Thumbs up: Removing truly invasive, non-native plants (japanse honeysuckle for instance.) Thumbs up: Using plants that (once established) can get by (most years) on whatever rain falls. Thumbs up: Plants that provide food and shelter for birds--and realizing that snakes and hawks gotta eat too. (One of my neighbors asked me if I'd figured out a way to keep the resident hawk from eating the birds who came to my feeders (I've never seen this happen.) Same neighbor was horrified when she learned that Fred the Black Snake had gotten the second round of cardinal nestlings that were in my Rose bush. Nature at it's finest! Thumbs down: Rubber mulch (except in a playground situation)and synthetic pinestraw. Thumbs down: Neighbors who ask me to design THEIR gardens...just becasue mine "looks so good." I could be flattered, but-- 1) I garden by "feel"--my designs are the product of trial, error, plant obsession, plantwalking, and some great guidance from THIS group. 2) I actually TAKE CARE of my garden. Neighbors in question will not. 3) My garden is built around serious hardscape--it provides the structure for what I plunk in place. The yards in question have little-to-no hardscape. melanie

It does work with the white paper. Still looking for a white umbrella to try Rick's approach. I've copied the posts into this thread. Julia Posted by tweetypye z8/sc AL (My Page) on Sat, May 16, 09 at 20:34 Let me tell you what works for me most of the time. If you give your camera something totally white to focus on, you'll be surprised how true the dl's colors will be. I take a plain sheet of printer paper out with me and hold it next to the bloom and let the camera focus in on the paper and the bloom, then remove the paper from the view but leave the camera focused and snap the shot. Sounds complicated but it's really not hard to do at all. Give it a try and see what ya'll think. :) Jan Posted by maxbaerhems Z6b Pa (My Page) on Sat, May 16, 09 at 22:09 Holding a small White umbrella over the bloom(s), between the Sun and the bloom will allow your light meter to set itself correctly for your point and shoot.

Hi All, I am more of a "lurker" here but really wanted to comment about the Green Thumb Festival this past week end. I am a vendor (not plants) and travel all over the state to a lot of the plant sales for my business. Out of all of them, I have to say Green Thumb is in my top three picks for shows, if not usually my number one show for the season. I strongly disagree with the statement that most of the plant material there was "common" and could be easlier purchased for less money at the big box stores. Yes, there was, and always will be, let's call it general/generic plants, at the show. A huge part of the customer base calls for that. I was only able to socialize and walk around Sunday morning, and have to say that even then, there was a ton of dif plants that you would be hard pressed to find outside a very good nursery, if even then. What about the Japanese hollyhocks in dif colors?, All the dif irises, the Grand Duke Jasmine I purchased (and he sold out both Saturday and Sunday with that plant), the 30 plus varieties of mint at the herb booth, the dif. gingers everywhere, do any of you have a dancing lady ginger? I couldn't find mine at HD or Lowes.And what about the white desert roses? These are just a small example of what's at Green Thumb. you can find small starts for a buck to a palm for $700. Plants,are not cheap for these vendors. If they are not either starting them at their nursery(think containers, soil, starters, water, etc...) or tracking down and purchasing a special find for a show, it's gotten much more expensive. Plus the cost of setting up a booth, traveling to you the consumer, staying over night if you don't live there, the list goes on. Yup, it's crowded, and it takes a lot of patience to get through the crowd and search out what you really, really, want. But it's a nice day out, you get to see so much, talk to some experts in their field, and for the most part have a nice day outside, searching out that special plant. And as for big huge bargins Sunday afternoon. This show is notorious for people asking for that. Maybe some plant vendors can do that, if it's the end of the season, they have no more shows, etc...BUT, I must add that for the majority, me included, I really strive to give my customer a fair price right up front.A lot of times that discount is already there, or as low as it can go for that vendor's bottom line. Most of us doing these shows are never going to be wealthy with money, it's not going to happen. But we are very wealthy with other friends/vendors at shows, beautiful plants and garden related objects to see and talk about. Thanks for letting me "vent".

Got there right about nine this morning. No problem parking in the lot in the second row. Found myself three bamboos: Black Timor, Ying Yang, Teddy Bear (lots more bamboo vendors this year, trend?) Red Lady Papaya from a very grouchy tropical fruit vendor who told me kiwis won't set fruit here in FL....need to check on that. Almost didn't buy from him because of his attitude, but it was such a pretty little tree I couldn't help myself. 10 beach sunflowers from Twigs n Leaves ...found out they moved to Central which is why they've been closed the last dozen times I drove by the MLK location. Rooster Spur pepper from the peeper plant dude. Ice Cream Banana from Mitches, and a gorgeous ornamental banana that I can't remember the name of...but it's from Africa and gets really big around and tall...will need to look that one up. Ginger roots and a lobster claw heliconia. What I didn't find was bougainvillea. I only found one place that had them, and they werre fancy bigger expensive ones in topiary and such. Bummer. Had fun though!