This is really fascinating stuff. I looked up colchocine and while it's typically used to treat gout, there are folk in the plant research area that are using it to create chlorophyll mutations, which I suppose is where the variegation comes in to play. It would be curious to find out if that's where some other non-species type variegated plants are coming from. Interest, really interesting. That also means (to me) that it's perfectly acceptable to create a hybrid whose total is greater than (or possibly less than) than the sum of the "named" parents. What I mean by this is that in it's (the hybrid's) current form, it's DNA would not match exactly those of the parents cuz someone mucked with it! Therefore, my next question, though somewhat philosophical-but also serious-is: what's the difference between hybridizing two NOIDs into a "named" plant, and radically altering the DNA of an offspring of "named" parents? Perhaps because one could possibly repeat the "mucking with DNA" portion of the "named" hybrid, but I will tell you in truth-without extremely sophisticated equipment (mega-software and mega-computing power), it's not that simple and is more like winning the lottery if it works. You might come pretty close, but not necessarily exact. Or perhaps that the "mucked with (MW)" hybrid will yield consistent behavior in physical aspects-and any abnormality would be put down as an environmental issue for a particular plant (and it could be BOTH!). If I were to be a purist in this respect, I'd want DNA evidence that the offspring of the of the MW hybrid exactly matched that of the parent MW. Of course I could digress on what defines the term "exactly" but I'll spare you my engineering rhetoric as you're probably seeing where I'm going with this. Now someone mentioned the name "DuPont" and indeed, they would have such software and computing power-if we're talking about the major chemical manufacturer. But it's still past even the more sophisticated hybridizers (unless they've got an agreement with someone like DuPont). That brings me to the question of how AVSA would know-and what kind of proof they would ask for... But of course, I'll certainly abide by the rules! And maybe later down the road, I'll get some of that colchocine and toss in some radiation to make my own super-hybrid! :-)) What an incredible discussion! Thoughts in my head still meandering- Hoping I'm not offending anyone with this: I really don't mean to. Thanks so much! Best, Judy This post was edited by judyj on Thu, Aug 28, 14 at 21:47

I got 3" pots of celosia, alyssum, coleus, and iris(don't know if they are Dutch or Bearded) from a landscaper friend of mine and all are growing healthy. Here are my other plants: two lilacs - one died, the other growing good and healthy S facing fence Celosia pulled when they died but wow they are beauties so I will plant them again White alyssum has a nice scent which I can't describe, the purple one has none. Will someone please tell me how to propagate them. They are planted on my north facing wall. Iris flowered last spring hoping they will flower again next year. My favorite is clematis as soon as the one I planted in the fall of 2004 showed the most beautiful blooms I had ever seen. So this year I planted more and have 44 planted in my 800 or so sq. ft. of garden with a few more coming this spring. 3 bush and 3 tree peonies - the trees all bloomed, but none of the bushes bloom at all. Rose of Sharon standard form on container growing good and bloomed all summer in direct sunlight. Tulips and daffodils all rotted last 2004 (heavy rain on clay soil) so the replacements were planted this fall so I hope to see some blooms this spring. I now have a raised garden because nothing seems to grow on our clay soil. Fraxinus Americana and Fraxinus Pennsylvanica are planted in my front lawn - mostly clay but it now has a drain system. What are my chances that they will not die as we are having lots of rain again this year? Any advice or suggestions will be greatly appreciated especially plants good for clay soil as my north facing wall only has a 6 inch raised bed. This is celosia: This is a clematis named 'Bees Jubilee'

For some reason your "search" isn't clickable, Lizzy. Not sure why--it looks like it should have worked to me! Here's how I do it--see if this makes sense to you! ~ a href= insert URL ~ insert description */a* Replace the two "~" with and replace the two "*" with Then where it says "insert URL" paste in whatever URL you want to link to, and where it says "insert description" type in whatever description you want to use. So, starting with the above code, if I do this: ~a href= http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/rmgard/msg0900324011862.html?14&rnd=Xf8i0 ~ Plant Marker Thread! */a* and replace the two ~ and the two * it will show up in the post as: Plant Marker Thread! I can't remember all that html code stuff so I just keep a copy of what I pasted above (WITH the , which are what makes the computer recognize it as a link) on a Word document and when I want to imbed a link I copy it and replace the URL and the descriptions with whatever I want. That's the brain-dead way to do it for the Intellectually Challenged! But I use copy/paste links all the time since it's quicker! And with the links you did in your post above, if I highlight them, then right click on them, I can click either open or open in a new window without actually copying and pasting them into anything. I don't know for sure if you can do that with all browsers--I use Safari. The clothespin idea you linked above is kind of cute, but that seems like it would be even more expensive than most of the "real" tags you can buy, and I don't see how you could reuse them since you're "permanently" writing on them--unless you use them for the same thing every year. And, like you already said, the rest look pretty time consuming. The bead one looks like it would be a great project with kids for folks who garden with their kids. Skybird

So...want to bump this to say that, according to a thread on the groups dot io rhododendron forum, Rarefind has been bought by the manager and her husband, and they are fixing the place up and intend to keep what's left of the display plants. This is very good news and I wish them the best. I feel like we on the east coast certainly deserve a quality 'destination' rhododendron nursery. They can be very satisfactory garden plants if their needs are respected. (Although it's worth saying that, based on my visits over the years, at least 60% of the display gardens as of their peak in 2009, when Hank died, are gone. And so a problem is going to be, how they source plants now if the mother plant was sold off, destroyed, or - I wouldn't rule out the possibility in some cases - stolen at some point in the recent years of disarray. Also, what made the original Rarefind special was having experts and hybridizers like Jerry and Ron working on-site. If they just try to sell wholesale liners that people can buy at any other garden center or big box, I wonder how they are going to distinguish themselves. I already talked to the new owner, the last time I was there in early summer 2019 IIRC, about the benefits of offering grafted rhododendron plants. She seemed to at least grasp the concept, so maybe that's a possibility)