Babs, I was at Arnold Arboretum last weekend for the first time in about 15 years. [g]. I now have to go more often. I want to go after snow and then in the spring too. I saw a Fothergilla by the entry gate, that was planted in 1934 and it was in excellent shape. And an 'Elizabeth' Magnolia that was huge. I did not know how large they get. I hope I can get there to see it bloom. I've been wanting a witch hazel for the longest time. I think I have a place for it, but it's not full sun. I think that has to go on my list for the spring. 'Arnold's Promise' seems to be the one i want, but I do like that 'Winter Champagne', Claire. I really want fragrance and big flowers. OH, right - leaf retention. I really don't want leaf retention. Now I remember why I haven't bought one yet. [g] The only thing I have blooming indoors right now, is Rosemary. I can't find my camera. I should be finishing up my seed order right now, but I'm going around in circles, on what to order from who. Oh well, back at it.

dbarron, I am glad you are liking your Instapot. Still, for me, it always will be a no go. I have lived through 4+ adult decades of all the latest kitchen appliance-type things that have come and gone, and I'm over it. (grin) Now, show me a nice garden gadget and I might have to have it because my garden shed isn't full yet. Rebecca, Ditto on the Instapot. Glad it works for you and I'm just not interested in it for us. Neither is Tim, although if he wanted to get one, I guess I couldn't object since it is his kitchen too. We have a pressure cooker and pressure canner that we haven't used in years, but I certainly used them in the past. They are put away in storage in case I ever need to pressure can again, but I don't know why I hang on to them because I only do BWB canning nowadays. Getting rid of 'stuff' is contagious. The more I purge unused, unwanted or unneeded items from our home, the calmer and happier I feel mentally. I cannot explain it, but it is real. Of course, all the purging only works if you aren't buying a ton of new stuff to replace the old stuff. Kim, Congrats! That is a nice thing to win. Nancy, I am sure that the few non-canning cookbooks I have left were kept mostly for nostalgic reasons, though I do still use Fannie Flagg's Original Whistlestop Cafe Cookbook as everything in it is exactly the same kind of meals my grandparents, parents, and aunts and uncles prepared---just good old southern cooking. Nothing fancy at all. I also use Tim's cookbook (a gift from mme to him decades ago) for Helpful Cooking Hints for Househusbands of Uppity Women sometimes too. It has simple, tasty recipes in it. Most of the others I never open any more. The weather down here stayed between sort of foggy/misty and then just south of us it cranked up to almost drizzly on the Texas side of the river. The sun finally came out in late afternoon and burned off most of the clouds and fog/mist. I think from this point forward we just have gorgeous weather until the cold front comes through around Thursday. Rebecca, I saw that on FB earlier today and went over and clicked on it to at least view her top ten. Let me see if I can link it. I wonder if the problem is that it is a PDF? Let's find out: Tomatoman's Daughter 2019 Plant List Well, I can see it here. I don't know if it will stay or disappear when I click 'submit', but if y'all cannot see it, then we'll know it didn't stick around. Okay, I am going to go start next week's thread now because tomorrow is seed-starting day and I hope to be busy with all that. Dawn

Claire, I have saved one in the past and think (italics) that the bulb bloomed again, but with fewer blossoms. Too many years ago. This bulb may have spent himself having produced 13 blossoms -- a twisted stem of 4 blossoms and 2 straight stalks, 5 blossoms on one stalk and 4 on the other, but I will save him. When the blooms are fully spent, I'll remove the stalks leaving the leaves on the bulb throughout the summer. I will put them outside by the end of May, post frost date. Previously, I put a finished bulb in shade, facing north next to the garage, and did nothing until mid-October, pre-frost, when I removed the leaves and trimmed its dried roots. Then started all over in new soil, but I really think that held-over bulb had less enthusiasm for a second go. I have two to hold over this year, so we'll see if a north-facing summer outdoors encourages either to become energetic in autumn. Jane

Nancy, I am already beat! Another roughly day and a half of all this activity and I might be dead, but we are having fun. It is good training for the upcoming planting season. Kim, I hope the meeting with the landlady isn't about her having different plans for your house. Enjoy your time with the little man. Jennifer, His name is Frankie and we've been trying for about three years to tame his feral side well enough that we can pick him up, touch him, pet him or exert any sort of control over him. Some feral cats never can acclimate to more domestic behavior, but we are winning him over with canned food. He still looks pretty wild and is incredibly lean and muscular as are many feral to semi-feral cats, but we were able to get him into a crate and take him to be neutered (and to get his shots). He was mad at us yesterday but also at the same time relieved to be back here and no longer at the vet's office, but not so mad he wouldn't let us feed him and pet him. A lot of people say feral cats cannot be tamed, but they can. Sometimes it takes a few years to do it though, and often it is a very slow process where you're forever taking one step forward and two steps back. He and Lucky seem to know each other from their feral journeys. Lucky is fully domesticated now, and I think there is hope for Frankie to someday be as calm and gentle as she is now. Kim, I'm sorry you're ill and hope you recover quickly. Your seeds and planner are a sign, I think, that you'll be gardening somewhere. Bon, The good thing about the cold weather here is that it usually passes through fairly quickly, as least compared to many other states. I hope y'all are toasty warm again soon....without the need for the wood-burning stove to provide that warmth. I think it stays cold here for two more days and the warming trend starts around Monday. If that has changed, I don't want to know it because I'm just hanging on and waiting for the warm weather to come back. Jennifer, Great job, Finbar! He's doing his job as far as he is concerned, and I think dbarron's ID as a shrew is the right one. You have something I've never seen here. I'm not saying we might not have shrews around, just that of all the god-forsaken-wild-things that ours cats and dogs have killed and brought home, there's never been a shrew among them. Nancy, This does feel like a more normal winter although we still haven't been nearly as consistently cold as we were our first few years here. Everything seemed to change around 2005 and since then winters just have gotten warmer and warmer, except for 2010-2011 which was the last really persistently cold winter that I can remember. Rebecca, They really expected more snow and ice flurries in north and central Texas than they received in general, but it isn't because the clouds weren't trying. A lot of snow and ice were falling from the upper levels of the atmosphere but in the very low dewpoints closer to the surface level, the precipitation was evaporating before it could reach the ground. Our dewpoint here was only 12 so I'm not surprised that adjacent areas of north Texas were the same. It was odd to see the Winter Weather Advisory covering the area south of the D-FW metroplex yesterday, but I bet everyone in the DFW area is glad the precip missed them. Nancy, I doubt DFW gets much warmer than we will today, but I think they usually warm up a day earlier than us, so if we are expecting the warmup on Monday, they may get it beginning Sunday. So much flu is running rampant down there now that we are carefully avoiding going south this weekend. Of course, flu is running rampant to our immediate north, so we aren't going far from home at all since Love County seems to have, so far, avoided the widespread flu and strep that now have closed down 8 school districts in the Texoma region. I cannot believe how cold it has been the last couple of days. We are up to 38 degrees and it isn't even noon yet, but I don't think we're expected to get much warmer than what we are right now. The 4 year old is lobbying to go to the playground in Gainesville, but I think it is still too cold for that. Maybe tomorrow will be a touch warmer. Or maybe the sun will come out. Dawn