Hi Mocassin, Maybe you're thinking of the song Strange Fruit, which has a sad and very different meaning. Actually, leafwatcher's literary endeavor got me thinking about blue hostas with a literary link. Big Daddy, one my biggest blue hostas, has his counterpart in the play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Steve

we have bought home with the master and the LA/kitchen/breakfast facing north (we are in DFW TX area) the patio had a 10 ft deep porch overhang so the light is subdued at all times of the day--not really any direct sun coming in my husband want to paint all walls/ceiling same color--does not feel comfortable having different colors in areas that are visible from the main LA or hall (We do have that going on in current house but he is so used to it that he does not see it anymore--know what I mean)... the owners of the house painted most trim --except for master bath and kitchen which have med dark oak stain woodwork...the kitchen cabs do not go to ceiling which is 12 or more ft high--so there is painted trim above them and adjacent on door/way into pantry and other doorways... the trim color is medium beige with pinkish tint--think it is called "Covered Wagon" from paint cans left in garage...the walls are a tan w/yellow tint or some creamy white with tan/yellow--don't have a name on the can just a color code--one bedroom was painted a bright yellow with same pink-tone tan trim and the master/bath walls were painted sort of light green w/yellow maybe--hard to say ... when we were looking at the house prior to putting down contract--we through most walls were light tan and the trim was darker tan w/sort of olive tint--we have white trim and wood trim lighter than theirs now--but we normally saw the house later in the day for not that long a time period 2-3 times before closing... once their furniture was out and we were in house at different times of the day--the colors just changed dramatically... now trying to find a tan color w/o the yellow tint to tone down the pink in the painted trim... too expensive to repaint all house and lighten trim -- our painter said would probably take three coats to go to white-- I had a designer come out to do color consult--not someone I had a personal recommendation for--just took chance off recommendation on local posting site I visit and her web page. There is no BM color consultants in this area at all (which included Dallas and FTW which I though really strange)... her SW color deck color picks were basically too dark (I got 3 and painted samples) and many of her suggested colors had a grey tint--that was her color preference I think--and would have sucked the light out of the rooms I think... so that was money wasted-- right now I think we are going with KM color called Arizona Heat--knocked down to 75%--made up in SW paint which our painter uses but picked up some 2 oz samples from the BM store that I am going to paint in some different rooms....we kept most samples in the LA/breakfast/kitchen because that is where we will do most of our living time--if that makes sense would like to find stronger color for the dining room and for master bed but don't have the linens for that room yet... never had this much trouble in our current home--but that has 8 ft ceiling, smaller rooms, and more cross light--which makes a BIG difference I just don't want to get something too dark (especially because ceilings will be painted and not white) and get the SAD effect going... the people who lived here got a divorce which prompted their selling--so I am wondering if the paint colors contributed to disharmony... sorry to hijack the thread

My guess would be either bugs to eat or collecting spider webs for nest building.

I tried Trillium in a passed (past?) life only to gave up and I am familiar with germination times but I don't think this is a factor here. Although each cycle had different seeds, they also had at least one seed in common and they were from the same packet. Each group had a tray of the Rutger's tomato. In the first batch, they germinated and grew quickly. The second batch three weeks later definitely took longer to germinate and showed signs of growing at a much slower rate. I will have to wait until next January to run this test again and this time I will take a lot of pictures. As far as I know, aside from temperature, all seeds had the same treatment and environment. I certainly will welcome any other suggestions though. I am going to guess that this will be a situation where, after I make a full diagnosis and a conclusion, that all of a sudden there will be posts here suggesting "Yes, you didn't know that?" (: