'... I think that these trees @ Nat'l Arboretum and the one @ UDEL, Newark are the northernmost Live Oak in eastern N. America....' Well, Newark Delaware is pretty far north, but certainly there are live oaks growing further north than the Nat'l Arboretum. I know of several in Sterling, VA, for example. That's quite a ways west too. Lots of acorns in my trees this year. Quickly becoming squirrel food. I don't mind. At least they're not bothering persimmons this year. And what am I going to do with hundreds of acorns?

Well, we still have the extensive Mid Atlantic snow pack from the big blizzard of 2016, though overall, Winter has been relatively mild and real frost only came after Christmas. I have some conifers: mature Eastern Hemlocks (they are limbed up so no damage gets done and they even seem to ignore them in the rut) Cephalotaxus (Japanese Plum yew); the deer will munch on the vertical grower and ignore the horizontal one in another part of the year...??, don't know why) Weeping Atlas Cedar (was hoping this one would be resistant but it's not; the vertical growing variety is beyond their reach so safe). Mugo and Bosnian pines were eaten to the ground last Winter. On other evergreens, I have never seen them eat ferns or the clumping bamboos. This year they seem to have eased off on the red-tip Photinia. Rhododendrons, Holly and Camellia are ignored. (Last year, holly were being eaten. In fact, last Winter was SOOOO bad...., I saw them eating YUCCA and Magnolia leaves (that's the equivalent of eating leather for us humans.) They love Aucuba japonica and mine is still recovering from last year's damage. Boxwood is always reliably resistant. Once the snow pack melts some, will be curious to see what they did to newly planted Osmanthus heterophyllus (supposedly resistant). I have given up on a few plants completely..., Euonymous japonica, Hosta. Other plants that are evergreen that they have ignored for me are Christmas Rose, Dusty Millers, Rosemary, Bay Laurel, and Cherry Laurel.

Down time, a most appropriate name for my garden. It's in this mode for most of the year. May and June are the months when my garden looks it's best and then it slows down to a tangled mess for the rest of the summer, I'm not even going to mention fall. This summer was disastrous, I was laid up for most of the summer so nothing got done except for some watering which dh did for me. Some things got missed so whether they come back or not time will tell. Anyone tell me where I can find a new pair of legs? What Camp said sounded so familiar..."I am altogether harsh on myself about my garden. I am my own worst enemy though, because just when it starts to look OK, I get bored and need a change...so everything is always in a state of halfway done, chaos or wreckage. Like Flora, the dominant colour is always green but this garden obsessive (and, I am ashamed to say, greedy and demanding plant crazed mentalist)".... these words could have come out of my mouth up until now. I've never done much out front other than try to keep it looking tidy, when I did plant interesting things out there they seemed to disappear in the middle of the night or when we were out. We even came home one fall day to find someone had cut most of the hydrangea blooms off the one at the bottom of the steps. Needless to say without the protection of those dried blooms over winter, it didn't flower the next year. My bad, but the air was blue for awhile. We had to put a new water line into the house last fall so that hydrangea had to go but I managed to keep a couple of pieces and planted elsewhere. So, what to do with the little border that was dug up for the water line. I planted the Alma Potschke asters Sunny sent me, pinched twice they grew into beautiful plants just starting to bloom now. Even with the pinching they grew quite tall and the bamboo and wire stakes I ended up using were not strong enough so they needed some additional staking to keep them upright. Next year they will definitely be staked with the rebar and wire stakes I usually use. These asters have brought the honey bees that have been absent from my garden all year. I'm having to seriously rethink my garden over the winter, I will always have a garden but I'm afraid the time has come where it's going to have to be a garden where it can be left to it's own devices, so more shrubs and mulch in some of the areas where I have had perennials. The top garden I'll keep for perennials like phlox and some of the others I love but the rest has to become low maintenance. It's this or no garden at all :(. Annette

Chris G., if I can grow them in shade they should be fine in some shade because you are warmer than my area. I have a really pyramid one that is orange in the spring and yellow late summer. A really pretty one that is red and it blooms small yellow flowers in late Spring. I like them I do not remember the names I picked them up at my local nursery and they are at least a plant the deer do not eat. I have so much trouble trying to garden with all the critters.