It's nice to hear some good rosy news this morning. Thanks! Of course, now you are obligated to show us some pictures when it starts blooming. ;^)

Hi Lisa, Interesting comment about the daylilies. I had heard they can survive nearly anything and was going to put some in here. I wonder if some are more heat tolerant than others? I've got a couple of hardy agapanthus that never bloomed this year. The growth is smaller than usual and now they've got burned tips on the leaves. I've had mixed results in trying for perennial lantana, and some surprises. I'm really pushing their hardiness zone, but wanted to see if they'd winter over. Miss Huff is supposed to be the hardiest of them, but I lost all the ones I planted 2 years ago. Last year I tried again with Miss Huff and the darker one that I think is Confetti, which is supposed to be annual. The ones on a south-facing wall all came back surprisingly well. Miss Huff survived but never grew to any size or bloomed well for me. The Confetti have been the toughest ones. Not quite as big or vigorous as last year, but no whitefly either, so that's a relief. Used just as annuals they are pretty unbeatable, but I can't always find them to plant, which is why I'm trying to keep them going. The John Deere dealer in Shawnee has a bank of them on their south wall and they come back big and full every year, so there has to be a way to do it. Betty, I haven't measured my veggie bed and will be making adjustments when we set it up for the permanent stuff. It's about 20' deep and maybe 5 rows wide once we get everything in place. I'm only growing enough for the family and to share with friends. Anything larger would be too much for me to care for, I think, and if we have another bad year I'll need to think about the water needs also. Have you thought about using Wall-o-Water for your tomatoes? That way you don't need the cages and can still get them started early. You could also put in 3 or 4 short stakes around each plant and then wrap something like Garden Quilt around and over them. Either way would be easy to remove when the weather is warm enough, and you could use your regular T-post method and not need cages. As for me, I've never found a tomato cage I really liked or that I felt was effective and easy to use. The bottom wires bend and the cages flop over when the plants get big and they are just annoying. This will be my first year of using cattle panels for them, so it will be an interesting experiment. I just hope the weather cooperates more than it's doing this year. Pat

Vickey, it's absolutely wonderful. Your daughter in law is really, really lucky. I think you'd better give it to her well before the wedding. If you give it to her then, she is sure to cry and ruin her makeup! Congratulations.

Glad your whale watch actually found some whales! Our winter breaks on Maui coincide with Whale Season in Hawaii -- best viewed from Maui and Big Island of Hawaii. Whales migrate from Alaska to warmer waters to calve -- and to mate. There are astounding breaches by bulls competing to impress the cows. Using binoculars, I can see a lot of 'showboating' from our condo's lanai. Last Christmas we took our son and his family on a morning whale watch out of Maalaea harbor. We were fortunate to have a calm day, with a sea like glass. The bay is a favorite 'nursery' for whales, and we were only out five minutes before seeing a cow, her newborn calf, and an accompanying 'auntie'. (Auntie cows aid with the babies and help keep too-eager bulls at bay.) Later, we were still in the water watching a pod of dolphins when a young bull came alongside the boat and then went under us to the other side. We could almost scratch his back! I don't expect to experience that again. (By law, boats must keep a good distance from whales, but a pilot can only cut engines and wait when a whale decides to approach.)