Hi karen: I'm interested in your: Pennisetum ÂNational Arboretum I have my trade list posted, plus I have the following in small amounts: Hosta Seiboldiana Hollyhock Creme de Cassis dwarf impatiens balsima "Tom Thumb" Morning Glory: Mount Fuji Pink Morning Glory: some japanese MG which blooms a solid hot pink. I think this might be a cross between a "regular" MG. Pls. let me know if you'd like to trade, GGG Here is a link that might be useful: GGG's web exchange page

Isn't Mother Nature wonderful? Generous to a fault. Always some surprises up her sleeves no matter how long you've been gardening. Healing you when your heart hurts. And... occasionally... leveling the playing field when someone thought they were 'winning'. Vacuuming up hh seeds! I had to smile, I think you really meant that! Well, ya gotta do what ya gotta do. It'd be nice if we could eat all we yank out but we can't. I swear - I think I'm gonna dream of you in the garden with the shop vac tonight, hee hee! GH-

Hi MeMo! what a cool website. i love bugs. the alder beetle I found doesnt look anything like the one you found. what we call a japanese beetle here doesnt look like the one on this site at all! isn't that wierd? we call the green beetles with black spots a japanese beetle which could be totally wrong! I found my alder beetle on Gardensafari.com under leaf beetles. you would probably like that site also. i bookmarked your bug site. they are so cool. Tanya

I was trying to figure out why my three-month old hollyhocks were so massive. They are already 2 1/2 feet high and very bushy, with leaves sprawling everywhere and so dense that they are shading the lower leaves. I've got the world's most horrible soil -- 65% heavy clay (drains fine though due to the rest being sand) -- and I'd amended the bed with a natural compost before planting it, but otherwise, no fertilizer added. Water it lightly every two days. I'd offer a photo but it's dark, but I just wanted to share that they were so massive that I was a bit concerned! Especially since the leaves were so heavy already that I wound up staking them with sticks all around. So apparently they like really heavy clay. They only get 3-4 hours of mid-noon sun and that's it. But they look like Jurassic Park. This is some odd soil. Everything grows incredibly large that I plant in it. I think it most be very nitrogen rich, perhaps. But I still couldn't square the hollyhocks I've seen in photos with the ones I have growing. Quite sure they'll get awful rust though in winter and I'll have to put some other flower in front of them. Eager to see them bloom next year. They are black and a nice sized bed of them with 15 or so plants. Likely I'll have to thin them to fewer.