Thank you very much for your reports and suggestions. I took a chance and put out 4 flats the second night, but still kept the covers on. Perennial foxglove, false sunflower (Helianthus helanthoides), Rose of Sharon, and Convolvulus (figured I'd throw in an annual for good measure). All had sprouted over two weeks prior, and the flats were quite full and lush. Temps in my area were in the high 20's by 5AM. All four flats lost between 50% and 75% of the seedlings, which started out green and shriveled the next morning and are now quite brown and dead. Lessons learned: Know your own microclimate. I am less than a mile from the beach, which may have played a part in how cold it was in my own back yard. Know your container type. The soil in my flats is not as deep as that in a milk jug, and so may not have been sufficient protection for tender roots that most likely froze solid for a while. I'm glad I did multiple flats of each!

I've had that vaccinium outdoors for years, if I remember right they were growing it many years ago at Bovees nursery near Portland - where it would be expected to get colder than around Seattle. However, I did just have a potted one gallon plant go partly brown in the garage. Have not looked at the one outside. The euonymus is a USNA selection, should be much hardier than needed here. The species does tend to like a hot location, it seems the wrong situation can result in an immature condition late in the year. Also a planting site overhung by trees that appear to encourage weevil activity, like evergreen conifers or birch trees, would be expected to produce much damage on an evergreen euonymus. Around here you really have to watch the proximity of such trees to these and other particularly susceptible kinds like rhododendrons when planting them out. (Yesterday I looked more closely and saw the extent of notching of the leaves of a fairly big hybrid rhododendron planted several years ago some yards in front of a stand of small Douglas firs etc. The nearest live, nearly overhead branches or something like 30' away). Some mildewing of the Japanese species is also fairly prevalent here, elsewhere they may see a lot of this (as well as heavy, spoiling infestations of euonymus scale). When woodland gardening the best plan can be large openings cut out of the existing stand of trees, with minimal intermingling of these and the new plantings. This approach can be seen at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden. You want belts of trees around the edge that are thick enough to cut the wind and tall enough to cast shadows over the plantings in July, but not necessarily have any of them inside the planted part. High-branching crowns, with nothing between them and the plantings present the problem of pelting fog and rain drip. Perhaps the worst example I've seen was poppyworts almost melting beneath the liquid hail from a Douglas fir.

Pam - One of my managers is based in the Houston area and fly's out of Hobby monthly and eats at Pappas Burgers off and on. I'll have to ask if he's had the 'Hatch Chile Burger' and if not I'll tell him to give it a try. Sandy

Yeah, I can't really believe how the media is talking about this. "He" was born a woman so I really don't see how it is so news worthy. Just because "he" got a reverse boob job, takes hormones, and dresses like a man, doesn't mean he's still not biologically a woman. If you got the stuff, you've got the stuff. I really thought the story was going to be a little more fascinating maybe about a hermaphrodite who had gone their entire life as the other sex or something.