Some very good points are made above. The only one I disagree with is using ground covers, because they eat other plants. But maybe a groundcover that works is out there and I just don't know about it. As a rabid collector turned home landscaper in pursuit of sanity, I think there is a conversion that has to occur in your own mind. Ink touched on it by pointing out that all your acquisitions are unique, but what I find is you can get past this by thinking of your plants in terms of their shape/colour/size -in other words, their landscaping attributes. These are the ones you see from a distance. For example, a hosta is a low spreading herbaceous plant or an arching one, depending on which one. A certain Chamaecyparis is a blobby gold evergreen thing. A fern is arching, a columnar yew is a vertical evergreen accent. What ANOTHER rhododendron is depends on its structure. Forget flower colour, forget bloom time. Just focus on structural attributes. Then you take the point made by MaryMD about repetition, only you don't repeat plants, just shapes/colours. So you look around the yard from vertical accent to vertical accent, or from gold shrub to gold shrub, only you are looking at a different one every time. Similar to what Nandina suggests, only the plants do it. This recognition is not my own, by the way, but goes back to a discussion here started by Frankie about an article in Fine Gardening about designing a long border...? Maybe that thread still exists, or maybe not, or maybe the article can be found. The unifying effect of hardscape is also something very helpful to utilize. Just edging beds with something like a uniform brick border will begin the process of turning a collection into a landscape - partly because it will immediately make you think about the shape of the bed instead of the name of the plant. To assess the shape of the bed, you find yourself stepping back across the road (watch for cars) to assess the overall effect of the garden. That's the perspective from which you start appreciating plant shape too. Ken Druse has written a book called The Collector's Garden. It's a long time since I looked at it so I can't summarize it, but you might enjoy it. KarinL

Jan....Thank-you, no ran here either today. WRF....It was a very nice day for getting some gardening chores done. I get my pots from the EBay vendor that Pug was nice enough to supply the link too. To make it worth while however I order at least 24 at a time otherwise the shipping is more than the cost of the pots! Mike.....If you seen the rest of the Florida room you would think otherwise about the neat and tidy part ;) And I always was a believer in the More the Merrier theory. Sue....I've been needing to do some potting up for awhile now,seems like something else always came first. The plant your asking the name of, is it the one with the lite green leaves,dark veins? If so that is vitellinoides. Regina

ok sent out mellens and earthys questionares to everyone. Mailed them in two different ways - forwarded and in the big word document. Only received an error message for veeje on 2 so far. Now everyone should have everyone's questionares. All books should be mailed out by now. Moving on to March - Feel free to pick your partner baised on things you have that you think they would want baised on the questionares. PLEASE POST who you want as there have been so many problems with emails. I will be making a new thread soon as this one is filling up. I will name it MARCH collectors Corner please post there and I will go and add each person who listed on this thread to that thread when I get the extra time (not today though)... Melinda as for your quest5ion. And by collections do you go by the question of things they collect on the questionnaire or the type of flowers they collect or what? MY REPLY: I don't know how you can send flowers with it being so cold, but if you want you can send an IOU or something like that for the spring. Otherwise - try to go off what they have on their questioinares or even on their gardenweb pages. Just do the best you can. However I know that some people don't have much listed on their questionares so I don't know what to do about that. Glad everyone is enjoying your books!

Looks like a new piece made in the style of a netsuki. Looks like Pottery? Resin? perhaps even porcelain that was cast in a mold made from an old netsuki? I am guessing it was attached to a cord on a purse at one time....and would be wonderful as a closer on a purse! Linda C