Well, heck, I was just trying to help take your mind off not feeling well, LOL! WOW!! What a fabulous yard! What gorgeous sweeping vistas... all those beautiful miscanthus...just terrific! I'll keep coming back to these for some time... Love the stone wall with the nifty little hook at the end! Also, what trees are you growing? Their forms are so nice - more winter interest, along with the grasses. What, in particular, is the dusky-leaved one that is leafing out in the fourth picture and seemingly in full leaf in the fifth? How nice to have an acreage and what a great job you've done with it. (*Sigh* ...wonder if anyone would notice if I annex the playground behind our house?) I don't think I'm capable of giving a meaningful description of the Poa cita, other than clumping, upright, about 18" tall (in clay soil, full sun), not unusual color-wise... duh, I'll see if I can find a picture! They were labelled as that when I bought the plants, anyway, and have proved hardy. (Googling the name, I see it is a species native to New Zealand and sub-antarctic islands...hmm, guess that would explain how it survives here, assuming it was correctly labelled.) Unfortunately, I didn't collect seeds of it or the Sesleria glauca, but could make a point to do that next year. Attached is a seed source for the Poa cita, if you wanted to try then right away. Well, gotta go look at your pix again! Thanks!

I cannot just limit this to ten trees. So here is my second set of ten: 1) Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) - Fantastic tree. How can you not love a tree with heart-shaped leaves. The fall color on this tree is usually a bright peach color mixed with a little bit of orange or red. The tree gives off a distinct scent of cotton candy when its turning. You feel like you are in the land of Willy Wonka when it has this scent. This tree is finicky though. It does not like drought, sandy or compacted soil, or high wind and will start losing it's foliage in the summer in response to these conditions. 2) Green Ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) - Some may be surprised to see this tree on anyone's list. It's considered a trash tree by many. I love it. If you drive down Memorial Drive in Cambridge in late September - early October, you will see all of the Green Ash trees turning their bright golden - yellow color. It's a beautiful sight. This tree produces good shade and is tolerant of just about any conditions. Several male cultivars are now on the market, which avoids the prolific seeding observed with the females. I do hate the fact that this tree is one of the last to leaf out in the spring and one of the first to lose it's leaves in the fall. 3) Norway Spruce (Picea abies) - I love these trees. Giant Christmas trees the whole year through. The have a very dark green color and I really love the way the branches curve up at the ends. It gives this tree a very graceful look. A very large tree in time. A fast-grower for a spruce. 4) Japanese Zelkova (Zelkova serrata) - Zone 5 is the limit for this species. It would be wise in that zone to get the "Village Green" cultivar which has greater cold tolerance than the species. The vase-shape of this tree makes it a good replacement for the American Elm. Between the shape and the tree's tolerance for just about any conditions, it makes a great street tree. Zelkovas are in the Elm family and consequently are not totally immune to Dutch Elm disease but they tend to be highly resistant and this disease is usually not a problem. This tree can have spectacular fall foliage (ironically they did not this year around the Boston - Cambridge area) turning a bright burnt orange color. The Village Green cultivar has the best fall coloring that I've seen. 5) Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra) - Had to include a member of the red oak family again. Oaks are not thought of as fast-growing trees but this species is definitely an exception. Becomes massive in time. Fall color is variable but can be quite good. A very strong, shade tree. 6) Canadian Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) - One of the few evergreens that tolerates shade. Very graceful foliage. Probably the most graceful of any evergreen. The tree likes moist soil (found in shade). The woody adelgid is killing many of the hemlocks in New England. Hope they find a way to eradicate it before it kills all of them. 7) Black Birch (Betula Lenta) - Absolutely beautiful tree. The bark is a shiny, dark grey and peels to a certain extent. The bark looks very similar to the bark of many cherry trees only with a dark color. Very ornamental especially in winter. This birch has very good bright yellow fall color, too. 8) Crabapple (Malus) - The perfect tree. An explosion of white or pink bloom in the spring. A ton of crabapples in the fall. Beautiful bark on most varieties similar to cherry bark. Hundreds of cultivars to choose from. Most of the modern cultivars have resistance to fungal diseases that were a problem on older varieties. These trees tolerate drought and bad soil rather well. 9) Weeping Cherry (Prunus subhirtella Pendula) - Beautiful tree. So graceful and very striking in bloom. It get quite large in time for a flowering tree. Not as prone to problems as most cherry trees. Needs to be sited in a moist area though. 10) Kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) - Wanted to put cornus florida here but zone 5 is pushing it for that species. I like this one too. Flowers in early summer and can put on quite a show. The giant red fruit of this dogwood is more visually appealing than cornus florida. Fall color is spectacular. Many cultivars to choose from.

There are parts of Australia where it snows, but there wouldn't be anywhere in Australia that has cold of the sort you get in North-east US. I'd be pretty sure midyim berry wouldn't even tolerate more than a slight frost for a few days each year, and even then it would look pretty poorly until the summer rains of its native climate came and revived it. (It does like to be dry throughout winter). You might be able to nurse it along indoors, if you want badly enough to eat something that has subtle hints of cinnamon and turpentine in its flavour. Then again, it wouldn't be easy to provide it with the sort of winter day-length to which it is accustomed, unless you had some of those special "daylight" lights. I've seen ruby saltbush growing near the beach (on almost pure chalk) in South Australia. It gets cold down there - a typical mediterranean-style climate - but I suppose snow on the waterfront is rare. You'd probably need to get seed collected from the right part of Australia to have Buckley's chance (and do look that Australian expression up) of it's surviving the cold. There is enormous variability in the Australian plants gene pool. I think, for instance, that you could be sure of failure with ruby saltbush seed from my area. Are these plants actually available in the US? You could ask people who have grown them there - or is that what you're trying to do on this site? I'm inclined to agree with the writers above on the unwisdom of importing plants from another ecosystem when so much damage has been done worldwide by feral weeds already - but I'd be putting my money on your chances of rampant failure with most of our bush tucker species. I also wonder why you'd go for Australian bush tucker when there must surely be some interesting indigenous north American food plants. Is there a US equivalent of the Australian bush tucker movement? Trish

Thank you for being patient with me about my wish list and for doing this swap, Lisa. My late wish list is: flowers - Favorite Flower #1 - Silene coeli-rosa (synonyms Viscaria oculata, Lychnis viscaria) I winter sowed this one year, and it bloomed in its milk jug like a sky-blue creeping phlox. Best festival of blue among flowers I have known, ever. Angelonia - white Hibiscus mutabilis Impatiens balsamina - Camellia Flowers - would really like some seeds of what is known as the camellia balsam, which I hope the bees will cross with Peppermint Sticks to obtain something like the hard-to-find Blackberry Trifle. Do not send seeds of Blackberry Trifle, because I don't want to take a chance with someone else's rare seeds. Petunia 'Aladdin's Nautical Blues' - also love old fashioned FRAGRANT petunias Plectranthus argentatus, seeds - species or any cultivar of P. argentatus Nicotiana - any of the chocolates; mutabilis; any that are petite, greenish & fragrant Flowers that will cope with shade, like Rehmannia elata Zaluzianskya capensis - - - - - -- - - - - - - Herbs - Basil - Lime, Red Lettuce Leaf Chamomile, German (Matricaria recutita) Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) Cilantro Dill - dwarf, but any would be fine Parsley, curley Santolina tomentosa p66 Thyme - including Thymus vulgaris, French thyme, any Winter Savory - - - - - - - - - - - Vegies - Favorite Flower #2 - Radicchio Rosso di Verona - really want this one - The magnificent second year 6'x3' inflorescence of flowers is blue like no other. This is also known as a chicory. After fall frost, the leaves change from green to very dark maroon, and the whole plant makes a kind of cone, not a ball...really too beautiful to eat. Shallot - any from seed