@organic_kitten - that is not Inca Prince in my banner. It is one of my own hybrids that was registered in 2012 - Key West Sunset. The washed eye is more orange than Inca Prince and the stalk height is 12" taller (24" for IP vs 36" for KWS). Browns Ferry Gardens have offered to increase it and sell it in the future if the increases work so I hope it will be sold by a major nursery in the future. @najoba - Mark's Bouquet is blooming for its 3rd year in my garden. I lost Dakar, Bonbraie Mr Juggles and Manadrin's Cloak over the last Indiana winter but Mark's Bouquet is doing well still. If you like the speckled look of Mark's Bouquet ... you'll need to check my blog today when it gets done because our other speckled just bloomed for the first time and its one of my wife favorites. (Amethyst Veil)

"Blood ties have nothing to do with it." My point exactly (see my previous post "Attachments"). I have two male cousins who divorced their first wives. I love my cousins but also cared deeply for the women to whom they were married. I still consider them family. They are welcome in my home. I visit them when I am back there. My relationship to them, my consideration of them as "family" does not alter the fact that they are no longer "family" to their ex-spouses. My one cousin refused to speak to his mother (my aunt) for an extended period of time because, like Kathline's X-MIL, she refused to renounce his XW. Her attitude was "You divorced her. I didn't." Eventually, my cousin got over himself and reconciled with his mom. In my post on another thread, I wrote that mothers and their children are and always will be family to one another; that fathers and their children will always be family to one another. In writing this, I was simply acknowledging a biological bond; in writing that XWs & XHs are no longer family to each other, I was referring to a "legal" attachment. (For those of you who did not read that earlier thread of mine, I suggested we can become attached/bonded to others on as many as seven different levels: emotional, spiritual, legal, financial, sexual, geographical, and biological/parental. We do not necessarily become attached to others on all 7 dimensions and the intensity of the attachment may be differ, also). I believe it was KKNY who responded to the post with something along the lines of "when ex-spouses share children, there will always be a relationship between them. I agree. And I would hope for the sake of any shared children, the relationship would be cooperative and cordial. It just strikes me as ironic (and somewhat contradictory) that some would deny the validity of the loving attachments that can and do exist between Stepparents and their stepchildren because of the absence of a biological bond but will vehemently insist that the bonds they have to the biological relatives of their former spouses remain valid and deserving of respect and recognition. Because, after all, "blood ties have nothing to do with it." I agree.

Another wonderful look back in time, Seniorgal. I was reminded of my mother, who rose through the ranks at a Providence, RI department store to become personal assistant to the director of personnel. (She wouldn't even be hired today, with only a HS degree and a few college courses. This makes me think that today we are leaving capable people behind!) Are you enjoying the Masterpiece Theater presentation "Mr. Selfridge"? I see so many similarities between Selfridge's and Chicago's Marshall Field's -- where Selfridge began his career. I've yet to see the story include the overhead tubes through which capsules of cash from the customer went to the accounting office, with any 'change' immediately returned. Those fascinated me as a child.

I grow them from seed with some success. They never quite get tall and I have much more luck with the dwarf types than the tall ones. The key is to put them in moist soiless medium in the refrigerator for at least two weeks before taking them out and sewing them in flats during the coolest weeks. Then, once they sprout, I carefully transplant them into cow pots until they are strong enough to go in the garden (preferably in the coolest weeks). Then, I hope for the best. The cooler the weather, the larger they grow (and the bigger the flower when they bloom). But, they will bloom either way when temps get warm.