I, too, am a newbie to this forum & am enoying the warm fellowship here.Want to add my Amen to the 'miracle to behold'; I Thank God above each time I release one of His beautiful creations, saying a prayer for its' safety on its' new life & journey, where ever it leads to. Am 63 yo happily married, retired RN, who has been a homebody since retiring due to health problems in '82, probably before most of you were born, so I feel like an 'ol timer. I feel as though I am going through my second childhood, which has turned out to be more fun, (what I remember of it), than the first. Got started in butterflies quite by accident on a trip out of town for a 'get-away' long w/e & visited a favorite plant buying spot, a State Farmers' Market. While browsing about looking for unusual plants to bring home, I heard one of the vendor's saying "They are Monarch butterfly eggs & caterpillars", which immediatly got my atttention. I went to his space & saw some plants, had no idea what they were, he said it was Milkweed, I bought one, it had a large cat on it & I knew nothing about cats, but figured with the web, I could research & find out what to do. This was 10 + years ago; the mw turned out to be bronze fennel, & the cats turned out to be a BSTs, which I gazed at for hours on end, watching the eggs & seeing my first one eating his first meal was like a 'Spiritual experience', as well as the first emerging BST, I had tears in my eyes. (Did the same thing first time I saw childbirth in nursing school!) Am a Christian, so it was like seeing the Master's hand at work, closeup & personal, if you know what I mean! The trip home was so funny, with that plant behind my hubby's head, in a clear heavy plastic plant sleeve; he was driving, & the fennel stuck up about 6 " above his head. I kept an eye on a large cat that was eating,just inches from his head, kept hearing a 'ping' every now & then, (sounded like something was hitting the plastic plant sleeve). Had no idea what it was, (hubby heard them too), he would say "What's that?" I replied "Dunno!", but found out when I got it home & saw more 'pings' which later I found out was frass! I had large long plant sleeves in my trunk, always prepared for plants, so as not to get a frown on hubby's face with the possibility of getting my car dirty. The cat kept my attention, & I kept looking back, saying 'Dear Lord, please, please, don't let him crawl on hubby's head". We arrived home after the 2 1/2 hr trip with no incidents, during which hubby kept asking me what I was looking at, to which I would mattter-of-factly reply, "My plant in the back." After unpacking the car; first thing was locating the 'mw' in my solarium, placing it in a cachepot & adding a small hand-made butterfly house that I had, making it quite attractive. After all was unpacked, I showed hubby "what I was looking at" on the trip home. The 3rd-4th instar BST was quite large, & he remarked "That was behind my head all the way home!" After having the 2 additions to our home, the solarium & a master suite, with decking running the length of the house with a large area in the center, I started collecting inside & outside birdhouses & an occasional butterfly house. That first year everybody in the family gve me b'fly & birdhouses for Christmas, & the collecting kinda got out of hand, they are everywhere! So began my passion for these lovely creatures. It took me several years to locate mw seeds, which are not native to our area & now my 'garden' or 'forest' has grown to more than 1,000 mw of many varities, fennel, parsley, Dutchman's Pipevine (first year, so I don't expect flowers, from what I have read about it)Moonflowers Angel's trumpets, many varities of nectar plants & a Catawba Worm Tree. (In our area, local word has it that the Catawba Worm Tree is supposed to be the host plant for the Luna Moth.) All of my plants are container-grown on my large deck out back of our home. Each season there tears of joy & sorrow, as some don't make it, & days when I have more than a dozen to release when hubby is in the backyard with our dog, his baby, it is a glorious time for me. I remember last year one Monarch was very hesitant to leave the pavilion, staying at the bottom while the others had lined up almost in a spiral 'take off' pattern, & I reached down & got her, checked to make sure she was okay, & held her on my finger in the sunlight, saying "Look at how beautiful the colors are! They look like somebody put glitter on her!" My poor hubby, who was hot & tired, was saying "Yeah, yeah, let it go, it will fly away". This beautiful lady flew to his cheek, & lit there just a bit! He was so surprised. I told him he just got his first 'Butterfly kiss!" He meekly smiled, called the dog, chuckling, picked her, & went in the house. You ladies know how our men are, you gottta love them, with all of their patience, putting up with our 'whims in life', for the most part supporting us in everything we do. Didn't mean to write a 'journal' here, but wanted to share how I got into this passionate hobby that has become a very important part of my life. Having several painful health problems, Lupus, Fibromyalgia, 3 failed back surgeries, being among them, it has been the greatest therapy, & God has richly blessed my life with the joy of butterflies, in fact locally I am frequently called "Butterfly Joy"..May God continue to bless all of you & thanks for having me as part of this great group.. Joy, from Coastal NC (Saw my first Monarch of this season 8-8, a male; he nectared on mw like he was starving, & gracefully flew away; y'day it was over-cast & t-storms in our area, so didn't see any more. Forecast is favorable for this week, so will be on the lookout for more). God Bless

This one is representative of a pet peeve of mine. Ordered by mail, in 2006 it was expensive and incredibly small for a hosta that isn't a mini or small. It grew a little bit last year, but not enough to make me feel any better. Not much sign of the maple leaf pattern on the leaves, tho' that's probably because it is so young. I think sellers should warn customers if a hosta is a tiny tc. For what I paid, I expected something a bit larger. --Brother Stephan, photo making it look bigger than it was.-- ~Bunnycat

You may also want to post it on the Suggestion Forum linked below. What I have seen/noticed, is that often plant or region specific forums don't get much traffic, thus they just stagnate. In the meantime, why not just post looking for folks in the northern Ohio area, in an attempt to get a swap going in your area. This forum itself often doesn't get a lot of traffic. Here is a link that might be useful: Suggestion Forum

The greenhouse forum is very complex. I wish they just had a separate shed forum. When I put my second shed in I wanted a greenhouse, always have. But after reading about all the necessities of doing it right, the concept became too large for me to consider and take care of. My neighbor bought a greenhouse and have to admit that everything on the forum they discuss regarding greenhouses is certainly right. It is science of it's own. Neighbor either had frozen or fried plants, she really didn't have a clue what was needed. That said, I agree. Do not tear the garage down. Jey has made some great suggestions. And what you have done now is creative and the type of lifestyle many of us have here. Not all, but I think we honor all available in our small surroundings. Sometimes others do not understme of the Link: A copy of further followups will be emailed to this poster. Information about Posting You must be logged in to post a message. Once you are logged in, a posting window will appear at the bottom of the messages. If you are not a member, please register for an account. Please review our Rules of Play before posting. Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review your post, make changes and upload photos. After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it. Before posting copyrighted material, please read about Copyright and Fair Use. We have a strict no-advertising policy! If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum. If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help. Learn more about in-text links on this page here Return to the Smaller Homes Forum Most Recent Posts Lacanche-beautiful but how functional? â¢Â by deb52899 Largest houseplant? â¢Â by purpleinopp Updated Laundry Detergent Review from TheSweetHome â¢Â by Cavimum Ikea Sektion sizes at AT â¢Â by crl_ Failure of Palram greenhouses â¢Â by CanadianLori Am I dreaming or is it possible? â¢Â by greg_2010 It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 30 â¢Â by samhain10 Fisher Paykel GWL11 Problem â¢Â by lewb Commercial Seed Swap part 2 â¢Â by dawn1972 Quotes, 01/22/15 â¢Â by lilosophie Explore...