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the Christmas trees! They do it every year. They will have to blow the dust off their displays 'tween now and Dec. 25th!

Jeanie

I remember the good old days when they didn't put out the Christmas Stuff until Labor Day weekend.

Actually, I remember the really, really good old, old days when they didn't put out the Christmas stuff until right after Thanksgiving. That was probably 3 decades ago.

The Cracker Barrel closest to us put out all the fall stuff, including Halloween stuff, in July. You can't find a swimsuit now in stores, but if you want to buy a winter coat, I bet they've got them. (I haven't been looking for one, so I'm not sure about that one though!)

It is ludicrous to walk in from 110 degree August heat and see Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas merchandise on store shelves.

Dawn,

I read your first line and started to responde with, "well I remember.." then I read your second line. You beat me to it.

For the last month my 3 YO has been wishing and hoping for snow. I'm not crazy about the stuff, but he pretty much has me on board. It will be here soon enough.

There is nothing more pathetic than to be driving on the highway when its hot, middle of summer and looks like an over developed photograph outside and you see some big sprawling building all red and green and Christmasy looking with a sign on top saying SANTALAND. There is one on the turnoff from Tonkawa to the Highway and another here in OKC you can see from the highway. 365 days of the year devoted to Christmas.

This week I was near Tuttle and saw a big Santa that looked like he was coming down a fire pole. My thought was that he was made of plastic and with the heat he may really slide down that pole, into one big glob at the bottom.

I think retailers try to sell all summer stuff by July 4th.

It is all out of kelter. 2&3 weeks ago I was looking for a few seeds for my late planting. There was just an article that week in the paper about it being time for fall planting. I checked everywhere in Guymon and Liberal and in between. Found 2 sources that hadn't sent their seeds all back already. One person told me there was 2 reasons. First they need that space for the holiday stuff and the other is the seed companies won't give them a refund if the seeds aren't returned by a certain date. So if you need any gardening items around here you are very limited. Most of our greenhouses are seasonal. The farm stores are where I have to go if I need something. Jay

The whole marketing thing has gotten really crazy. Maybe the people who are pushing the winter holidays are trying to convince us that it really will cool off eventually? I don't know, but I do know that it's really annoying to find Thanksgiving and Christmas displays in August! I much preferred it in the old days, when they held off on Christmas stuff until the day after Thanksgiving.

I haven't seen any seed in our farm stores for a couple of months. Anything I wanted, I had to order online. I had to laugh as a big ad sent out by the nursery at Shawnee Feed. The top of the ad says "Rainy days are on the way!" Take advantage of our sales and end of summer reductions. Yeah. I'll just bet. I think they're being overly optimistic, or hope that the buying public will be. There's no way I'd be buying nursery stock right now, unless it was a clearance on succulents or drought tolerant items that were still in decent shape. I can't see that happening.

What was really, really sad was that the Atwoods in Shawnee had a big portable greenhouse set up early this year, with a lot of young trees set outside around it. I think they lost nearly all of it, way back when the heat and hot wind first set in. I picked up a couple of really nice 1-gallon hosta for $4 each, quick while they were still alive and they've done very well. Other than that, they had many hundreds of dollars worth of plants baking and dying in the sun, and that was back in early June.

Pat

Pat the same way around here. Wally World last week had put all of their flowers on sale. Had moved the Bonnie veggie plants up with the flowers but still the same price. I understood that supposedly Bonnie doesn't allow them to cut the prices anymore. It is basically too late here now unless you are planning on moving them inside. The local greenhouses/nurseries figured out several of us would wait for the 1st of July sales to buy our flowers and trees. So they moved the sales later and later. And then like one nursery I bought from for several years they started letting the city and organizations come in and take first pick at sales prices. I went over last year guess I was optimistic the drought would end and all the good ones had sold signs on them. The first one behind the city and the other organizations. They did me a favor I ended up not buying anything. And won't this year. I was in there a few weeks ago and they have a sale going on and they wanted to know if I was coming to buy some. I asked if the city and the other groups had picked theirs yet. Was told none of them were taking any. I said I think I'll fast just like they are. It is sad when good plants are allowed to die just because they refuse to take a few dollars less. Many of these plants have been stressed so there is some chance a person is taking when buying them. The same with the trees. I bought an Austrian Pine a few years ago at Home Depot on sale during a hot spell. I asked them to water it before I left. It was too late. I got it home and a lot of it started dieing. I only buy trees from reputable nurseries I know now. And if buying during a hot spell or right after one I have the understanding I can either get a refund or exchange if it dies. Luckily I haven't lost but one tree during the last 4 years. And I set out around 20 up till this year during that time. Some aren't growing as much as normal. Have had a few tips die but nothing too serious yet considering the conditions we've had. Jay