Have several colonies of Bletilla and Cyclamen(7 species +cultivars) and lots of gray squirrels. They have never eaten any of the Cyclamen tubers, but the dumb amimals will unearth them from freshly tilled soil, looking for buried seed and nuts. Gravel or crushed stone will not deter them from digging. I cover every plant and bulb with sections of 1" wire mesh until the soil settles, often leaving it there to decompose. Bletilla pseudobulbs are planted deeper, 3-4" in friable soil and will tolerate bright shade or sun, even afternoon sun in my latitude(33*47"N). They are also protected, not only from squirrels, but from Voles(often called Field Mice, but are in the Lemming Family,not the Mus Family), with a circle of vertical hardware cloth(metal), 3-4" in the soil & 4-5" above. It also helps to have free-roaming cats in the garden! Bletilla striata is available in 3 colors, Magenta/Purple, White or Pink and a variety with white marginated leaves. A species with yellow flowers, Bletilla ochracea, would also be hardy in Zone 5, but is more rare in commerce. A third species, Bletilla formosana, with light pink flowers, is more tender and is not recommended for Zones below 7. These 3 species hybridize easily and you can sometimes find those available.

Last year we raised "meat chickens" and put them in cages and sent them off to be killed. I was crying the whole time. It maybe was a little easier because I knew this kind of chicken wasnt bred for a long life. But I felt guilty for raising such a chicken (kind of like the Replicants in Blade Runner) This year we got "mixed heavy breeds" and are keeping the females for laying. We raised, hugged, talked to and spoiled all of them. We started with 15 males. They are now at the point where they are terrorizing the pullets and each other. So weve started butchering them. Five last weekend were the first weve killed ourselves. We decided this was more humane and in a way the completion of the process we had started. My husband cut off the heads, I plucked ,and he eviscerated them. He was cutting up the first when I heard him say"There are live bugs in this crop"we both kind of laughed. But it was just this whole cycle of life thing. It was very hard, the whole thing and harder for him since he actually killed them. We helped each other through it. It was kind of agreement between us to raise these animals, care for them (believe me they had good lives), humanely kill and then eat them. There is something kind of profound about putting into your body food that really comes from the land you live on. There is a wonderful section of a book by John SeymourThe Self-Sufficient Life: Independence on Five Acres (1970) in which he talks about thishe did all his own butchering and was a most kind soul. Has anyone read it?

Second attempt submitting a post. Marquest, Wow, you weren't kidding when you said Petunia seeds germinated..Your 'denia plant is filled with beautiful, purple Petunias. One year, Petunia seeds dropped in my citrus. The seeds germinated in winter, but nowhere as nice as yours. Or filled as yours. Mine had three pink blooms. Do you add dry or fresh fir needles in your plants? Where is the Gardenia trunk??? PM, The Fragrant Forum has a ton of information on hardy and tropical Gardenias. Some threads are passion-packed...when a member is having problems with their 'denias. PM, don't get me wrong, I love computers. Electronics in general..Example, light bulbs. :) But, I feel our society is too dependant on the net. As a child we 'walked' to the library. I do admit researching online is much easier than dressing, walking, then sorting through a zillion books to find information on one particular subject. So, guess I'm a little old-fashioned. lol I love reading, but refuse to get Kindle. Amazon emails weekly, reminding me this electronic device exists. My dh makes fun when another email comes in. Especially since I spend so much time online. Guess I'm a hypocrate...lol Logee's! In the mid-90's, I ordered from Logee's religiously. Back then, plants were shipped in 4" pots, well-rooted, and shipping wasn't all that much, though it was higher than other nurseries. Problem was, I didn't know of other nurseries. Don't know if Logee's sold my name, but I started getting catalogs from other nurseries. Two of my favorites were Stokes Tropicals and Mellinger's. Nowadays, you'd have to get a loan to order from Stoke's, and Mellinger's went out of business, in the early 2000's. Back to Logee's. In early 2000's, they changed. Plants were shipped in 2"-2.5" pots, barely rooted. Shipping outrageous. Via one order I bought a citrus. If you ever saw a photo of Logee's citrus, you'd be placing an order. What arrived was a 3" stick. Oh, crap happens. So, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. A couple orders later, plants were arriving in awful condition. I finally phoned. Customer Service Reps are very nice and helpful. They sent a replacement plant which arrived large, well-rooted. Why didn't they send a plant that nice in the first place? After another order or two, I said, heck with this nursery. Their over-priced plants aren't worth it. I can get the same plant on Ebay or most online stores, for half the price, and much larger in size. I will admit. I ordered a Thanksgiving Cactus, 'Aspen,' that's impossible to locate. A seller on Ebay sold Aspen cuttings. He made a small fortune. One buyer paid $94 and change plus shipping. So, I ordered the TC and a Begonia from Logee's. My bill was over 30.00. Anyway, that's the Logee's story. lol You sure are experienced with plants. Perhaps, one day, you can give me some outdoor garden tips. Because of back/knee problems, the last two years our garden has been duds. Weeds do fine though. lol. Well, let's say I've been growing indoor plants at least 25-yrs. I first got hooked as a child, when we'd go to my aunt's farm in MI. My MOTHER didn't allow plants indoors, but I managed to sow veggie seeds at 11-yrs. My first house plants were given to me as gifts when I moved out of the house at 18. They died..too much lovin'. PM, it's really nice talking to you. Mike...here you are.... Gardenia's are like the old saying...a watched pot never boils..Mike,, you must stop watching. :) Oke-e-doke, once your 'denia produces, you owe us a photo or two. Hugs, Toni PS: PM, please don't take offense regarding Excel. :_

Hmmm, not much positive reception here. I notice a lot of you are talking about perennial weeds. I agree, they're no fun. I have all Lori's weeds and they're just as obnoxious here as they are in her garden, except for the violets, which are so glorious I forgive them for being invasive. I rather like dandelions: the flowers smell sweet--I had to read this in a book on herbs to know it--and the greens are edible and tasty. Besides, dandelions have personality and are almost pretty enough to serve as ornamentals. I'd feel deprived if I had no dandelions. But I leave them in the rough parts of the garden, not in the more civilized areas. Some of my annual weeds are ugly, and I do pull them. I get pretty tired of chickweed, and there's a really ugly large weed coming up now, with a taproot, that I kill whenever I can. And we have our lovely thistles, and a plant with terrible sticky seeds that are almost impossible to get off clothes, and so on. But I get a lot of pleasure out of the many delicate and graceful plants that seed themselves around the garden every year and grow with no intervention on my part at all. You Californians have a different climate than we do here, and your native flora is considerably different. I don't know what the promise of your wild plants would be. My reading and observation tell me that weeds don't just 'happen'. A lot of them grow in disturbed ground, for example; and many of them are thrifty and have a competitive edge in poor or degraded conditions. Where we've had slides, for example, the first year the bare ground is covered with weeds; the next year grass comes, and after a couple more years have passed, pioneer shrubs and some really tough trees can start to work their way in. Herbaceous weeds love sun, as a rule, so growing shrubs and trees discourages them (though they give a hand to those plagues wild clematis and elm). Knowing these things I can help create conditions that favor the plants I want to grow. Dang, Kaylah, that sounds rough, both weather and knee--my knees are shaky too. I don't envy you your weather, though here at the moment we could use a bit of chill and rain. This year it seems as though when March ended we skipped April and passed straight on to May. It's warm, and hasn't rained for a couple weeks; and there's no rain in the forecast for another ten days. The ground is already cracking. Melissa