I hope Santa is very good to you all and brings you whatever garden gifts you want. I'd really like a garden helper/handyman but they are pretty scarce. I would also like a garden bench altho I might spend too much time just sitting and not gardening! ;-D I think those Travelocity gnomes are cute also and QVC does have them - link below. There are not a lot of 'things' I need for my garden and I like to choose them myself so I'm not making garden gift suggestions to family. No longer buying gardening books. Would like a new birdbath to replace the cheap plastic one but I made the birds a glass totem birdbath and only the chipmunks use it. The birds seem to prefer the cheap plastic one that's elevated 6' high - I guess they feel safer there. I buy a few garden decorations every year mostly at yard sales and have made more totems, etc. than my garden needs. Mother's Day is when I get my garden goodies, not Christmas, as the plant nurseries have just opened here and my enthusiasm is high. Right now I'm hibernating just like my garden! LOL Here is a link that might be useful: Travelocity gnome

My banana is not only doing better but much better! He seems to be extremely happy now! He's got his 7th leaf coming out! (Ignore the boxes. They are critical to maintaining his happiness, I swear!) So spring seems to have come absurdly early. I'm both really excited and enjoying this warmth and really really worried. My peach is blooming 3 weeks earlier than last year. As well as my nectarines. Ralph, remember I had a bunch of baby purple leafed peaches? Well I guess they're old enough to bloom too! Completely unexpected! The ones I potted up but didn't bring to plant swap (potted same time as plant swaps) didn't bloom so I guess they got too much shock from being transplanted, so whoever got them last time it probably won't this year, but next year seems likely! But most worrisome of all... 3 of the 6 blueberries I have are in bud, and one of them has started blooming... I know there are various types that bloom at different times of the year but this seems absurd! Of course after checking out weather for the week looks like we're going to get a frost! Obviously! I just hope I get SOME peaches... :( Anyone know what this is? Its in a few spots of the garden so I think its a pack of bulbs I got and planted and forgot about... but they're anemones right? Just that most of the pictures I looked up have black insides not yellow. In addition to all those... I see that my pink banana (musa velutina) is coming up. My black magic taro, midori taro, black and blue salvia, purple and black salvia, my crinium, all those irises I got from the swap, the canna lilies you gave me Ralph, my candy lily, and my toad lily (which ALSO seems to have spread some! there's a sprout about a foot away from the main body! WHICH IS AWESOME). I'm just worried that some of these are tender and shouldn't be arriving so quickly =___=; Like the taros and bananas... But some like this quince is perfectly fine to bloom now. No fruit expected so go enjoy yourself lil quincey! What sites do you guys use to check for frost? What's your assumed last frost date around here? Do you use the 50% value or wait longer? As for the plant swap coming this spring... (when is it again?) I may have gotten a little excited with seeds: Of the things I should have extras of to bring... some cardoons and artichokes (started in beginning of January so would be nice and ready for spring), some edible hibiscus (Roselles), cape gooseberries, naranjilla, and maybe some others... have 27 varieties of tomatoes which I need to separate the seedlings for and throw into other pots so we'll see how much space I have for spares :3 Ralph, the coleus you gave me at last swap is doing great btw! I gave him a haircut and making some more cuttings of him... should have some cuttings from various salvias as well (although I'll be honest... I let too many of them sit in tray of water too long and got root rot :( whoops... added a bunch of pebbles/stones to them now so pots sit above the drained out water so hopefully the rest survive .___. ) Also, if there was anything anyone wanted from these seeds https://imgur.com/a/trPlW I can throw in a pot and start for you guys before the next swap :) And Karen, you are right. There has been a lot going on outside, although to be fair right now its getting confused with all this warmth. I do need to get myself some more winter plants though! Like lenten roses. And yes... the greenhouse... I'm debating going halfway and getting a quick cheap(ish) throwup structure to enjoy now and then later getting a fullblown one (...maybe I'll get a different house w/ more land... hahaha.) or just going all out now... I do kinda wanna do everything which tends to be warmer/humid environments but that could get really expensive in winter so still debating on what the focus should be... did you buy a prefabricated one or completely create it yourself? Any recommendations for which sites to look at pre-fab ones?

Am so excited to have drupes on the new Edgeworthia papyrifera that I got this spring. If I can catch them at the right stage of ripe and then get them to germinate ~a year from now, it will probably only be another decade before flowering. So why am I so excited? I don't know but have decided to just enjoy the moment.

Ralph, is that guy hardy? I forgot.. As for getting to the exchange, I was surprised at how difficult it is to find it from main page. I just use these existing threads that have emails about, and go to the top and click the "Carolina Garden Exchange" button, and it brings me to it. Though I did finally find it from main page... (if not for this question I wouldn't have spent time to look, because got irritated before at being unable to find it, but found it easier this time for some reason) Go to the Stories and Advice and choose Gardenweb Discussions: Then go to the side bar and click Exchanges and Trading: That will bring you to a list of all the exchanges and can choose Carolina Exchange from there.