Today GW has been slow to load. In fact one thread never did load so had to go back to the list of threads and try a different thread altogether. So far today, the ad has not gone crazy covering the words. Hopefully the powers that be have mastered this problem. Like so many of you, I sense a shift in the people who post here and the GW atmosphere. I've only been around for 1 and 1/2 years, but I agree with Breezy that it seems that many of the long time members who posted a lot when I first found GW are not frequenting the site. This makes me sad. It is selfish on my part, but I had hoped that they would be around to help with my kitchen layout for our reno. They really give valuable insight! I have marveled at their skill and also their generosity of time spent helping others. So Breezy, Rhome, Marcolo, and so many more of you talented people please don't leave GW. Persons like me really need and appreciate your advice. You are Godsends to those of us who are floundering in this remodel maze!

I just gave up...... After having a Gardenweb account since forever, since back when it was an offshoot of the "Parent Soup" channel thing at AOL.back in the mid-late 1990's and was still doing the same thing at the various changes and new corporate whatevers and never had an issue before or after changing my email address to Gmail in April 2004. I finally just entered a new account name at the same exact email address I have maintained since April 2004 and seemingly have either no "old" account or the new account has no conflict with the old. The old just not being able to "sign in". I have been doing this sort of thing since 1990 before even AOL back when "online" was a BBS running off of a hot rod 2400 Baud modem plug in card on an Apple IIE. I have never been one tobe concerned with site appearances, but the Huuzz scheme fonts colors layout everything, is absolutely horrendous. Just my $.02 worth..... YMMV

I have not gotten anything from writing to them yesterday other then the standard automated response: Your request (#2438949) has been received and is being reviewed by our Customer Support staff. We strive to respond to all requests within 2 business days. Our normal hours of operation are Monday-Friday, 8am-6pm Pacific time, excluding holidays.

People who need to know a particular tree wants to grow over 60 ft. tall where conditions permit are those wanting to plant the same kind where there is room for one about 15 ft. tall. Something that happens a lot, particularly when many appear to think "big tree" = 15 ft. The physical demonstration of genetic programming recorded by those measuring fully developed examples illustrates the inherent character of trees being considered. Doesn't matter if they don't all grow 100 ft. tall everywhere, when even half that would overwhelm the planting site. Or that it might take 50 years for them to get big. It costs thousands of dollars to hire a qualified tree service to remove one big tree in a developed setting, where it can't just be sawed through at the base and allowed to fall where it may. And left to rot. Why ever choose a tree for an inadequate space, when a smaller kind could have been planted instead? Denial that a particular kind does often loom large does not prevent this problem from developing down the road. Plants that burn - or worse - every time there is a sharp winter may not really qualify as landscape staples. Certainly not as the ironclad, fail-proof unchanging purchases probably nearly all non-hobbyists are visualizing at the time they bring landscape plants home and install them. Hence the value of pointing out specific items aren't, in fact totally hardy - as in never damaged by cold. This is why there are hardiness rating systems and hardiness categories like fully hardy, half hardy and so on - people want to know where each plant falls on the spectrum, what to expect.