A little of both, depending on the year. ;) If you're going to try the plastic, make sure none of the leaves touch it. In the fall when we cover for frost, we don't care if we lose some of the outer leaves because at that point the plants can handle it. In the spring, though, you don't want to lose any. Make sure there are no gaps where frost can get in. Cover before sunset while it's still warm out. Chilly only makes the plants sulk and slow down. It doesn't damage them. Frost kills. If there's not a chance of frost and you just want to warm them up a bit, wrap the plastic you have around the cage, but leave the top open for ventilation. If you have a bunch of empty 2-litre pop bottles, you can fill them up with water and make a circle around each plant (homemade wall-o-water). Both of these contraptions would be left on 24/7 as long as needed. Yeah, it *is* a lot of fussing. I opt to grow super-short season varieties and just wait out the weather instead. Sometimes I use hot caps (plastic cloches), but quite often my transplants are too big for them. They do last many years, though, if you treat them well, so it's not money wasted. I have about 30 of them or so. Small cracks happen sometimes and I just tape them up. :)

Bummer! Oh big bummer! I don't know much about deer... I have never had that problem... though I could loan you some chicken wire. :o) I'd THINK that it'd come back next year... you might get some back... hard to say, never harvested dill down that far. :o) but thinking in terms of storing energy from the leaves, I'd think that it'd grow back.... how young was young? Is it several months old?

It is very common for bonsai practitioners to 'chop' a tree to create the rapid taper that helps give the tree the illusion of age, so there is almost a 100% chance your tree is going to be fine. Here is what I would do: Make a cross-cut immediately below the damage with a sharp saw. Clean the edges of the cambium smooth with a utility knife, using a new blade, and seal that entire cut with Elmer's water-proof glue. Cover all the wood and go all the way to the edge of the cut, but don't slop glue on the bark. Before I get disagreed with, let me add that the tree will be shortened later and the 'dressed wound' will be coming off. It is only being dressed to help prevent the cambium from drying out additionally below the damage. We want a strong new shoot to emerge from the cambium at the circumference of the cut and the glue guarantees it. I've done it hundreds of times and it works. It's also helpful to wrap the bark immediately below the cut with grafting tape for an inch or so, with the grafting tape flush to the cut. This prevents an ugly bulge later. Give the tree some protection in an unheated garage or bury the container. If you intend to keep the plant in a container, unpot the tree before buds move in the spring, remove all the old soil, and prune the roots. Repot in a free-draining soil and the same pot (or smaller). The tree will back-bud and send out multiple shoots from the scion. Allow them all to grow wild, but immediately remove any shoots from below the graft, and train 1 robust shoot emerging from your cross-cut to the vertical, if necessary. After Father's Day, cut back by half all but the 1 vigorous shoot growing vertically. In spring before buds move (2011) taper the crosscut at a 45* angle with the high part of the cut terminating a tiny bit above where the new leader emerges. Use no sealant on the wound and it will close almost completely that year or the year after. Also remove all remaining branching from the trunk, leaving only the new leader. As I mentioned, this is no big deal, your tree is salvageable (or you can send it to me if you doubt) ;o) I've done it many, many times. Be careful not to over-water the stump in spring - easy to do. Sprouts from an A palmatum trunk: Al

Of course you can display it....soak it in 20% peroxide or clorox for several days and it will lighten up. And it probably isn't what's displayed on Worth Point as it's not an Aesthetic Movement pattern. The Chinese piece isn't discolored in the same way the English piece is....the glaze is not crackled....so all the soaking in the world won't change the discoloration.....but a good scrubbing will. And the mark is most likely NOT computer generated. That is a real piece of old Chinese porcelain, but I don't believe from 1890.....more like 1910. The Chinese often used the dynasty mark years after that dynasty had ended. 2 nice old pieces....but dirty. Clean them up....the colors won't fade. Linda C