Thank you everyone! I get teary eyed reading your kind words...I'm such a soft-hearted guy. (Drives people nuts...especially at a tear jerker movie or during Hallmark commercials!!!!) :o) I'm so glad I could share my special project with my GardenWeb Junking friends! You are ALL the BEST! Dad would have loved this forum. Thank you! Bear Hugs! Kirk

Michelle2013, You should very good germination from seeds you get from Rinoa. I have. She is trying very hard to build a good reputation for quality plants and seeds. I believe she has done this already. It is a sad thing for people as you speak of buying all those seeds and getting so few to germinate. This is topic of conversation on a few groups that I frequent. The concern is not just germination rate, it is finding reputable sellers of seed that actually send you seeds from the pod parents that you carefully selected. I am sure most people realize that they are not going to get a clone of pod parents with seeds, but hopefully something similar in one characteristic. One person purchased 2000+ seeds of a few different hybrids and they got a few mixed colors and all the rest "Pink". Rick

Randy I had a nice Takagii but lost it to winter...maybe it could have recovered but it was cored out too low to the ground! I put a Takil in it's spot.I also planted 2 others.(-: Back to Fort x Wags...they are really excellent little palms! Mine has spear-pulled the last 2-3 winters,interestingly"it" and the Fortunei I planted in Nov 2007 didn't pull that winter! Anyway,I agree,beautiful palms. Hopefully mine will get some size in the next few years... it's recovering nicely now-the leaves are gorgeous! njoasis Oreophilus & Manipur(I guess you could add Latisectus and Martianus)will probably never be planted out by me-just not very hardy but part of my Trachy collection. The reason I say Takil could/should/would be the hardiest is this- -For one thing Nainital,which I believe grows up to 6300ft has in many cases been one of the hardiest Trachys.... although not everybody has had that experience. IMO.Nainital is a hybrid(possibly with Takil)and there are 2 variations- once again IMO-(IME),one is greener,extremely fast growing and not as hardy,probably more like Fortunei,another is more yellow green,slower/at least when small/and much more hardy. My smaller Nainital(the yellowish one)and my Bulgarian Trachy were the toughest Trachys for me after last winter and although smaller plants,had less damage than their larger bro's. The reason I think Takil may be the hardiest is,it grows at least as high as 8200ft and gets plenty of snow in it's native mountain habitat. So,there's that(-;

Hi colorcrazy, I'm in Richmond. I just found the Post series by google. I spent all day Thursday putting together a binder with organization plans and checklists. I even found the old Woman's Day Room of the Month Plan in a Household Hints folder from 2001! I actually divided my house up into 15 areas and I'm going to do 2 a month so I've got time off for Christmas, vacation and gardening. The areas that are often too hot to work in are being done this month and next month like the attic and garage. But first, I'm starting with some Fly Lady Crisis Cleaning for a few hours today. Then, I go to the attic! When I say I am 10 years behind, I am NOT exaggerating. I've got about 2 years worth of papers to sort through, 6 years worth of gardening and 10 years worth of decluttering. I do keep the visble areas of the house clean and somewhat presentable. But only I know what lurks below the surface and it's been haunting me for too long. I realize that I've been so good at crisis management that I made it my lifestyle! It seemed I went from one crisis to another and spent the time in between recovering and waiting for the next crisis! By letting the house and garden go I created crises since I can never find things and alway went into panic mode if people were coming to my home. The REAL crises are over and it's time to stop this madness and get organized again!