Maria - As always, a wonderful shot of your beautiful daughter! The flower is nice, too! And so huge! Golf ball seeds?! Wow! How big of a pot is the mother plant in?! Or is it planted another way? Orchids are one plant type that I've never tried, although I'm very tempted to get one when I see them at the home center stores! From what I've read, there are a few varieties that are relatively easy to grow, and don't require too much in the way of special treatment! As delicate as they look, I've always been a little scared of getting one, and then killing it! You all have such nice ones... I might have to get one now that I have the mini-greenhouses! Feighner - I usually just buy the seed packets for all my perennials, including the Heuchera. This last season, I had such good luck starting perennials from seed that next spring, I'm going to try even more varieties! I have a much better seed-starting environment now, with the heat mat and the mini-greenhouses and grow lights... would you believe that all my seeds for this season were started in 72 cell-pack flats sitting outside on a concrete slab in front of an east-facing garage?! I had really good germination rates, too! Go figure! Well... since I have seen pictures of everyone's lovely orchids, and I know that there are varieties that I could successfully grow... I've added "orchids" to my plant wish list! You guys are going to get me in trouble, making me want all these awesome plants! :-)

Hi d_giffin, thank you so much! I like the white peonies very much now. Yes, sometimes mistakes can make it better! :-) George, I want to first of all tell you how much I really appreciate you giving me all the advice! Thank you! You know, I actually realized that I might be overcrowding these paniculatas. However, I did it anyway, thinking that I might be able to severely prune these lovelies every year to keep their size down, and more importantly, I did it for a selfish reason - I know that this is not my forever house, and I probably will only be here for a few more years. I wanted to enjoy these paniculatas and so I just planted them there, realizing that they may not be fully grown before I leave... ouch! I hope that is not too selfish. You know what? The worst thing is that someone or myself will need to chop down the shrub(s). The physocarpus is Summer Wine, which is actually supposed to be only half the size of Diablo and Coppertina. So it is much more compact. The crabapple is supposed to be about 12' tall when fully grown. Yes, it may create some shade, but with crabapple, the foliage is not that dense so it should not be too much of a problem. The neighbors' shrub was always a mystery to me, until recently! They did not even know what it was - they just planted it there several years ago!!! Anyway, it's a lilac... yikes! It might get big. The thing that gets me is that the buds get eaten by the deer every year before they bloom! Sigh... I am going to advice my neighbors to prune it hard every year! LOL Anyway, if I do want to move the Limelight, since it was in a 5 gallon pot before and this is its 3rd season now, how deep and widespread should I expect the roots to be? I want to make sure that I will dig carefully just so that I won't damage the sprinkler system. The trouble is, if I did move it, I am not sure where to put it then... Hey, George, if you remember, I already removed the Pink Diamond from this bed to another corner after your advice last fall!!! :-) Thanks again!

Wow! Thank you all for that warm welcome. (Hey noocha, nice to see you here) And thank you so much for some great suggestions: I've linked to the site that quiltdiva posted - and saved it for future reference. I've also ordered the book Reverse Applique With No Brakez by Jan Mullen. Looking forward to reading it. scraphappy - Indeed this looks like the quilt you described. (I don't mean the design, but rather the many small lines) Here's a better picture of the quilt I want to do. It's a wall hanging measuring 30" by 30". I've re-read the instructions - the black is the background so as you can see there is a LOT to be cut away. I've concluded that this is not a good project for a first attempt at reverse applique, BUT as scraphappy indicated, it looks like a fairly simple one for the stained glass technique with black bias to cover the raw seams. I went to a quilt shop yesterday and purchased some fabric that I love. I'm going to be out of town for the next ten days with a lot of time on my hands, so hope to get it done. I'll post a photo when I get it completed. Then - I'm going to tackle a simple reverse applique project. Thank you all again grandma

What makes a YA book a YA book as opposed to just an adult book? I think the definition has really gotten muddled in recent years, perhaps because we do not seem to want to label older teens as adults. YA books to me should be appropriate for any middle schooler (6th-8th grade). And once you're in high school (particulary if you are 17 or 18), don't you want to be and shouldn't you be in the adult section of the library? I see an awful lot of what I consider adult books in the YA section, meaning I don't think they were necessarily written for teens, but seem to end up there and there may or may not be a second copy in the adult section. Often they are genre fiction or have a young main character. They are not necessarily inappropriate, just not what I would consider a YA book. And don't get me started on the shelving of graphic novels. Just because it looks like a comic book does not mean it belongs in the children's section. I distinctly remember when I "crossed over" into the adult section of the library. Couldn't seem to find anything to catch my interest in the children's section one day, and the librarian took me by the hand and led me through the doors into the adult section to the Mrs. Polifax books. Some of the best writing these days can be found in the YA and children's section, but there is an awful lot of dreck, too. As with everything else, it's much harder to monitor what kids are getting into. I second the Terry Pratchet recommendation. Eoin Colfer is good, too.