Hi Alex, " I can't even get into the garden! There's a heavy pile of snow/ice gluing the gate shut. " Clearly you have a much more arctic climate in Michigan than we here in Kansas. The top few inches of our soil have thawed, although it is still hard frozen a few inches down. I am hoping that our soil will thaw some more this week, because there is an area of my garden that has a lot of rocks in it that I want to rake out before planting it. Right now the rake teeth just sort of "bounce off" of that still frozen layer. Incidentally, you have mastered the "blockquote" thing quite well. There are a couple more HTML things that are easy to use, and handy sometimes. They are "b" for bold and "u" for underline. In these examples, as before, I will use square brackets to indicate the HTML, and let angle brackets, which you don't see, cause the actual execution of the HTML. Sometimes, [b] if you want something to stand out a bit [/b], you can use the "b" command, and [u]if you really want to emphasize something[/u], you can use "u" to underline it. You can [b][u]combine the two[/u][/b] if you want, or [I][b][u]use all three [/u][/b][/I]. There is another HTML command, the "font" command, that is somewhat more complicated, and somewhat more capable. You can use it to [font color="red"] change the color of your text,[/font] but I don't usually have a need for colored text. Incidentally, there are an amazing number of colors at your disposal. I just picked red because it is a simple example. You may or may not have noticed that I used the "font" command to change the typeface of this paragraph, up to this point. I used the [font face="Georgia"] command. Most, perhaps all, browsers let you set a default typeface, and this forum itself probably controls its fonts as well. I sometimes enjoy diddling with details, but I hope the phrase "the Devil is in the details" doesn't apply to me. Back to the weather, we are having a nice sunshiny day here. I know your weather will improve and sometime this Summer, when I am sweltering in three-digit heat, you will be much more comfortable. More later. ZM

Hi, I had a similiar experience this year, but I bought my seeds off EBAY and they were supposed to be California Giant which should be about 4 feet tall with 5-6 inch blooms. Instead they are about 18 inches tall with small flowers. Very disapointing as I put them in the back of the garden since I thought they would be bigger. I just figured the seller sent me the wrong seeds but who knows? I bought some other zinnia seeds from Park Seed and most of them turned out as expected (Candy mix, Zahara, and whirlygigs) but Queen Red Lime looks nothing like the picture in the catalog and I would go so far as to say they are the ugliest flower I have ever seen! Linda

Interesting thread. I have grown "serrano" a few times and have never had fuzzy plants like that. Perhaps there are several subtypes under the name serrano. The peppers on mine look like the photos I have seen here and there - shaped like bullets. In some ways they are shaped like Jalapenos but not as wide at the stem end. More slender the whole length, thus the "bullet" shape. Ain't diversity grand! (and confusing, and maddening, etc.)

That's so funny! That time I thought you were just being silly! Good news at the dentist always makes for a better day! Yay! Lisa - I'm so sorry that I've been remiss in taking time to post on the board that I received my prize package from you. I sent you an e-mail when it arrived on Monday. I hope you received it. To everyone else - Lisa sent me the nicest box of prizes from last month's games. For some game when I was the next person to post (it seems like we were waiting for Tracy to materialize but I don't remember why) she sent me some nice gloves and plant markers. For finding that tiny Christmas tree, thereby putting an end to her 'I Spy' game, she sent me a plant off of my want list. She chose to give me Phlox 'Orange Perfection'. I was very excited to get this, as I've never seen it in my area. And, just because she's so sweet, Lisa sent me another start from Larry's iris collection! I'm a lucky girl!