Oh my goodness girl, are you crazy? I was only the hostess, not your swap partner. WHAT A BOX!!!!!!!!!!!! Boy oh boy, did you jam pack this box and spoil me rotten! I received gold candy coins; an assortment of cocoa mixes; jelly belly Christmas mix; chocolate nut fudge; some mini candy canes and a Christmas pencil. There was also a package of pet greens - wheat seed and a dearly depotted (for the serial plant killer), this is too cool, I have never seen anything like this at all. Okay, this should have been enough, but theres more. A wall calendar; a set of Christmas tile coasters in a holder (these are excellent); a snowman candle and the cutest little bear that counts off the days until Christmas (there are 370 days until Christmas -- ARE YOU READY LOL); and the neatest candy stirrers another something I have never seen before; a magnetic santa notepad; two heresy chocolate bars and a set of candy cane lip gloss (which will feed my chapstick addiction). A wonderful keychain with a beautiful biblical verse on the reverse; a little mini game called "lot to love" (and its NOT a weight thang!); a charm bracelet; an issue of birds and blooms magazine; and the most magnificient smelling mason jar candle in the honeysuckle scent. I love it, its burning now - its smell is just so excellent. Im sitting upstairs and its lit sitting on the dining room table and the scent is just permeating the house. Honeysuckle takes me back to my youth and when I opened the jar, I had some fond, fond memories! I also appreciate the mini swiss army type knife that can go on a keychain. I had something very similar to this that broke off maybe not even a month ago and Im lost without it. This is GREAT!!!!! Wow Susann, you outdid yourself. The rules were "a little token to the host". You really put that over the top. This certainly qualifies as a swap box. I must say each and every one of my bloomin friends has been so kind, generous and giving to me as hostess. I feel so blessed and thank God for each of you. I enjoy our conversations and friendships, whether it is online, through mail or by telephone; and I certainly enjoy getting to know each and everyone of you a little more each and every day. You are all very special ladies, with such loving personalities and traits that rank very high in my book, with hearts of gold and green thumbs. It has certainly been my pleasure hosting this months swap but more so for the love, support and friendship you bring to this group. Ive been spoiled rotten by all the wonderful hostess goodies that I have already enjoyed or will enjoy soon or will treasure for a long time to come. Since everyone has received their swap box from their respective partner, THIS SWAP IS OFFICIAL CLOSED. Onward to fruitier things.take it away klick!!!!!!!!!!!!!! with gratitude, maryanne

In the March 2018 Show Us Your Gardens thread I posted about the damage caused by a late winter nor'easter that dumped heavy wet snow on everything in southeast MA. A major casualty was pitch pines which were snapped off with limbs and trunks landing all over the place. In my yard, large pieces of pine landed on an American holly and an osmanthus as well as other plants (pictures in the March thread linked above). The holly was bent over 90 degrees with the trunk snapped but not completely severed. After a lot of work I cleared the pieces of pine off the holly but left a major piece of trunk in place to act as a scaffold. I had to cut about 4 to 5 feet off the top of the holly before I could raise it up and lash it to the pine piece, hoping the splint would recover and feed the remaining holly. Many people offered encouragement and suggestions and I was asked to report back on the fate of the splinted holly. I'm happy to report substantial recovery! This is the other of two Ilex opaca 'Goldie' that I have in my yard. This one was a bit fuller than the damaged one and sustained minor damage with a few branches knocked off. Two pictures from today: 'Goldie' with minimal damage: Berries on the above holly. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ And here is the splinted section from the severely damaged holly with new growth coming up from the bottom.. As expected, the holly sprouted from basal buds. There's some leaf miner damage but I'm not worried about that. The holly also sprouted from below the top section that I had to lop off. Some of the remaining branches on the trunk above the splint survived and have good healthy leaves. And a few of these branches have berries! This holly is a long way from regaining the beauty it had before the nor'easter damage, but it's made a good start. The fallen pine pieces will remain in place for the foreseeable future and the other plants will just grow around them. Oh, and I had removed the other pine branches from the osmanthus and it bloomed this fall. Claire edit note: I just checked the March thread and I realized I had referred to the holly as 'Goldy', but it should have been 'Goldie'.

Lovely snow pictures, NHBabs - that's what New England is supposed to look like in the winter. I see the rhododendron leaves are all curled up in disgust. No snow here and the ground is bare again. This is not unusual for coastal MA and I rely on evergreens, particularly holly, and berries to relieve the relentless brown and black winter view. The winterberry berries are mostly eaten now by the robins. Just a few left and they should go soon. The other day I noticed the robins were gathered on the Ilex crenata shrubs and noshing on those berries. The berries are black so it's not easy to see them - not a problem for birds. The hollies are filling in that corner of the yard nicely. Ilex crenata berries - it helps to squint a little to see them: No one seems to be interested in the Ilex opaca 'Goldie' berries yet. They'll probably last until March or thereabouts. It's hard to see the yellow berries when I photograph the whole tree. I include this picture to show the scale. That tree is getting big! The second one would have been the same size if a major piece of pine hadn't fallen on it a few years ago (it's recovering). A closeup shows the berries well. Cotoneaster and Carolina rose berries are still around. The temperature is about 50 degrees now, no doubt confusing a lot of plants. I have two witch hazels that have developed buds but don't seem to have any intention of flowering yet. Claire - glad not to have to shovel snow but I'd like to see some more consistent weather.

Dee, great photo of the berries on your Viburnum. I can't get a Viburnum to survive for me for nothing. I've had a lot of them, but, they all seem to end up with some kind of bug or disease. I've pulled them all out but one, a Wentworth, that I pruned to the ground 3 years ago hoping that would be the end of the bug that makes a mess of it, but the bug is back. *sigh*. So I am enjoying it as long as I can before the bug makes such a mess I feel I need to cut it back again. Otherwise, it would be a great shrub. It grew fast and was huge even under the dripline of a Maple and in more shade than not. I also have an Aronia 'Brilliantissima' and it's funny but that is the absolute last berry the birds eat. I still have berries in early spring. The first berry to be eaten here is on a Gray Dogwood shrub. It produces little white berries and the robins strip it before August is even over. I'm not all that satisfied with the Aronia either. Mine is not very dense or bushy, it's kind of sparse. And yes, I love the fall color of the leaves, but now that you mention it, they do fall off very fast. The berries are pretty and mine stay on all winter, but because of the sparseness of the branching and foliage, I wouldn't add another one. I really like a vigorous plant. I have a lot of berries on Blue Holly this year and usually the birds seem to eat those gradually over the winter. Do any birds eat Taxus berries? I know they are toxic to dogs and probably people too, I just wondered if any wild animals are able to tolerate them and eat them. I have blueberries and elderberries that get eaten in the summer. And small rose hips on one of the climbing roses which I'm not sure if anything eats those. And that's about it. RTHawk - You are being very smart, to try to keep the deer away to allow the shrubs to establish so they can use them going forward too.