Yeah, got some off ebay. Normally that would be a huge no-no, but this is corn. If there was any crossbreeding going on it would show up in the kernels right away, hence I'll know as soon as I open the box if I got what I paid for or not. Got 40 kernels coming in. Not really enough for if I wanted to make a sustaining population, but good enough to grow it out as a novelty a time or two. If it turns out to be something I want to keep growing, I can just get some fresh seed off the internet every couple of years to mix it up with to avoid the inbreeding depression. Not gonna make an entire field just for this stuff.

I too tried to grow Anemone coronaria in my garden in England. They would usually grow and flower well the first year, then disappear altogether. Here they grow during winter, which is rainy, chilly, but not frosty. In the summer, they disappear underground and get baked by the sun. There is no rain here at all between May and September. If you can give them similar conditions in a pot Campanula and Cath, it should work. I only moved to this house in 2008 and didn't even start on the garden until 2009. This will be my fourth summer. Because of the long growing season here, everything looks established very quickly. My plants and my husband in autumn 2008. First little border planted 2009. Same border later the same summer. Things just grow quickly here!!! Those are lovely photos of Orange Smith Jeri. Gorgeous nuances of colour. Daisy

* This update is being brought to you entirely to give all those considering the purchase of a Blue Star Range something even more to consider. My original postings found on another thread warning about BS customer service are long & arduous; as has been the continuing saga of my "banging oven"; and this post, shall be. Having complained for over a year & a half from the very beginning of purchase, and their original service dept. man, Pete, long gone, I had to brow beat the current Blue Star service dept. into sending me a new oven bottom; as by this time it was out of warranty. Then subsequently, I had to demand an oven heating element, once I noticed the melted bracket on the oven back as I went to replace the bottom; and the twisted, melted off rivets on the old bottom. In fairness to Blue Star, they did finally go along with it. After all that, I had the unpleasant discovery that the oven still banged like a gunshot every time I used it. The only possible unchanged piece of hardware in this sequence of events was the oven back (with the melted bracket welded on it). Again I began the process of calling/emailing Blue Star service; but to no avail. They simply would not respond. Finally, I went the route of contacting Trevor at Eurostoves, whom I had purchased from originally, to see if he had any ideas about what could be done. I emailed him photos of the melted oven bracket & back. He contacted Blue Star and they answered him. They like, and respond to Trevor, as he is one of their top sales reps (and in my opinion, a very worthy individual to deal with, if you're seeking major appliances). Trevor forwarded the photos of my oven to Blue Star (I will try to post them for reference). Blue Star's answer to Trevor was that this was fine, it would not be a problem even if the bracket was removed altogether. The banging was normal. So I decided to despair. Then suddenly I remembered having purchased this range by a platinum credit card which carries an extended warranty through the credit card services that doubles whatever the original warranty was. As it was a 1 year original warranty, I was still a few months away from the end of the 2 year mark, so I immediately contacted my credit card and started a claim. Even though, by rights, Blue Star should've stepped up; it obviously being a defective group of hardware from the get go, I was relieved that it would get fixed, in any case. Finally, this is where it starts to get interesting. The credit card services require an estimate of the repair. No problem. The Appliance Barn in Kalona, IA has, since my purchase, begun to carry and service Blue Star's ranges. The service man, Ray, came out and verified that this was obviously a melted oven back and bracket. Now they would simply contact Blue Star to ascertain that the oven back could be replaced, and what the cost of the replacement part would be. Then Appliance Barn would simply send in the estimate to my credit card service and that would be that. Well. It just wasn't going to be that simple. I called Appliance Barn 2 weeks after their service call to ask how it was going. Turns out, it wasn't. Initially, Blue Star had simply ignored the request from the Appliance Barn for verification of replacement viability and price, altogether. Appliance Barn did not know what to do about this; they had never been faced with this type of behavior from a vendor. Finally, Blue Star's answer was (their actual email response): "The first issue with the banging sound coming from the oven is caused by the oven bottom expanding during the heating process. Sometimes this can be reduced by replacing the oven bottom, but we may not be able to eliminate this sound in all units. Secondly, I forwarded the oven cavity photos (that they had already seen from Trevor and the Appliance Barn had resent) to our chief engineer for review. His determination was that the rear bracket was hit by some force causing it to bend and "spidering" the enamel coating. The unit does not produce enough heat to melt the metal causing it to bend down. (yes it can, and it did; as attested to by the melted, twisted rivets & old oven bottom still in my possession) This part is held on by basic aluminum rivets. The original rivets would just need to be drilled out and replacements put back in its place. The unit will function normally without the back bracket if needed. Due to the unit being out of warranty and the damage not appearing to be the fault of BlueStar I am limited in what support I can give to remedy this situation." The interesting bit here being that they were not being asked to do anything (like be responsible), but only answer whether the oven back/cavity could be replaced and give a price for it. I determined that I had to tell the credit card services that I still couldn't give them an estimate and to see if they might be able to sort it out with Blue Star. Blue Star would not respond to the credit card agent's attempts to contact. The agent finally called me back saying they were at a stand still (again) because they could not get an estimate. I flashed on the idea of Trevor (whom Blue Star always responds to) and told the agent to contact him. She did and Trevor conferenced her with Matt Shutte, service dept. head at Blue Star, right then. She called me back to say that they had finally gotten the information from Blue Star that they needed: the range was repairable; but only by Blue Star, themselves. It would need to be shipped (at my expense) to their facility (all 500 pounds of it) and the cost of the repair would be $3000.00. That's right, both she and Trevor heard this clearly; and oddly, simultaneously, John Ditzio (also Blue Star tech) had contacted the Appliance Barn with the exact same information. Well. She went on to say that now, at least they could move forward, as there was no way they would be having me send it in for repair when a new one costs the same (once shipping is considered). That she would just have to have the replacement "authorized" by upper management because the ticket price was so high (they can only go up to $2500 without seeking authorization), but she was certain it would be cleared in a few days. That was over 2 weeks ago. As of yesterday, the "upper management" wants another opinion. Of what, exactly, it's unclear. There is no one else out here that could give an intelligent opinion as to repairing, as this range is virtually unknown out here in the mid-west of nowhere (and I don't mean Chicago-5 hours away). As far as "Is it melted and banging?" that is certainly observable by anyone. It would appear that Visa is feeling the pinch of the market downturn, as well and doesn't necessarily believe me or the Appliance Barn service man to be able to see/hear those things clearly...and for some reason, they are locked in somewhere in Montana where they cannot (will not) receive email, wherein I could send them the oven cavity photos. I will print & send by snailmail. Suffice to say, make sure when you purchase a 500 pounder like this, that you are in a longitude/latitude that allows a comparatively simple return in case after you've paid to have it installed you find it has "issues" or performs less than hoped for.

I agree you don't see many because the styles clash. The house you posted above is what I sometimes refer to as a builder show house... They built it to show clients how many different things they no how to do all on one project. This isn't the worst example... but look at all the things that don't quite go... There's brick, and stone, and shakes. One column looks like all brick base, and two look almost like stone base (can't tell for sure). There are windows with arched transoms. and windows with squared transoms. There are wooden truss looking beam features in each gable, but no other wood on the entire house. I don't know... its just kind of a mish mash for me. I'm sure someone smarter than me could find other oddities.