Thanks for all your kind comments, looking forward to next year to. Threas - hope you can start them indoors, they're slow growers from seed in the spring, I'll be lucky to get flowers from my babies even next year. I'll be covering the babies soon with dirt for mulch. Not a leaf left in site, some fungus got on the them, so not taking any chances. I have Neem Oil to kill fungus/mold. Has killed the white stuff that grows on the surface of outdoor soil brought in or that grows on unsterile soil. It also kills the bad insects and stops reproduction of them - so they say. honeybunny - I envy that you have the lord baltimore full grown. It grows the tallest of them all, that I'm aware of, and a beautiful red color. It was very good of you to offer plants and I'd be glad to pay you for the plants as well as postage for that price and take a chance that it'll get across the border without dirt. We'll chat come spring. If I've no 'sure thing' canadian option I'll take you up on that and we'll see what you can do. eloise - you have an orange tropical then...I know of no hardy in all my searches (and I have searched) and the oranges are tropicals as are yellow. There are some annuals, like manihot which is a pale yellow, I got one flower from it this year and a seed pod which I had to pluck before it cracked on it's own, an iffy situation. You californians are lucky, you can grow the tropicals all year round. Though they don't grow as big as the hardys we're talking about now. You should check out the japanese lantern hibiscus-schizopetalus, not so large a flower but a most unique flower. It was easy from seed even for me but would of had to be brought in. You'd have to have the room in the garden to, it's a big splayer like the butterfly bushes are. Happytoes - I had seeds for plum crazy, it is up there with my favorites. They have a unique crepe paper like flower and light shines through them like chifon. 5 seeds was just not enough for this lady to successfully grow one. Fireball has the same type of petals. Love your garden karma, especially the style...looks kinda like the japanese rock gardens. Very neat and ideal for specimen show offs. I'd get a kopper king in that garden, it's a good stand alone plant with your personal touches of coarse. Karyn - that is strange, you'd think you would have tons of babies. Maybe they just need that tropical environment the 1st year to get them going. You still have the mom's coming back for you and the only hibiscus I know for sure that'll be invasive with their seeds are the rose of sharon - single blooms - so all be warned. green_go - I gotta have something you want!! I couldn't even find the seeds for that one. I saw the foliage color which you all aught to note the contrast. There's a red veining through 2 others, fireball and plum crazy, but nothing like the foliage on this one. Red shield has a nice foliage as well but doesn't have the bigger sized blooms. The foliage is worth it for those into it. Your flowers are much more prettier than even in the pictures I've seen. They look a lot like the lady baltimore. I'd pay you for a good sized specimen of that plant plus postage. (big hopeful grin). I see you have an anna belle blooming there in the background, I've one of those to. I think I might split the root ball for 2 plants. Granddaughter and I are going to spritz the flowers with food coloring next year. There's a lot more kinds out there, I'd advise starting with an established plant if you want flowers this year. I've no idea how they do their first year started in a greenhouse or indoors. To tell the difference tropicals and hardy when shopping or identifying http://www.trop-hibiscus.com/gindr.html A good link in the hibiscus forum for those in zone 5 and up/colder/lower zone #. http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hibisc/msg0820200032075.html PS. They do die back down to the ground and won't come up until late May early June so don't think they died. You'll just have to wait. Glad you all enjoyed. Happy winter gardening or spring planning. - Sandy

Duane, obviously I am not that fast but it would have been a good idea. Terri -0 that's EXACTLy what they look like cut open BUT I will be most surprised if dh paid THAT for them. he's a cheapskate. They MUST have been on special. Jessica, I have two of each and the girls were not that impressed by the color.

In both roller and ice it was not uncommon for partners to have a love/hate relationship. Because you are together for the greater part of you life it is easy to become extremely dependent on one another and mistake those feelings for "romantic" love. Lots of couples end up marrying and divorcing their partners. Many have had little real life date time with others. Skaters grow up and mature very quickly on one hand but miss out on the many life and social experiences of what regular non competitive kids have growing up. Lots of extra-marital affairs with partners also. A roller or ice rink is like a regular Peyton Place or Sex and the City for the younger readers. LOL

I agree with jerseygirl and live with the space for awhile before committing major changes and you can do an accent wall if there's not a good place for change of paint color. I'm in the process of picking colors with 5 rooms connecting and another 2 thru doors/doorways. I love saturated color. I have 4 reds on my DR wall and will pick one when I pick the copper in the sitting room (3 choices on wall) and greens (4 choices) in the office. The kitchen is already Hawthorne yellow and the half bath is Blue Lapis. The music room will be the 2 lilac colors that got rejected from the sitting room. I'm tying all the rooms together with the same color trim - white dove. My 185 year old fire places are all different marbles - gotta try to strip one that was painted. The main rooms have natural oak floors and the minor rooms fir (over 100 years old). I'm not too worried about the other woods in the rooms - I just make it work for that room. I have cherry in my kitchen, mahogany in the DR, and black walnut doors. I've been living with 3' x 4' paint swatches for weeks until something speaks to me. The 1st time I threw up lilac in the sitting room I knew it was wrong. I had some friends who are good with color help me pick another scheme (copper). I have a dark purple couch and chair for that room. Even though one color might work great in one room with the furniture, they all need to play "nice" together when viewed from room to room. I picked a red I love but I don't know how it will play with the green and copper so I'm holding off until i figure out the other rooms. I did start with a designer to help me narrow down my choices so I can get painting sooner. (I could have probably done it but it would have taken me a year!) She kept saying "This is so much fun, I should be paying you." What she suggested is have one tying feature - for me it's the same color trim from room to room.