"If the ground isn't frozen below the snow, I think Drew is probably right," I had to quote that! :) You mention the dead of winter, and I agree, but spring is 4 weeks away, and the gentlemen mentions picking them up in 3 weeks. So it will be one week away from spring. I planted mine in zone 6A on March 7th 2013, last frost was April 29th, and it was a very hard frost, my tropicals got caught outside and I had to remove all the foliage, none of it survived. My cacti though were fine! Trees were coming out of dormancy on March 7th, they had flower buds on them. All the buds fell off, they went back into dormancy, They were coming from California btw (and not 200 miles away, 3000 miles away). They all grew like crazy last summer. They came back out of dormancy fine. If Oldryder is in zone 6 or higher, he would be planting them March 13th, a week after I planted mine last year. Not the dead of winter but the start of spring. Plant them. Call you extention office and ask, they will tell you to plant them, but call anyway. Just to give you an idea how well mine did, I cut them to knee height. One only threw a low bud just above the rootstock. I had to re-train it as a new central leader. By the end of the first year that new central leader was over 4 feet tall. It's not even one year in the ground yet. Oh I summer pruned the new leader twice and formed scaffolds, that yes, reach 4 feet tall.

Thanks for the ideas, FLgardenmom. I checked the area I haven't been into to tidy up, but no coonties there. I'll be on the lookout for the others you suggested. Never thought about those pink gingers - have to watch the box stores for those on sale. My plant buying rule is...cheap, and a minimum of two plants in the pot that can be divided immediately. Right now I'm pinching and adding to the single coleus plants in some planters to fill them out. Caladiums are one that often have a couple of plants in one pot, and I'm definitely on the lookout for more, even if the common ones. Lucky you on the 12 broms. Great score! I so get the cheap thing, lol. I just don't want the yard to have this large, very bare area. The more clean-up I do, the more bare areas I uncover. Not good. I did find a second palm, right next to the original one. It's kinda like a windmill palm. Not sure what it is. I think one of these days, when I feel strong, I'll try and dig up the young one, pot it up, if successfully dug, and see what happens. There is also a potted plant in the yard that looks rather like some type of large version of the peace lily. Some type of aroid, I think. It's got a youngun coming up in the pot, as well as two large ones. Prime for a raid and division, ha. Feet up right now, just resting the aching body. I must have re-potted/potted up 40 or so plants today. Tired! Randy Another thing I do, which seems a bit naughty, is divide and replant some of the existing plants here, putting the original plant back into the garden, and potting up the division for myself, for future enjoyment. Those potted up plants go where they will succeed - same conditions in the yard as the original plant.

I confess to being completely baffled by this question. From my perspective, it's no contest. As Donna Karan once wrote about women and the statement they make to the world thru their fashion: "It all starts with the legs." When a woman with pretty legs puts on nylons, she transforms herself from an ordinary member of a rather dull species (homo sapiens) into an exotic creature from another planet. That's all it takes, and sorry girls, but nothing does it like nylons. Nothing captures light and sinuous shape like a leg in nylons. Thanks heavens, some young women are starting to figure this out. In contrast to those who are, a starlet in bare legs - especially in a period movie - looks positively ridiculous, and we see it all the time. As Matt Damon said in a movie recently (to a gal in sheer black nylons) "When you wear those, I'm completely defenseless." Why is it that European women understand this implicitly, yet American women seem so clueless? European women wouldn't be caught dead walking down the Champs Elysee in bare legs. If I see two women walking down the street, one with bare legs, one wearing nylons, there is NO question which one I'm watching. It's a statement about herself, her sexuality that render her one of those exotic creatures. It's that exotic quality - not nylons per se - that is so powerfully attractive, and nothing conveys that exoticism more definitively than a woman's legs in stockings.

Just built a 2 story retirement home. The only rooms upstairs are a small MBR and small MBa. I like going upstairs to bed and I like perching up there on the windowseat to look out at the world. And I'm also of the use it or lose it school. But I had a friend who became disabled in his 30s while living in an old house with upstairs bedrooms and only a powder room on the first floor. They had to add a complicated lift to the tune of what I recall as 10K, but it was worth it not to move. Decided then we would never have a house that was not at least livable on one level. So we have a curbless shower downstairs in a larger bathroom, wide-ish halls and doors, and one barrier-free entry. A guest room on the first floor that we could use if we couldn't get upstairs. But actually, the location of the place, far from medical services of any complexity, is not suitable for anyone who is too feeble, anyway. So that was our compromise. It also means that our house is "visitable" on the first floor for people with different levels of mobility.