Nice very very nice!!! I got about 6 lill broad leaf D. Capensis growing in my lill "propegation chamber", there is also one big mouth flytrap that worked out from a leaf tugging (I must take some pics for you guys) My typical capensis flowered and produced a mass of seeds, I put these in my chamber on damp peat which is heated and sits under lights. Im hoping that within a few weeks I see many Capensis sprouting. Cheers Sheldon

Lynn, I see that you and I still like many of the same tomatoes. LOL I think you will like Jubilee and Jaunne Flammee'. Both are really great performers in our heat, but your heat probably is worse than ours. Heatwave is iffy. It does produce in the July and August heat but the flavor is a little lacking (but you know that I say that based on my "heirloom-preferring" tastebuds). In your soil and your growing conditions, it may taste better than it did in my soil and growing conditions. I do think Heat Wave II tasted better to me than the original Heat Wave. Brandy, Sorry if I confused you by referring to seeds sown directly into the ground as wintersown. On GardenWeb, winter sown does refer to seeds sown in containers and exposed to the cold temps. To me, though, anything I plant in the winter in wintersown, which probably would drive the people on the wintersowing forum nuts! LOL If you want a good explanation of wintersowing, go to the wintersowing forum here at GardenWeband read Trudi's FAQ. It is very informative. I sow larkspur, poppies, etc. into the ground anytime between November and February, depending on when I get around to it. This seeds will sprout in the cold and form tiny ground-hugging rosettes. You won't see much vertical growth, but they are making roots all that time and, when the spring conditions are right, they start to grow like crazy. (Lots of cool season weeds, by the way, grow exactly the same way....germinating in fall or winter's cooler weather and flying under the radar until spring). Some plants don't like to be transplanted, and for me, poppies and larkspur are two of those. (I have transplanted poppies before, but they aren't crazy about it because they have long taproots.) So, wintersowing them in containers doesn't work because they get mad when you transplant them into the ground. As far as the purple coneflowers and hollyhocks....I tried numerous times to start them indoors under lights. I was able to do it with the hollyhocks pretty easily, but the coneflowers just didn't want to sprout. Yet, they would reseed readily in my garden. So, I wintersowed some a couple of years ago and had great results. As for the hollyhocks, there is no reason to take up a lot of space indoors under lights because I can direct sow them into the ground (if it is not a rainy winter) or in flats. They transplant easily and are pretty cold hardy. I seem to get higher germination rates with the ones sown outside than I do with the ones sowed inside. I love hollyhocks and have them every year. However, if a really, really wet rainy year, the seed often rots before it can germinate because I have horrible, slow-draining red clay soil. Your problem with hollyhocks last year probably had more to do with the excessively wet weather, the lack of sunshine as it seemed to stay cloudy FOREVER, and the late cold spells. Those three conditions caused lots of problems with plants here that are usually pretty easy to grow. Between "the cold" and "the wet", a lot of roots were stunted and the plants just didn't grow. I noticed this weekend that hollyhocks are already sprouted in my garden. They are small and low to the ground, with 2 or 3 leaves about the size of a nickle or so. You could direct sow hollyhocks in the ground now or wintersow some in a flat or other container. My main challenge with wintersowing is that the cats like to lay on any flat I plant anything in, even if I have lids on the flats! The dogs, of course, like to walk on the containers, and the wild things, like racoons and possums, like to paw through the soil looking for whatever. Also, if I am not careful, the wind carries them all away, even when I think I have them in places where they are sheltered from the wind. Dawn

Debbie, I am so sorry for your loss, you loved your Al so much and you had done so much to make his life bearable with all his health problems, you are a wonderful person and a perfect wife to Al, he must have loved you so much too. I think it is absolutely disgusting that people would say that you are young enough to get another man, that is such a cruel thing to say to someone who just lost the love of their life. Yes, we are happy that our loved one isn't suffering any more but we still wish that they hadn't had to die for them to lose their pain. I hold onto the faith that I will see my darling husband in Heaven when I get there. I am glad that you have your children, they are a great source of comfort but the pain of the loss is excrutiating.There are a lot of things you have to take care of after a death and it can take months to get it all done but take your time. The best piece of advice I got from everyone was don't rush into anything, take you time and make sure the decision is right for you before you go ahead. My husband died three months ago and I still haven't taken his shirts out of the closet, I will soon, but when the time is right for me. The memorial by his apple tree sounds like the perfect thing and he will be smiling and saying "this is beautiful Debbie". God Bless you and your family, I wish you well. Mav. PS>If you can, find a bereavement group in you area, maybe the church or the hospital, I did and it has been a great source of comfort.

Thank you so much, everyone, what a bunch of ego-boosters you all are! Honestly, joining a quilt along was the only way for me to go, it was inspiring and getting further instructions on a weekly basis was perfect, enough time to get the assignment done and then more time leftover to get excited about the next bit to do. If left on my own, I tend to lose interest. And when everyone posts photos of their work, it's inspiring and informative, to see what fabrics they're using and what I liked and didn't like about them. The trouble is, though- I tend to want to copy 3 or 4 of them and I just don't need a bunch of quilts! And the main reason I didn't give up on the lemonade quilt is that I had cut up 40 fat quarters and I didn't want to waste $100 worth of good fabric! I'm making all kinds of things out of the strips- Pity Potholders, Scrappy Neck Wrappies, cat collars, a cat blanket, etc. lol I'm trying to recoup some of my losses, 'cause I'm so mad at myself! Biwako- Nosey Parker looks less than white when she's on the quilt, but if she lays in just the right spot, you can't even see her. lol And she is one of the reasons I'll never be able to use black sashing in anything I make, darn it! White cat hairs on quilts- not pretty!