Time to close the history books on another weekend. Good grief-I was productive this weekend and still need them to be at least twice as long! I'm pretty beat up and off to bed but just wanted to share this story of today's escapades. Monique, Les and I decided to go to a nursery in southern VT that is known for it's selection of tender container plants. It's a little over an hour and a half drive from my house. The plan was for them to pick me up at 11, hit the nursery, then have lunch somewhere. A few miles into VT we decided to stop at the welcome center for a bathroom break. As I was getting out of the van I noticed this nasty foul smell that I didn't recognize but figured it was coming from somewhere else. When we came out the smell was only in the van. It smelled like something was rotting. So we get out and start sniffing. Lo and behold the smell was coming from the exhaust pipe. OK, between the three of us we don't know a whole heck of alot about cars but it starts so how bad could it be? Starts yes, but won't go forward or back-must be the transmission. Guess a call to AAA will be in order. We try to call on cell phones and it's a no go. Plenty of service and I could call other numbers but not the AAA 800 number. Les trudges into the welcome center to use their phone. Now we're waiting with the hood up and a good gear head samaritan comes over and starts poking around. He informs Les that the transmission fluid is almost empty. Now we're hopeful. All we need is some transmission fluid and we'll be on our way, right? Tow truck guy shows up-flatbed truck actually. He doesn't have transmission fluid and only advises that the van get towed to a service station (none of which are open on Sunday thank you very much). And he only has room for two people. So how do we get home? Well the Red Roof Inn in Brattleboro is an Avis dealer-maybe they'll have a car. So off he goes with the van and leaves us like bag people in the parking lot of the welcome center to call Avis. Once again cell phones don't work so it's back inside where the people working the information booth can make fun of us...lol. it must be our lucky day because Avis has a car but we have to get there. Hello, Brattleboro taxi? If you've ever driven through a rural area and wondered who would call a taxi or rent a car, now you know. At any rate, it turned out the rental car was only three miles from the nursery where we had intended to go. So even though it was now overcast, windy, spitting rain and mid afternoon we decided to make the best of it. Thank goodness for large trunks in mid sized cars because we filled it with all sorts of cool plants. Lunch was after five and I didn't get home til around seven but I think the day turned out well considering. Guess you could call it making lemonade out of your lemons. Only gardeners, right? lol OK, more I'd like to say, but that's it for tonight. Nite nite! Sue

First cactus is Aporophyllum 'Cascade', then Dudleya lanceolata, Aeonium haworthii, Echinopsis 'Flying Saucer' (sadly, that was my only flower this year... last year it had several dozen), Euphorbia groenwaldii, Echium wildpretii (the purple flowers are the old, dying ones... still look great though), Aloe pendens, Euphorbia maurantiaca (spelling??), Cleistocactus winteri, Euphorbia flanaganii, Lomatophyllum (forgot the species... it's now in the aloe family.. suffering from mealy bug, too), Euphorbia symetrica, Hoya obovata, Euphorbia perangusta, Aloe erythrophylla, Mammillaria sp. (forget which), Oreocereus sp. (also forgot which), Pelargonium French Lace (not a succulent, but sure is drought tolerant, living in the middle of the cactus garden), Parodia sp. (forget which), Euphorbia grandicornis (good example of how these will grow if in too much shade... this thing is growing straight up in a columnar fashion- not the typical shrub... this plant is 18' tall!!), Aloe glauca muricata, Mammillaria geminispina, Echium wildpretii again, Mammillaria forgot species (related to mystax), Yucca endlichiana (most exciting bloom, to me, of the year!), Aloe milottii together with Mammillaria spinosissima, and lastly, Pachypodium succulentum

another question, how old is your H. finlaysonii puglvr1? it looks really big and beautiful... i just recently purchased some plants through hirts gardens which is through ebay and/or amazon... not only did my plants have mealies and scales but they just seem really small compaired even to the angel hanging baskets at lowes, is it usually that way? or are they usually bigger (more like that size of the baskets at lowes or home depot)? pertaining to the original thread, im going to be posting some pics on here over the next couple of days, ive got a TON of irises blooming plus lillys that are about to bloom and probably 2 or 3 DOZEN peony bushes about to start blooming... ill have to post some pictures of the ants all over the buds on the peonys, they must be dying waiting for them to open... i actually watched a few ants fighting over a golf ball sized bud earlier...

Wendy, I did not receive your postage until this past Tuesday so your package went out in the mail Thursday. I am sorry but I did not get you any delivery confirmation, did u ask me too? Maybe I should have assumed, but it never even occurred to me- I just returned the excess money for stamps to you. I typically assume 5 days for mailing. Hopefully you should get yours by wednesday. I know what you mean about Jaynine and Alana-- I was happy to have something for them as well. Glad people are happy with what was sent in for them. Seeds that were sent in for people that dropped out have also been mailed out to 2 people- waiting on the last two. So thanks to everyone for participating in helping out a newbie. That feels good to be able to, I know a bunch of people helped me out. Happy gardening all.