overnight lows have dropped to 16, 14, 16 and 16 degrees. So, all afternoon long the snow and ice melt and form huge puddles in the driveway and then at night they refreeze into what is essentially a 300-foot long skating rink. It takes that refrozen ice/snowmelt half a day to start melting again and then it forms huge puddles that refreeze again. Once you start driving down our driveway, you can't use the brakes or you'll slide and it is nerve-wracking. We have it good compared to many though, and I am not complaining, just saying that snow falling is pretty and after it falls it then is an unwelcome guest that just won't leave! Last night while we were eating dinner, our firefighters got paged out to a housefire...the 2nd one here in the last 5 or 6 days, the third one in the last month and the 4th one since November 1st. That's a lot of housefires for a county as thinly populated as ours, and I feel for the families who have had their homes damaged or destroyed. Their situation reminds me that a little ice on the ground is just an inconvenience, and not a tragedy, in the overall scheme of things. I'm going to make suet this afternoon. I hope y'all have fun on your shopping experience and be careful on the ice.....you don't want to hurt your back! Next year if I start hoping for a white Christmas, I want y'all to slap me upside the head and remind me "been there, done that, and it was a mess". OK? Dawn

That is VERY interesting. And such an unexpected Xmas theme. I really like the bedroom mantle. Thank you for sharing such a unique idea. Sure fits with our Xmas in July we talked about a few weeks ago. Of course so far, no one has done a Xmas table to show. LOL. So you get the points for sure! hugs, Karen