Plant propagation part XXIII based on my own experience

you can also e-mail the doc to youself and then store it in a saved folder in your e-mail.

Dave, I was the one that asked. I have this Queen of Sheba that is growing into an enormous plant. I cut it to the ground every "winter". I am going to do some rooting in the dirt layering but I wanted to try air layering also. I think I can make something like that one you posted on the link. Why not, I have nothing else to do. LOL.

One of the Vice Presidents of the landscape company and I had quite a lengthy discussion today. One of the things we discussed was protecting temperature sensitive plants from the cold. Now this is zone 9b cold. He has Banana pl,ants, Plumeria and Queen Palms. He wraps them with clear, always on Christmas lights. Always on means if one burns out the rest stay on. I am going to try it.

Baby Luke and his mother will be her tomorrow night and will return home on the evening of the 9th. His 1st birthday was yesterday. The photo attached is Luke with his birthday cake.

Vern worked out today at the gym and had a good workout. He has been going with me every morning when I walk the dogs. So it is getting easier getting him off the couch.

We broke a record all time high temperature for this date. 86 degrees and absolutely beautiful. Temperatures are suppose to fall middle of next week into low 70s to high 60s. Later friends.

That baby sure is growing!! A real doll. Is he walking Sharon? Bet he is hard to keep up with.

It sounds like Vern is doing outstanding. That is just great.

We are having good temperatures here too. 59 degrees. Not bad for November for us.

One of the other DGers told me my Elephant Ears aren't going to do good outside in my deck box. So, I guess I had better get them in and see. The first freeze killed the tops so I hope the bulbs are ok. The one had 4 pups.

Jnette, this is a photo of one of your babies.

Sorry, forgot to attach photo. I have not downloaded from camera yet. Tomorrow. I am going to bed. Went to bed last night early and still did not go to sleep until after 3am.

This is the latest photo of Hannah enjoying college in Hawaii. LOL. But she is a straight A student.

She is a very pretty girl. What a way to go to school!! Glad she is making something of it tho. good for her.

nite.

Beautiful family lady.

Mornin glory: LOL

Another method for winter protection is to use hot water tank blanket, insulation and bubble wrap. We get a few people that like to challenge themselves and grow mexican fan palms here. I was suprised to see they tolerated the chill just fine it just seemed like a lot of work for a few silly palm trees. of course who am I to talk ... i drag in my banannas every fall and fight to keep them going.

The other method of air layerin I like to call Rock on stem technique works quite well on a lot of plants. I get quite a few of those in the nursery. I don't always see them untill the fall when I compact everyone for winter. There has got to be better way to winter everyone over.
The problem I have with the only other way i am familiar with is using mini-hoop houses, is makeing sure they have enough water throughout the winter. I may look into burying a valve or 2 and running some pvc. I just figuired out another option.
The home building industry has developed a product called pex. Its a hose like material that wont burst when frozen. it swells when frozen and then when it defrosts it just shrinks back to normal size. There has to be a limit to how much it will take though. I will try to take pics when I do it.

well as you all most likely were thinking I couldn't stand it. have my propagation cart and let it sit empty. I decided to soak som hellibore seeds day before yesterday and I am going to plant them today. The plan is to keep them on the cart with a heat mat untill we go to florida for christmas. I will move the trays out to the greenhouse right before we leave and they will stay there untill spring. I got seeds of Joy Hybrids and Christmas Rose. I am not sure if the Christmas Rose is a hybrid name or the general name for the entire species, as the tag reads ( Helleborus niger "christmas Hellebore" Christmas Rose) and ("Helleborus x hybridus "joy Hybrids" Christmas Rose). I got my seeds from www.seedaholic.com I like the packaging they used on the seeds. very professional looking site.

I kind of got side tracked looking over all the neat seeds. ooops there goes the garden budget again. lots of low growers I want to try out. It looks like I am moving more towards the low growers more and more.

sorry for the long book
Have a great afternoon
Dave

I had salvaged 2 pumpkins on a stick and 2 ornamental egg plants and they were just blooming. The frost got all four of them yesterday and today it rained all day and was only up into the high 50s. So much for that. I have yet to grow anything from seeds. The pumpkin on a stick seeds that I gave to my friend who has the farmers market stand showed me hers yesterday. They are wonderful. They actually look like pumpkins. Amazing. Did any of you ever plant those seeds. Or was it on another forum we discussed them. Hmmmm do not remember.

I had to take four of my houseplants outside and hose them down in the rain today because Mealy Bug was all over them. I am so disgusted I am about to throw everything away and close up the greenhouse and shut down the business. The weather has been so beautiful I was beginning to feel alive again, then today and the past few nights were so ugly and cold, what can I say. Can't do anything about it.

Here is what I spent some money on this past month. I had my old jeep painted. Sun makes it look a bit dusty, when in fact it is pure white and black. Beautiful.

Dave, I should have sent you my helebore seeds I collected from my plants. I don't have the patience to grow them in pots. I think they take something like 18 months to germinate don't they?

I get small plants coming up all around the mother plant., But put the nets over the blossoms this year and got a lot of seeds. LOL, different.

Florida yet!! How nice.

Well, trying to repot some house plants for winter so gotta run.

JB we crossposted again. LOL

That is beautiful!! Did you put that kind of pearl finish on it? I think that keeps it from getting too dirty and looks like it would just have to be hosed off once in a while rather than cleaned all the time.

Just a cute little old lady in her cute jeep. Pretty neat. I'm sorry, not so old.


Hey, I thought you bought yourself a new ipod? What did you do to deserve all of these things???

This message was edited Nov 4, 2010 1:05 PM

Jeanette: maybe next year on the seeds. from my understanding it takes like 1 to 18 months for germination. its sporatic at best. I soaked my seed in my magic concoction so i hope it will help them germinate. I believe its best to dig the babies around momma, but its also fun to seeif it can be done and how long does it actually take.
I will do them like all the other tough stuff. put them in flats and harvest the sprouted ones and stick the flat in a back corner in the GH.
well time to get busy
Dave

SeedLiving has a neat Youtube video on stratifying and I posted it on my Facebook. If you are on facebook look for me as a friend. Jacquie F. Berger ,my icon is an old lady with a little dog,,cartoon like.
I am not sure I want to list on Seedliving to trade or sell because even though they have made a special HOUSE PLANT section, I do not ship out of the USA (continental) and they are a Canadian site. Yet they seem to have a lot of neat stuff for seed growers. Have you guys looked at the site yet? SeedLiving.com
I spent my money on myself this year. I had not taken a vacation in years, the last thing I bought myself was the deck awning, which I love, and now I had them restore my old jeep.
You can not take it with you..................and I have done all the traveling I want to do, so here I am spending it on my old baby. You should see my 1989 Chevie SR10 Pick Up. It is like new, but that was done before I moved here. That is Barney's vehicle. LOL
He is doing so well since I grind up his chicken and give him cut spaghetti. He seems so much more active and his stomach is good. That is as of today. Tomorrow he could go wild again. He is old too. LOL Hugs. JB

I just got done making a batch of food for my dogs JB. Rice, chicken, carrots, beans, peas, and eggs. They love it and have slimmed down nice since I started making it for them. I make a batch and it lasts almost 2 weeks.

I don't grind it all up tho. I am sure I would if they were in Barney's condition tho.

So far so good Jeanette with the plants. My fingers are crossed. I am not sure how my Mexican Petunias are doing. I have them inside in a window, but they may need to be outside.

My yard looks so ugly in the Winter. UHG! I see all the leaves starting to change and some have fallen and it looks like crap. Uh OH, here goes my depressing season.

What did you end up doing with them Dawn?

Everyone's yards look bad in the winter unless of course you . lived in Las Vegas. LOL

There is not a whole lot you can do about the change in seasons so work with your house plants in the winter. Get one or two that grow in the winter, like Christmas Cactus or something. A lot of philodendrons are continually growing. Give them a little light, use peroxide when you water house plants in the winter, and they will do great.

I wish we had the weather Vegas has especailly in the winter. I hate the cold and through in wet and humid its a trifecta.

I know when its winter we all hunker down and stay inside to keep warm. the plants have to go through the ugly stage so they can come back next year all nice refreshed and rested ready to give us a great show.

Are you visiting relatives when you go to Florida for Christmas Dave? How long are you going for? Long enough to bake the cold out of you?

That will be a nice trip. Good time to go. Back in time for the really cold weather. LOL

Hi peeps!

Just dropping in to say hi.

Sharon ... I know you will think of a clever way to create a rooting pot. But please share your thoughts and progress.

I have been pending a great deal of time trying to get my new cell phone activated with Net10.

Finally obtained success!

Mary

howdy:
yes I will be staying with my grandfather and visiting relatives from the area. The funny thing is that just before I left sarasota my grandfather moved north about an hour and ahalf so its like visiting an unknown planet. and boy is it ever. one one side you have the retirees. delt with them most of my life and its no big deal. but then you get into the country part of florida and boy I swear I hear banjo music. Its a whole other world.
unfortunately we will return just in time for the big winter blast we always enjoy right after new years. I just hope its not the super cold artic blast followed by warm jet stream out of the gulf and then repeat the same thing over and over. I swear we had 4 runs of that one year right after I moved back to oklahoma.
I managed to get my GH buttoned down today. good ting i looked at it. I had a piece of the roof fall in. its that thin double wall poly sheeting so it didn't break or hurt anything. It just the GH is getting old and the sun here does a number on plastics. Some one once told me we have the most clear sunny days in the states except for florida. I don't know how true it is but things do break down faster than expected.
I watered everyone down today also as we are suposed to have our 1st hard freeze tonight and then back to the 70's next week
well its time for bed.

Have a great night...don't get too rowdy tonight
Dave

How are you all doing? Now that the east coast and mid west are in bed we can be rowdy. LOL.

Sharon, you must have something going on. Haven't heard from you for a bit.

Dawn, keep me posted on how the brugs are doing. Remember to keep them moist, but not soggy. Where did you end up planting them? They should have some light. I cut buds off of them you know. Plus all the leaves. Or most of them.

Evelyn, where are you? I forgot you are having computer issues. Well, when you can.

Guess I will see if there is anything on TV. ttyl,

Jeanette I put them in my holding garden, (I stole the name from Sharon) since that was in essence what it is. It is in there about 8 inches down and in a sunny spot, which we have had 80-90 deg. weather for some nutty reason since Fall and the whole summer was mild. Biblical prophesy. Anyways I planted them there and they seem quite happy and the sprinkler comes on daily, it was on 2 x's a day but we changed it to one time now. I keep looking at them and they are fine. I may buy some hay bales to put in front of the garden to sort of be a wind block there though, since it is not sheltered in the Winter there but by other plants.

Hi everyone. Had to make another trip to Billings Funny, not so funny story. My daughter in Wa has a 2year old who decided to give her computer a drink of water. Computer didn't like it, guess it wasn't thirsty!!! Anyway, daughter didn't have the money to buy another and she needs it for their business, so it was Mom and Dad to the rescue. BUT have you ever tried to buy something in one state and pick it up in another????? (That is without shipping it out) Well, let me tell you it isn't easy. Spent 2 days and a round trip of 300 miles to get-r-done. All is well now, I guess. She was finally able to pick it up late yesterday. What a hassel. Just thought I'd share. Weather has been crazy. I think we are getting spring finally :) Been in the 70's for a week now. They say it will get colder come Monday. Course nite-time is down in the30-40. Halloween is all put away for another year. Guess it is time to bring out the unfinished quilts and etc. Later, Lee

Are you going to leave the brug out there all winter Dawn? That should be interesting. Just mulch it good. I don't know tho, if it doesn't have a good root system it may not make it. When does it get cold, and how cold does it get?

Look at it up close real good, right in the center of the new growth and look for real fine webs. Do that every time you go out there. If you see any you treat it fast. I really don't know how to tell you to work with these plants because I am not familiar with your weather.

If you see any, let me know and we will figure out what to do with them. I just hope you did not plant them close to other plants for a while.

Lee, who did you buy the computer from? Why couldn't your daughter pick it up?

Best Buy, and I wouldn't go there again if they were the last store on earth!! First day they said it would be 1 hr since I had to buy it on line and specify a store pick up ( wouldn't take a CC# over the phone) After an hr she went to pick it up and they said it hadn't gone through yet, so with Cranky Frankee, she waited another hr, then called me--I called them and they said there was a bank hold on the card,,NOT!! Icalled the main online service desk, they said no there wasn't and it would be another 15-20 minutes but all was fine. ( I used Discover card-$7500 limit with no charges since I pay it off each month so I know there was no hold on it) After 3 hrs of waiting, they still told her the same thing so I called Discover-the charge had gone through. Why the H they couldn't finish the deal, I don't know, so Mad as I was, I canceled the whole thing. But now she still needs the ^&*( computer, so we decided to go to Billings and go from Costco to Costco with a gift card. Drove 150 miles, then found Costco only had the Dell on line, not in the warehouse grrrrrrrrrrr. Now what to do??? no one else in Billings carries Dell. Now I have to put tongue in cheek, and go back to Best Buy. Customer Service said, Hey no problem, give me the number of the item, and we will do a store to store. It will take about half hour and she can pick it up just tell her not to forget her ID she would need it . Paid the bill, called her, and she went to pick up 2 hrs later, giving them plenty of time to get it to the service desk. Now what you ask!!! Well, Billings didn't put her name on it, they put mine. After all that, I called Billings, they said all was taken care of, "sorry bout that". She finally got the darn thing 2 hours later Talk about HOT, I am still furious with them and their attitude. I was treated like a criminal and so was she. But there was no other way to get one to her other than shipping, and that would have taken 10 12 days. Moral---Stay away from Best Buy!!!!!!! Lee

That is amazing. I suppose there were a few things snagging it. i.e. your name and card for her to pick up, something holding your card up, having to drive all that way and back. Problems with costco, How is your blood pressure now Lee? Not good I'll bet.

You see, I had to go into Best Buy a couple of weeks ago 'cause I needed a new router. First I googled the name of the router than went bad, Linksys, and discovered Cisco mfgd it, so emailed them and told them the set up I had and what number new router do I need.

They emailed the number back and told me the price I should get it for, I googled BB to see if they had it in the store in Spokane, they did, so I went into BB and was out in 10 minutes with a new router. But, I didn't have anything odd about the transaction like you did.

Also got an email back from Cisco telling me that if I had any problems to call and they would walk me thru it. But didn't have any problems at all.

Glad things work out for some people. It is just my luck the way things happen. Begining to think I have one of those dark clouds over my head. Wish it would go away ;)

I am checking in for a moment. Baby Luke is in town and his mother is everywhere but here so I have my hands full. He is adorable but is just getting around to remembering me. I did expect that so I am OK with that.

We have colder weather coming so I need to get things covered tomorrow. At least I only have about 4 things. The rest are in the garage.

I have dinner at our daughter's tomorrow night and I am right in the middle of cleaning out the pantry. Take into consideration, this pantry is large. I cleaned 1/3 yesterday and it took me 4 hours. But I am doing a complete rearranging, cleaning because DH cannot find anything. But he is the one that messed it up.

Heather and Luke were gone all day yesterday but I had community gardening followup with the landscapers so I am spinning like a top but this to shall pass and then the weather will get cold, below 80, and I will be in the house.

Lee you do not have a black loud, you were just dealing with a computer screw up and there is no hope. Once the order has gone bad, it stays bad. I usually have good luck with Best Buy.

Take care everyone. I will check in but with company, especially 1 year old, cannot spend much time on the computer. Love you. Sharon.

Jeanette WEBS? I must have missed part of a post. What webs? What condition is that and why would you suspect that? I am trying to keep them out in the sunniest spot I have for now and keep them damp but not wet, wet as you said, but if they root I can easily pot them up and bring them in, but I should not get a hard freeze, more than likely till the earliest Thanksgiving and the latest right around new years. I can put them in protection outside too with my old evaporative cooler pads and maybe like Sharon said, a hot water heater blanket too, tucked between the pots that are in front of it right now, but I think I will bring them in if they do have roots. I have bad luck transplanting tiny roots into pots, as I press the soil the new roots snap off.

Where do you buy your worms from. I want to buy some. Do you guys use bat guano for anything in your gardens?

I totally get how that sucks leebauch, my dd just needed money to help pay her rent since her husband has moved out and her root mate too.

Dawn, I think she was referring to spider mite webs.

If you want worms, put leaves and garden scraps and kitchen vegetable scraps in a hole, add some water to make it moist and the worms will come.

GM Peeps!

Welcome to dayligjt savings time!

I'm waiting for my morning coffee to brew.

Still quite a bit to do outside. I just hate these days with fewer hours of sunlight.

Presently a chilly 35 ... suppose to go up to 50 ...... brrrrrr but they are forecasting a high of 65 for Thurs.

Mon and Tues I will be volunteering to assist students in math. Hopefully, I can do some outside work also before it gets dark .... which now will be an hour earlier.

I am hoping the leaves are dry enough today to do some more shredding so I can winterized another bed.

Love Ya All

MARY

Mary Girl, do not confuse this old lady. I tuirned the clocks back, which put me back on standard time, not daylight time. I think you are testing me. LOL

Weather is colder than I like but great for walking, which of course I do twice daily. I hate the treadmill, so I walk outside as long as I can. That is about the only good exercise I get. Working just does not cut it for me as exercise. Wish it did.

Tomorrow is the day for my Stress Test. My BP went up to 160/80 this morning which of course shows the anxiety. I feel better knowing that the EKG that caused this uproar showed "left bundle branch block", which is very common in many people. I only found that out Friday from my Family Doctor. Why she did not tell me that sooner is beyond me. I hate doctors.

The Christmas Cactus are starting to bloom. Too early for Christmas but I can not seem to keep them from setting their buds. They are so tiny, but so cute.

Sounds like you are all doing well and having a great time preparing for Winter. At least we will all have more time to chat then.
We started to prepare the Christmas Store and take inventory on what I need to make for sale . I am in pretty good shape with inventory already made. I will start to work on that Tuesday. We Open Nov. Nov. 26th. Believe it or not, we put up the red bows yesterday on the field trees as a part of our decorations and one of our customers came in and tagged his tree already. They brought their own ribbon and they decorated their tree in the field with all their Christmas Ribbon. People are so funny. We have one lady that tags her next year tree when she picks up her tree for this year.
Think I will go to Mass since I am an hour earlier in getting done. Need to feed the birds
and have a few things to do with my SIL. Daughter has a Dept. of Ag meeting all day so she is working. Have a good day. It is a beauty here. Hugs. JB

Good evening folks:
not much going on here. Finally got the gh battened down. found a great product called Gorrila tape. The ole green house is starting to shift and fall apart which is not good. I did something that seems to look good. I made a makeshift hinge with 2 pieces of the tape. It allows the doors to swing but closes up the gaps around the doors.
The creeping Phlox has started to root out which is good. I am hopefull that come late march they will be ready. I am also toying with the idea of doing a few flats of dianthus on the grow cart then moving them outside mid to late December. I have never tried this so it will be an experament to see how well it will do. Of course it will be move to the unheated GH then outside to harden off.
Tomorrow will be mad planting day. I discovered a flat of pampas grass seedlings I forgot about....OOOPPPSS... they look big enough for gallons I just hope they survive the winter. it would be nice to start the spring with gallon pampas grass. The plan is to have a couple of hundred gallons and several trays of 3.5" pots to do a week end sale in the drive way. I had first thought of taking them to my folks neighborhood for their annual spring garage sale. I am not sure if their spot would be best vs my driveway. well I don't have to decide until next spring so I have plenty of time.

Lee: I feel your pain, I hate it when they make it difficult to buy from them. I would have suggested to call and order straight from dell but it sounds like you have it all sorted out. I only go to BB or any of the bigger electronic stores if I know what I want and am ready to buy.

JB: It sounds like your christmas season has started. How many hours a day are you open? do you sell your CC at the farm also?. I will look up in one of my old school notebooks. We covered them as one of the crops in floriculture. For some reason I tried to hang onto the old notebooks because they could become important or use full. For some reason I think there is a way to adjust the flowering rate. I remember we were moving easter lilies from one end to the other of the greenhouse because they were either forming too fast or not fast enough. I think we moved the silly things at least a dozen times.

Have a great day
Dave

I will sell them if anyone wants to buy tiny starters as Hostess Gifts....but I do not take alot of them to the Christmas Store because it is such a shock due to the way we heat the store. It is in the barn and gets cold even with the space heaters on. There is a way to keep them flowering but I have so many I have no place to put them. They are all looking good now and I am hoping to have enough to sell. I want to sell out. My new colors I purchased as cuttings are looking great. Next year I will have six more different colors. I am excited about that. I love them and they are so easy to grow.
Pray for me guys..........I will talk to you tomorrow if all goes well. Love you all. Hugs. JB

I never have seen spider mites except on inside plants here in California. We may have them though.

It is freezing and windy all of a sudden, how about you Sharon? Looks stormy.

Gosh! I am so far behind in reading all of your posts...I have been busy. Mostly cleaning and organizing, but yesterday we had dinner with friends. I will try and catch up here...then, back to work for me. Is anyone here besides Dave working on any projects through the winter? I will be sowing lots of seeds both outdoors and indoors as well as taking a few cuttings. I had no idea that my cuttings would do so well outside over the winter. No disease to worry about, that is after I ventilated them after they took root. Outdoors on the cold back porch all winter. Just a couple of things...dianthus and Golden Vicary Privet.


Dawn ~ It has been raining all day here. I am cleaning everything out, so I may be here off and on. I am saving tomorrow to call HP, as the desktop still does not dial out. I hate to ask this, but in one of your posts you said, "biblical prophecy" after you said the summer and fall was mild. Fall is not over until Dec 21st or so. Not mild for a lot of states, but fortunately for us, it has been. It's time for you to get into your "snuggie"...LOL

Dave ~ The pampas grass will probably survive anything. It is on our restricted plants list here, though I have never seen them get out of hand. They are planted in landscapes all around here anyway. I do not think you can kill them once they get up to a certain size. They get too large for our setting. I do not want to try and build a large deer-proof garden around them so they won't look out of place. Dave, do you want me to try and root some of the Golden Vicary Privet for you this winter, if the deer don't beat me to it? Actually, I had to trim it last year becuase the deer did not do a nice job of pruning...LOL!!It is deciduous and hardy, and it will be golden if it gets enough sunshine. They are fast growers after the first year.

JB ~ If you put the Christmas cactus in a closet, will it slow down their blooming? (Just an idea...)OK, now I read your later post and you have no where to put them. How about covering them with "space blankets"??...ask Dave about this one...I got some for my plants I will have outside on the back porch for when it gets very cold. Good luck with your tests tomorrow. We will hear from you, and you will be fine...we hope!!

Sharon ~ Are you having fun with Luke? What precious time there is between babies and grandparents, and then they grow into teenagers. Cherish the moments...it happens so fast. All of my grandkids are in their 20's now.

Merry ~ Yes, welcome to DST. We got back the hour that we took away in the spring.

Lee ~ I understand your frustration with "Big Box" stores. There are hardly any small businesses left. And now with the economy the way it is, there are so many cutbacks that what few qualified people left in any retail ouftits are being asked to do the work of 3 or 4 people. There is little communication and training as they are just thrown out there to do the best that they can. I don't like to go into any of those stores, but if I do I do my homework first. Mostly I shop online these days, but I know that your situation should have been handled a lot better than it did. I would write a letter to the managers of those stores and follow up with a phone call if they do not contact you in a reasonable amount of time. Sometimes you can get good people in those stores, but it seems to be a matter of luck.

Well, I must go now. It is time for me to get busy again as this always seems to take longer than I anticipate.

Have a nice evening everyone.

~ Evelyn

Dave, how fast do pampas grass seeds germinate and grow?

My Keeper likes and wants pampas grass but I am too cheap to buy from a nursery and way too scared to to make a midnight acquisition and way too slow to run if caught with dirt on my hands. Maybe someone would like to save me from a life of crime and trade for some crapemyrtle seeds guaranteed to produce a minature crapemyrtle unlike any you can buy, if you hold your mouth just right, for some pampas grass seeds.

No pampas grass seeds or seedlings refused. I also have second summer crapemyrtle seedlings of unknown mature size or color(white, pink or purple) that will be minatures. I also accept charity seeds.

The photo is one of my crapemyrtles from my seeds. This is a third summer plant, it is 6 inches tall and 3 feet wide. White blooms.

Larry

First of all, JB, I would feel pretty good to have bp at 160/80!! It may not be very good for you, but for me it would be good. You are going to be just fine like Evelyn said. Bob is going into the hospital for a test of some kind for his BP tomorrow also. I didn't go to the dr. with him so I have no idea what it is for. He has not been on meds for it before so I don't know what his dr. is looking for. Bob doesn't pay any attention to what they say so I guess I will go with him to that test and also to the dr. when he finds out the results. What is "left bundle branch block"? Never heard of that.

Let us know how you do. You probably won't know until you have an apt. with your dr. for the results either.

Yes Dawn, spider mites. I am sure you have had them before. They do like dry hot climate. They thrive with that. Let me know if you have them and I will tell you the recipe for a good spray. Not expensive either.

Dave, what is gorilla tape? We use gorilla glue. What do you do with the tape? How did it work to keep the cold air out? I had a huge pampas grass in Seattle but it was so dirty I cut it off and dug it out. Looked like a good place for rats to nest in. But people do like it. I suppose if you keep it cleaned up it would be ok. Mine was way to the back of my yard by itself, about 300 feet away from everything except mowed grass. Yes, I mowed the whole thing, sometimes twice a week. half acre. No riding mower then.

ttyl, good luck JB.

We crossposted Wildcat. That Crapemyrtle looks just like mine only mine isn't very big. I forgot I had it last winter and come spring there it was, so they are pretty hardy.

I have your seeds in a little baggie ready to send Evelyn, I have had them, just busy in the last week. I better send them in a couple days since we are about to go to Phoenix for a couple.
It was me who said the Bible prophesy thing.

Do any of you watch the show with Jessie Ventura, Conspiracy Theory? Interesting show and for anyone who is interested in Nostradamus or Biblical prophesies it sure will make you stand up and pay attention to what is going on in the world and it makes a lot of sense as to why our world is in the shape it's in. If it doesn't interest any of you, forget I mentioned it. Not really, please don't.

I hate to plant from seed only to see a plant be 6 in. tall. That is like my Brug. It is about 3 yrs. old and about 1 ft I think.