A lot of this threads remedies are not immediately available. At the onset of symptomatic tingling, to stop any development of an unsightly blister & obviate the need for scabbing that will take weeks to fall away there is a really easy trick. Buy a product for gum pain, like tube sold for denture irritation (these are a heavy colloid designed to stay in place) & apply (dab it on, do not rub it in) this directly on the lips where feel a herpes cold sore is brewing. Repeat as often as deem needed, throughout your waking hours, for as many days as feel threatened. If you do not test scrape your lips with your teeth, or probe lick the spot with your tongue, or scrub wash spot, or hot compress the site the treated cold sore will NOT develop - unless you stupidly dehydrate the site from excess direct sun exposure, thereby promoting the site's skin to crack. These tubes for denture pain are way cheaper than any products touted just for labial herpes. The active ingredient, 10% benzocaine, is a local anesthetic that keeps you from fretting the site into a full blown outbreak. When you use this & let the tingling site alone it will still threaten to get worse, but in reality the bump will dry out un-noticed by anyone but you. This drying up is not so much the lip's meaty tissue as it is the virus & auto-immune response factors being kept to a minimum inside the flesh. Keep the benzocaine tube capped & you can use it again for years. It is also very convenient to take with you so can re-apply throughout the day. It is a heavy cream & people might notice the white daubed on your lip - be resolute & don't rub it in (remember, roughing up the site will make the outbreak course unstoppable). It is my experience that this simple remedy also makes the repeat intervals of outbreak less frequent.

Susan, Please don't worry about Russian sage. Next fall swap is there so probably I can get it from you. It was my mistake that i didn't try to look in the holding area racks instead tried to go through the easiest way and contacted people who brought plants for me and they guided me to find the plants. I already planted iberis and am very happy that i got it from you. Linnea, here is the info about Lemon grass. http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/herbs/msg04154629653.html I read so far that it likes very sunny location and moist soil. It makes good tea and it taste very good. One thing i noted that the leaves which gets more older don't give any flavour. So you need to use the leaves before start yellowing. It might grow may be 2-3 ft in our zone 5. It will not survive during winter. You might try to overwinter it. You can find more links by doing google search. I had one somebody sent me last year it grew very well and was in pot. During winter i brought it inside and it was growing fine but i thought to put it in a bigger pot and pulled it out. It was a big struggle to release it's roots from plastic pot. It was totally root bound. I don't know what went wrong but after this it died and still no sign of any growth. Not sure if it is dead permenantly. You can get lemon grass in spanish stores easily. I bought some and they rooted very easily. I have planted one in the ground. I have still to see how it does in the ground. I am not thinking to plant it in pots as it is easily available in store. I am so glad i could plant most of the plants brought from swap yesterday. Today it's raining very hard so hope it will all settle down well.

You need to buy a hunting license to herp in Kansas. If you want more info, email me @ kcsnakeman@yahoo.com chad

There are localized exceptions to this but generally, the further west you go through the middle band of the state, the more gprs likelihood is-- Kansas, though further than you plan to travel is where emoryi mecca begins. There may be other sure bets in small pockets closer to St. Louis. Calligaster and phaeogaster shouldn't be a problem over there-- the eastern component to this forum will likely be able to point you to them. Good luck and welcome Matt.