Very nice selection of plants Stephen! Can you tell us the background info about the Picea abies 'Holey Family no. 1'? Is this a witches' broom or a seedling selection? How many more numbers are there from this serie? The true cultivar name for the Chamaecyparis laws. 'Nymph' is 'Ellwood's Nymph'. I think your Tsuga mert. 'Mountain Light' reverted for about 90%. Did you never consider to cut off the green parts? I found a simular variegation at my nursery which is more yellowish.

thanks, Nat4b. I knew it was a lot, but didn't remember how many, so I looked up the list of them that I kept. I had 103 daylilies that re-bloomed last year, some of them had as many as 4 sets of scapes. I have only 35 so far this year, but I knew last year would probably be a record. That was about a third of them that re-bloomed last year. They often pout when they are moved, Nancy, don't they? Darobi and Maryl, that is the deepest purple I have here. so often purples are actually maroons or reds. Indian Giver is the closest I have to MAAS. Thanks, Ellie. He is toothy. It is a pretty one, Ikayd. Thanks, Lida, and Avedon. Well, when bloom is over, I do get to sleep longer, Avedon. Since I post so many, it can be hard to pick one. The thing is, it's hard when so many are showing off. kay

Good info, David. I've had some trouble germinating seeds on a heat mat in 2 1/2x3x3 1/2" deep pots this year, while the 1 1/2 x 1 12x2" deep cell packs are germinating just fine. My theory was that the heat wasn't traveling up high enough to really hit the seed in the taller pots. I believe you just debunked that theory! How high is your dome? I was using a 7 1/2" high dome, although I do have a couple of the 2 1/2" high domes. I'm using the taller dome for the emerged seedlings now and the 2 1/2" dome for the cell packs on the heat mat. It'd sure be nice to skip a transplanting step! Some of my seed may be too old. I also heard recently that seeds should be stored in a refrigerator or freezer. I don't know how I missed that handy bit of info! I have mine in the house at room temp. Barb

There are so often recipes that call for a tablespoon or two of tomato paste, that I keep a tube in the fridge. The stuff in the tube is "double concentrated" so it gives a lot of flavor. I've not used any recipes that call for half a clove of garlic. Garlic cloves in any case vary in size so much with the largest ones being more than twice as big as the smallest ones so it seems strange to try to be very exact in calling for a number of cloves. Perhaps the recipe called for a quantity like a tsp of minced garlic and a clove made more than that? In that case, unless it is something where I want the garlic flavor to be very background, I would just put the whole clove in. For vegetables, I generally round up or down to what I have - it usually isn't that exact a thing. With COVID limiting our shopping, I've becoming even more comfortable with adjusting recipes to what I have. I do wonder what it means when a recipe calls for a shallot. When I buy shallots, they usually come in a bulb that has two sections/cloves. Is 1 shallot the whole bulb or just one of the sections? There are some pretty absurdly specific recipes out there. I recall one recently that wanted a cup of San Marzano tomatoes crushed up. The cans they come in at my usual grocery store are 28 oz. It was a bit player in the recipe (a bean dish with lots of spices) so no way would the tomato variety be detectable in the result. I just used a can of diced tomatoes (and I may have thrown in the whole 14.5 ounces). It's just calling for San Marzano because that's "in" now. Or all the recipes that call for EVOO in something that is going to be cooked a lot and have other strong flavors that hide any difference between that and regular olive oil. I think if something called for one half of a chicken breast, I'd either make a double recipe of I'd cook up the other side to use for sandwiches or a small meal.