Evelyn - beautiful plant and great photos! That monster looks like it's an alien creature! The cutting you gave me it doing very well and taking over it's corner. It's gone from 6 inches to several 'tentacles' that are each about 3 feet long - and it's done it in a year! I was hoping for flowers next summer but now that I know yours took 3 years to bloom I'll try to be patient. I have it planted under a palm tree just outside my screened pool area so when it does flower we won't miss it. Thanks for the pictures and for sharing your plant! Kate

Ok, Judy here is a good example of how it works in my garden for late and extra late. I will use Olallie Gardens intros late bloomers as my example. Go down their late catagory and pick ones listed as mid September in their zone. So VT is I think a zone 4. Planted in my garden that mid Sept starting daylily starts mid August. But mid August is late here as regular season stuff is blooming on the 4th of July. So as you bring it south, it starts blooming earlier than the date they list.

Wow, what a guy! We have our very own heroes right here on the forum. I am glad you've made a nice recovery, too! I also had a mastectomy in 2002 and so far, so good. And, yes, Lisa, you are so right, gardening is a marvelous way to experience and get in touch with many living things in nature and all its wonders. Patti, you go girl!! Susan

I just wanted to chime in to say that I've seen pictures of homes with doors and window sashes that are unpainted wood paired with trim work that is painted, and I thought it looked beautiful. Basically, anything that opened/closed/moved was unpainted wood, and the rest was painted. So that's something to consider as an option. I wished I'd thought of that option before we went with all wood trim and doors in our main floor living areas and all painted trim and doors upstairs (bedrooms, bathrooms, and laundry room). We have lots of stained wood (trim, doors, built-ins, etc.) on our main floor, so I understand the challenges of decorating around it and finding colors that work with it. But when you find the right colors to bring out the best in your wood AND give you the vibe you want, it's worth the challenge. There were times (after spending too much time looking at trendy design magazines or web sites) when I second guessed our decision to go with so much wood, but I've come to love it more over the years because of its character and richness. I grew up in a house that had unpainted fir paneled walls in every room (even the bathroom, though the walls in there were varnished), so for a long time I just longed for light, bright, painted walls. After having those for years living on my own, I guess I finally came around to appreciating natural wood again.