hey .. i have to keep you reaching ... don't rest on your laurels now .... as you get more proficient with the stuff you just learned.... the other stuff will come more easily ... just keep in mind.. its a computer.. and you can fool around with pix in your editor.. and AS LONG AS YOU DO NOT SAVE ... nothing will happen to the image in the memory .... one trick ... say you are working on picture 001 ..... play with it.. and then SAVE AS 001a ... then 001b .... until you get one you like ..... that way you never lose your original image ... then try to remember to go back and delete all the extra images you don't need.. no need to clog up those memory cells with duplicates .... and finally .... you may be able to adjust the camera .... regardless .. its not like you have to pay to develop the pix ... so just play around.. 5 mins every day .... i have found that if you try to spend hours.. you get confused and overwhelmed ... and if you play for 10 minutes.. then go away .. the next day you will want to play for 15 .... make it fun.. not a job... and keep in mind.. that my replies are not just for you .... i will bet another hosta .. there are a handful of people who are as afraid as you were... and frankly .. if you can do it... they can too .... if they just get past the fear ... keep up the good work ken

Oh, thank you every one for such nice comments,i really wanted to take more pic's today, but had a lot of running to do, AND ----------------------- Are you all ready for a good laugh? Ok, here it is! I was working around the pond,pulling weeds and trying to move a few plants,when- All of a Sudden!,I lost my footing,ya know how you kind of stumble around hoping to regain you footing,looking all funny like,and then you just loose it? Yep, head first,in I went,shot up like a bullet!,gasping for breath,trying to gain my footing,not easy on a slippery rubber bottom,lol,lol,lol Oh, if only some one would have had a camara,it would have made Funniest Videos for sure!Man did I smell awful! ha ha ha Since I was already wet-no-Soaked!I went ahead and moved my water lilies more into what little sun i have. Go ahead,have a good laugh,it,s on me. I will try to post again tomorrow, after that, I showered and called it a day. Hope your day was better than mine.lol Carol

Jo when you started with hostas and put the "67" after your name, it was a mere blip in time, how long did that last, maybe one week? and you were headed for 100 if I recall correctly. And that may work for you. You have an active life, but you are also compulsive about maintaining your hosta records. Am I right or not? HA,.....I thought so. Now I'm trying to break that hierarchical habit I've had all my life, especially when I was a librarian before I discovered boats and computers. So I like KEY WORDS or TAGS which is so simple a term even the youte of today can understand it. And I am trying to have my files this year posted on Flickr with tags before they upload, but all on my computer or CLOUD are organized by camera file name, by date, and with all sorts of tags--except the ones I need to search with like "gold" or "Solberg" or whatever lets me find it in response to someone's question on this forum. In the end, we all have to know WHICH hosta fulfill certain attributes. I don't rely on an outside service (like Flickr) to be a forever solution to my photos. OH no. I went through Webshots folding up and turning into an observer site only, lost my photos from there. Then I had an external harddrive fail on me. So I'm pretty concerned about keeping the pictures themselves. It's a fun thing for me. I can sit here and immerse myself in viewing the pictures I took, refresh the mental notes I made to myself about who was who when they had missing names. I'd check the past photos. It works for me. And that is one reason I take pictures with more than one hosta in them. If I lose the nametag, and I know who it's neighbor is, then I look for the picture of the known neighbor, and voila, I see who the would-be NOID is. That is also why I try to identify all the hosta in the photo too. Does anyone else watch their photos as a full screen slideshow? Do you say the names of the hosta before the slide changes? And for those you missed, do you go look at them next day to see who they are? Well, I do that. Seems to me you could put it on a manual slideshow, so you can play NAME THE HOSTA at your next club gathering, or your family gathering if everyone is into the garden thing. I'd play it. Lose, probably. Except where my own personal garden comes in. I'm getting much better. I think watching the slideshow helps a lot. Okay, now that really wasn't off topic was it? It simply says how I use my indexing. ;)

Thanks for the recommendations, folks! It gives me something to float by the parental units and keep an eye out for. Gesila, my folks are in TC. I suspect the nursery you're thinking of is in Interlochen. (I can't remember the name either.) It is AWESOME! But as I live down by Detroit, I rarely get there. The bed in Q is approx. 30ft x 2ft. There are plants (glads, astilbe, mums, etc) along the back of the bed & a trellis at one end which is why I'm looking at plants that are taller than mini's but top out at about 12inches. I would be planning on leaving some smallish spaces here and there along the front of the bed for colorful annuals such as wax begonias (which REALLY seem to like the raised bed). My preferance would be to not go the mail order route. I'm an apt dweller in the Detroit area so I don't get to my folks' place that often. I wouldn't want plants to arrive at my place and be growing them indoors for who knows how long, nor want them to be sitting in pots in TC for however long. Actually do have a couple Rainforest Sunrises planted up there. (One of my favorites truth be told.) I do think I prefer its appearance when grown with a bit of shade. The one that gets quite a bit more sun is a little too washed out I think. Hmm, I should probably ask my sis how tall and wide "Fire and Ice" and "Whirlwind" have gotten at her place -- though she lives in Adrian which is even further south than me so her conditions would be different. Her beds also get more shade as I recall........