Years ago I ordered a lime tree from the same company. It takes them forever to ship out. I received the tree after about a month of waiting. Calling and giving bad reviews didnt help. When the tree arrived it was exactly what i expected for the price: a small rooted cutting. It was a great tree to practice citrus culture on because it was so inexpensive...I eventually killed it and learned from the growing experience. My current citrus are from Four Winds.

I actually enjoy waiting - it increases the suspense! One swap I waited three months for a package from Japan, and it was sooo worth it! These packages are very much like Christmas, and I guess they bring out the child in us at times! Normally, I would try to figure out which senders have had their packages received so that I could narrow my choices of which person is sending to me, but I've been a bit swamped with work lately (which is good, for a change). Lars

Violets do take 6-8 weeks typically to open once the buds form depending on the number of petals per flower (more petals = longer time.) Looks like it's awfully close now.

Our roses are on schedule, with the very first warm climate roses just coming into bloom, along with what little of R. hugonis was spared by the drought and cane girdler. Our wisteria has also bloomed normally. We lost the entire flowering of one of our two Ceanothus thyrsiflorus repens, a big plant (the other is in bloom now, late), and the large double white Lady Banks on its pergola also got well frozen and looks like it won't be blooming this year at all, though the older hardened growth is green. The double yellow L.B. in the trees has some flowers. Last year's drought and this winter's late freeze did things, though I'm not always sure what. I've seen no sign of box moth this year, and think it should have shown up by now: I know that last year I was spraying for it in March or early April. I have my fingers crossed! Also it appears that the porcupine that ravaged the garden for a year may be gone....I'm not sure...but I devoutly hope that it couldn't take that week of hard frost and snow and headed south to warmer climes. All in all, for such a hard year as 2017 was, the garden looks tolerably well. We've had unseasonably warm and dry weather the last two or three weeks, and heaven knows I hate stable high pressure systems, but am hoping spring will return for a while yet. The plants are full of sap and the first roses are just coming into flower. Ingrid, I jumped into your post to answer bart's description of what's going on in her Italian garden: I hope you don't mind my hijack. I hope you get some blooms soon, and some springlike weather! Winter was long, long, long here. We all need that sense of returning life, and the joy and delicacy of roses.