PROPER WATERING SHOULD BE YOUR ONLY CONCERN .... and the only secondary concern.. is your ability to NOT love them to death .... pines thrive in MI .... put that part out of your head ... proper watering means the ability to get water to the roots that were all cut off for transplant .... and then allowing them to nearly dry before watering again .. while avoiding.... them standing in water for extended periods of time ... compared to our brethren who have clay .. you have great drainage .... even if some storm fills the hole.. full drainage within one day should be OK .... my bigger concern might be blacktop in february ... my kids walk around out there in single digits temps without shoes on sunny days... because the blacktop is so warm .. relatively speaking .... it is not good when the dormant frozen trees roots are brought out of dormancy due to heating of the blacktop .... you may want to consider some burlap along the south side ... to shade the soil from winter sun ... perhaps a new post regarding such .. if no one else chimes in here ... water properly ... deeply.. infrequently .... and nearly drying ... and you should be all set for summer and fall .. then start thinking about winter .... you live in MI .. you have been up north .... once you get north of flint.. pines cover most of the rest of the state ... with little or no help from humans ... ergo.. the suggestion that you dont love yours to death .... deal with the transplants issues .... and the tree will take care of the rest .... good luck ken

Gelsemium and Lithodora at peak now. Gelsemium sempervirens 'Margarita' is really putting on a show now! And it's evergreen and hardy in zone 6. What more can we ask of a vine? Lithodora 'Heavenly Blue' is looking good too. The hens and chicks and tiny sedum are tucked under a rock. Korean azalea and new (2011) upper garden. Needs a lot more plants but it's off to a pretty good start.

Thanks Loretta for the info on the lavenders. I don't have a lot of experience with them. I've been pleased with the shape mine are taking, but the scent is a bit off of what I had hoped for. Good advice. Janet, I was reading back through the posts and found the one where you commented about the pampas grass and palms. It just makes you shake your head and wonder what in the world they were thinking, doesn't it? I'll definitely be looking up some of the viburnums that have been mentioned. I can't find the specific post, but someone said they had to yank out their pyracantha because of problems. I spent some time yesterday in looking up the specific cotoneasters that could be used as a replacement if you're looking for a nice show of berries for the birds. I don't know if they'd be suitable for anyone, but I'm tossing in the idea for whatever it's worth. I believe they are also hosts for several butterflies, but don't know which species, and I also need to note that they can attract bees. Some have a slightly crinkly leaf similar to a viburnum, and the big ones often look a lot like a pyracantha until you get close enough to see that they don't have thorns. It's such a huge family to choose from, with a wide range in habit, from low groundcovers to big shrubs. Not all will do well in OK, but a lot of them will. Here are a few that look interesting, if anyone wants to follow them up. One variety or another seems to be happy in such wide variations as PA, Denver, Albuquerque, Georgia and a lot of places in between. Most of them are tough and low maintenance, and many have good fall or winter color. Bullatus is deciduous, up to 12' high and 10' wide. Hardy in zones 5-9 Lacteus takes dry to normal soil and is another big one. Zones 7 - 9. Parneyi is big and can be pruned to tree shape. heat/drought tolerant. Z 7-9 Congestus in small and round, in a fairly tight ball shape. Rockspray or cranberry is low and spreading Salicifolius is also low and wide. 1' high x 5' wide. Z 6-8 The first photo is of a lacteus laden with berries. Next is a bullatus in the fall. I stole the photo off the web but don't know who originally posted it. Pat

You know, it's funny that someone posted on this thread just now. Just two days ago, I ended up accidentally dropping a plate from normal carrying height in the kitchen. The plate shattered and ended up scratching two planks. Well, one of the planks is more like a gash, while the other one has two surface scratches. Not bad, but still kind of annoyed. My original floor installers will replace the planks for me with my spares whenever they install some new baseboards in my garage in July. Other than that little incident, my floors have been pretty durable over the last year with no real issues, although I did freak out once when my bug guy dragged my stove out from its spot to spray. I told him to not do that again. I did, however, send a snarky e-mail to Mowhawk, telling them that they probably shouldn't market a floor as "scratch resistant" while conveniently excluding scratches from the warranty. It is what it is, I guess. I still haven't done my upstairs yet, which probably won't be until next year, but rest assured, I'm going to always make sure I have extra boxes of planks at all times. Better to overprepare than underprepare. As for the creaking. I still have some creaks in a few spots and do notice some "play" in certain areas around the perimeter, but these are typically in areas that I never walk on.