>>For some reason, I mistakenly believed the Seattle-area winters were milder than they apparently are Most people think the other way around--that it must be about as cold as northern Maine because of the latitude. The mountain ranges block most of the coldest interior weather, and the water offshore is warmed by the Japan current. My lows are probably higher than yours BUT...of longer duration! You probably get frosty nights followed by warmish days. We can get a week and a half of freezing weather here. The real problem tho is that the peak of our rainy season is late autumn early winter, meaning that a lot of plants have tissues that are saturated with water when the cold hits. I did have a look at Mr. Irvine's website. He's got descriptions of a lot of the newer hybrids, which is how I found it when I googled their names. You're right; the climate here is close enough to that of the UK that anything that does there does well here, and vice versa, with a few exceptions. My climate is slightly warmer but also slightly less equable, and the rainfall here is very seasonal, like a cooler version of a Mediterranean climate. I read your bio. Fruit and nut trees, eh? Well, I live in the city but I have a good-sized lot as city lots go, and I have squeezed in a mini-orchard. I'd love to grow nuts, too, but those are usually big trees, except for the Hazelnut/Filbert. It would be fun to grow a Gevuina--Chilean substitute for Macadamia nuts (same family, but a hardier Chilean version)--but I can't find any cultivars selected for big nuts and the default is hardly as big as a cherry pit. My fruits are Peaches, a Nectarine, an Apricot, a sweet Cherry, Strawberries (including a wild native, F. chilensis), Raspberries, Blackberries (including "Marionberries"), Black Currents, Gooseberries, and Arctic Beauty type Kiwis (they're better than the fuzzy kiwis, which also grow here). I technically have a "Pineapple Guava" (Feijoa sellowiana aka Acca sellowiana) but it got a bad case of Phythophthora last year and might not live much longer. Ugni molinae ("Strawberry Guavas" aka "Chilean Guavas") also got the Phyto and will need to be replaced. I think Passionfruits are probably a dream up here, but we'll see what I can come up with. P. carulea produces its fruits with abandon but they don't have enough pulp to bother with. Yes, it's too bad about the Tacsonias because I've heard they have the tastiest fruits. Judging from the posts I take it that a lot of the contributors here are amateur lepidoterists (sp?). I'm too far north for those kinds of butterflies; all we get here are common ones like Swallowtails, Angel Zephyrwings, and Cosmopolitans. Hmmm...I followed one link to another link and discovered we have another common interest. Pleased to "virtually meet" you.

It *was* a great swap. :-) I had many plants to put in the ground on Sunday! And those lovely ginger lilies -- oh my gosh, what great plants! I have one blooming in the house right now. I plan to give one of them to my mom-in-law -- she will love it in her new solarium. Thanks so much to Renee and Jan for their hard work. I thought the program was excellent and showed a lot of hard work had gone into it. Really great. And to all my Garden web buddies who made it -- thank you for the plants, the great food, and most of all, the fellowship. :-) I'll be back next spring, no doubt trying to unload all the plants I neglected to dig up before the Fall swap. With that, I would just like to close with a few things: Pat -- The Chaste tree is Vitex Agnus Castus. :-) Lessons Learned: * Not bringing the hubby's new truck == VERY good thing. As it was I looked like a florist driving back to Madison in my poor little Honda :-) * You can NOT trust Brug fanatics alone with your bundles. When I got home, every bag I unloaded had little sticks tucked in them by the Brug fairy! LOL * The best part of the swap is the amazing, friendly people (but this wasn't something new I learned -- I already knew that. ) Bless you all! Photos from the UK trip will be coming soon, I promise.

I love hearing more about everyone. Here is my story: I'm in NY, fiance is in PA and I agreed to move there only if we found the perfect place to live. We originally intended to buy, but we couldn't find anything. We saw a house that had a view we adored but we hated the house, and a bunch of houses we loved but we hated the lots. We found a lot next door to the house that had the view we loved, and got into contact with the builder who built the houses we loved. We made an offer on the lot but the people were insane. They raised the asking price of the lot by $10,000 over what it was listed at (it had sat on the market for almost two years already) and they demanded closing in 30 days with no contingencies for inspection of property, etc. We said no. They came back and agreed that they'd be more reasonable. We made another offer. Our realtor drew up a contract and I went back home. We got a call that they had given back our "signed" contract with all our contingencies crossed off and the price an extra $10,000 over the original extra $10,000. We walked away from that- nuts! Went up there again the next week. We looked at EVERY LOT within our price range. The realtor encouraged us to go and see a lot that was above our budget that had been on the market for over a year (The neighborhood is on the site of where this old historic hotel sat, and there are pretty extensive deed restrictions regarding house size, finishes, etc. which scared a lot of people away). We went and immediately fell absolutely in love. The lot is 5 acres and in the middle of a neighborhood with 200 acres of land, only 54 of which will be developed and only a total of 16 families/houses. There is a pond across from our house and the back of our house overlooks woods and a horse farm in the distance. There is a YMCA camp very nearby and we have access to the trails through an easement in our back yard. There are chainsaw carvings at random throughout the neighborhood and natural springs and old spring houses. It is really, really idyllic! We made an offer on the land without even walking up the hill because it was so steep and wooded (contingent on builder approval though!) They came back with a counter offer that was only $3000 lower than their starting point but then they countered their own counter. When we first went with the builder, we were so scared because he was walking up this hill saying that there was no way anyone could build on such a steep hill. But, then it flattened out and made this perfect spot for the house. And there we were... We broke ground in October. Scheduled to be done in December. Pond that we can see from the front of the house: Random wood carving at the corner of the street, decorated for the holidays: See our steep hill! Our land the very first day we saw it:

If it is sending up root suckers you better get rid of it, flowering or not. i started a Frederick edulis from seed and it flowered in less than one year. you will have to cut at ground level and herbicide it. As it is, it will take a few years to get rid of it. i made the mistake once.