Good Morning! Got all the weeding done yesterday, it's getting better, because all the plants are getting bigger and crowding out the weeds! YAY!!
I've got all the stuff downstairs, for the yard sale, need to finish pricing, go get the SUV, load it all up and take off!
I had Bundt cake too! A cinnamon struesel type-yummy!
Suzanne- Apparently I don't dust often enough-you should have seen those bookcases! Thanks for the explanation of the biofilter! I wish I had room for a pond.
Watched fireworks from the front porch-one of the neighbors had an awesome display! Somebody two streets over kept shooting until one in the morning-no color, just loud bangs-not really a good thing!
Gotta make a run to Wallyworld!
Shirley!

Linda-forgot to say thank you for the lemonade and cookies!
Also!! The Cherry Brandy and Irish Eyes rudbeckia are blooming!! Well, not heaps of blooms yet, but that's okay, it will happen!!
Shirley!

Linda, I'll gladly help myself to lemonade but eating a piece of bundt cake while I am on this computer so will pass on the cookies for now. I need a good tall drink since I just spent almost an hour outside watering. I have to leave the hose on the bush for a while and then move on to the next. I just took a chair and magazine to read while I did this. Must have looked a little weird but a gardener would understand. Thank goodness hubby is coming home cause this is usually his thing and he actually enjoys it.

Irish eyes are another thing I have on my wishlist and thankfully, this list is getting smaller and smaller due to lack of space. With the discovery of the cherry brandy the other day, I was able to cross that off. Once my husband gets my two new 8x8 gardens in, I will have to start moving things around and start a longer list. Never enough plants and flowers and the lists will never end.

Oh and Linda, haven't been ignoring your email. I will get an answer to you soon. Have to get hubby home so I have more time to myself. Seems my hands are always wet doing dishes since my two teenagers seem to never stop eating.

Sounds like everyone had a good weekend! Did anyone else go see Transformers? I'm usually disappointed in the quality of the 3D, but this one was very nicely done.
Have a good week,
Alana

I am so totally unaware:
Alana-3D? I haven't heard of that since I was a kid. With the glasses? How long has this been going on?
Dan-Cherry Festival?-famous Cherry Festival? Traverse City?
Well, that only took 3-4 days to get thro!
Oh, Dammit, now I remember. Guess that WASN'T a weed.
Gotta go finish pricing.
Shirley!

Shirley & Dan, Thanks for the tips on the coneflowers! So maybe I�ll be careful to mark where I sow in the late fall, not pull anything out of that area that looks remotely coneflower-y & have patience. White Swan is actually one where I still have some leftover seeds from my winter sowing (got them also from the Christmas Card trade this past Dec!!) so maybe that will be my first guinea pig.

Dan, that�s really interesting about the different coneflowers! I always associated coneflowers with Echinacea & didn�t know that they could also refer to other plants. Good to know!

Suzanne, belated THANKS!

Alana, I didn't know the latest Transformers was 3D! Thanks for the tip.

Shirley, the movie Avatar also had a 3D version. I've had mixed feelings about it. Sometimes they give me a headache, although a theater full of people wearing 3D glasses makes me feel strangely nostalgic for the 80s. I guess I'll try the Transformers.

Anyone else excited for the last Harry Potter?

My 4th of July weekend was spent in the wooded hills of northern Pennsylvania. We brewed homemade beer, had some amazing tequila (I never knew there was much of a difference in tequila except worm or no-worm, but the 100%agave version is AMAZING, almost floral in fragrance!), bbq chops & ribs & veggies, and homemade ice cream without the use of an ice cream maker. We called it modestly mango & it involves coconut milk. That's all I'm sayin'. PM me if you want the recipe.

Tequila, did you say tequila? Share please.

My daughter loves Harry Potter and always has. She and her father always go to the movies. I am not a fan. We bought the tickets for the midnight showing last week. It is a surprise for her dad.

Speaking of her dad, I am leaving now to go pick him up at the airport.. Catch you all later. Margo

Margo: Will let you know how it turns out with the biofilter. :) I'm surprised you use hose water directly? We treat ours, so as to not have chloramines in with the fishies.

Linda: Ok, now I want cookies. And lemonade. :)

Shirley: Dusting is... I dunno, seems a lot of work for something that happens so easily! As for ponds, I hear of people doing half-barrel ponds, so you may in fact have room for a very small one!

Different kind of 3-D! Different glasses, although they are still glasses. It's all sorts of strange, in my opinion. But then, my eyes refuse to relax with it. *shrug*

Smitties: what is an iris eyes plant? :)

Alana: I did go see Transformers! I did not see it in 3D, though, as I have difficulty with interpreting it and it gives me a headache. Fun movie!

Sadly, Harry Potter got too much of the making me jump stuff in it a few movies ago, so I stopped watching. Alas!

Just finished putting up curtains in my office - _so_ much cooler without sunlight pouring directly in half the day. Also put up a bunch more decorations, including things which remind me of the various people who love me. Always a fun thing to do. :)

How're everyone?

Sz

More garden photos!

As of earlier today. I do not know what everything is, BTW.

Suzanne

WAVE~~~~~from MT. back on track .I am excited to see the list of goodies everyone is putting together. Still working on my collection. Would a noisy neighbor cat be ok to send???
Elizabeth

hey Suzanne- wow! what a beautiful jungle you have! I wish I still had my pond. The liner sprang a leak a few years ago and we filled in the hole :(
DH said... some day...:((( waaaah!
I keep forgetting to go check out the local $ store for a noise maker. Yup. I'm a cheapskate. lol. But I'm sure we all feel the same... It's the plants we're excited about more than the noise maker... Well I hope so... Oh gosh. now nobody will want my box!!!
Don't worry! Stella said the plants I'm sending are??? Purrr-fect? I think that's what she said. I emailed her a sneak peek.
:) Laura

Suzanne, many thanks for the garden walk! You've got a lot of great stuff in that garden of yours, woo-hoo!!!

Linda, did you say sugar cookies? Oh boy! Those are, and always have been, my favoritest cookie! When I was a kid, many moons ago, Mom would let me and my younger sister get out the cookie cutters and make all kinds of stuff happen those cutters and the sprinkles! I once went over to my sister Sue's house, and she'd been experimenting... hehehe! I got there just in time for the last batch of cookies to come out of the oven, and she'd been making sugar cookies with fudge chunks in them. Not chips, CHUNKS! She'd bought a couple of pounds of fudge from one of the local makers, taken them home and cut them up, and started baking. After I sat down with some milk, I don't think I said a thing for the first half-hour. My mouth was too full to speak, and I was in heaven! Hmmm, maybe after Joe gets his blood sugar numbers down (they're now in the 1-200s, a definite improvement after the +600s a week ago) I just might have to make some of those!

Alana, so the show was good? I've heard that this one is the best of the 3, what did you think? I'm going to wait until it comes out on dvd to see it, my eyes don't handle the 3D very well.

I'm hoping Harry and the Hallows is put out in regular 2D. I've got the rest of the movies, AND the books, so I've been waiting on this one. A few years ago we had a HP-themed Friday Night Live in the downtown area which was pretty cool. During the summer there are Friday Night Lives which is kind of a combination street sale/ festival, kind of thingy. There are street performers, music, food stalls, and all sorts of things going on. For the Harry Potter one, there were tons of people dressed up as witches and wizards, the businesses were decorated, and it really made you feel like were in Diagon Alley. Very cool!

Elizabeth, as I explained in my e-mail, I'm not including you in this swap because I haven't heard that anyone you've recently traded with has actually received their ends of those swaps from you. Sorry, but that's the way it goes. I absolutely refuse to allow the chance of anyone getting stiffed in this swap. You can chat if you wish, but that's it.

Linda, congrats on the new keyboard and mouse! Doesn't it make everything feel so much better when your toys are working? Lol, and I'm glad to see you've joined me in the Empires & Allies game! Be careful though, you're going to get hooked on blowing up things! GRRRRR, go for it! LOL!

Okay, I just looked up Irish Eyes, and they're too cool! Here's a photo I copied from photobucket...

The irish eyes are the huge yellow flower. They're a type of rudbeckia (black-eyed susans) and you can't tell it in this picture too well, but they are green in the middle, hence the "irish", ya think?

Margo, I looked online for them, and could only find seeds at kingsseeds.com, and ebay. I'd get them on ebay if it were me. Good luck in your search!

Okay, I think that's about enough for me tonight. I'm almost done reading a book called "Swan" by Robert McCammon, and want to get back into it for awhile before bedtime.

G'nite all!
-Dan

Love the garden photos wispfox. Do you happen to know the name of the daylily in frame 11 (tagged no. 19). I am just curious. It looks like one I used to have and have decided I miss.

Dan, I liked 2 better than this one, but it was still pretty good. As a Starship Enterprise fan I enjoyed all of the Star Trek references particularly.

I read Swan a few years ago...one of McCammon's best in my humble opinion.

Good evening, everyone.

There was a first Harry Potter? When?
Just kidding! I loved the movies. But I honestly didn't know there was a new movie coming out.
Half barrel-that could work!
Suzanne-Beautiful gardens!
I forgot about the noisemaker too! Maybe I'll find something at the yard sale.
Speaking of which, everything is priced and dragged downstairs and there is room to walk around the bed without climbing!
I loved the movie Avatar!
Shirley!

I haven't been to the movies since "meet the parents" or was it "meet the fockers"
Oh well, love to watch movies on FX. Oh, I did mention I'm a cheapskate! lol
:) Laura
ps YES another post for my score! lol. NOT gonna win. saull good!

Suzanne, love the garden! It's always fun to see what other people have done in their space.

Dan, in the picture with the Irish eyes, what are the pink multicolored ones in the foreground? I love the colors on them.

Margo, passing the bottle of Tres Generationes along with a pinch of salt, lime wedge & shot glass your way. I went & looked for a bottle today & discovered that it was a whopping $50!!! Guess my friend really did pull out the good stuff for us. No wonder it tasted different from any tequila I'd ever tasted!

I started reading Harry Potter when I was tutoring an elementary school boy many years ago. It was the only thing I could get him to read. Course, then I got hooked.

You know, with all these remakes of old movies & tv shows, makes you wonder how much original programing there is these days. I just saw today they're coming out with a Smurfs remake now too. What's next? He-man & She-ra? Thundercats?

Funny that you should mention Thundercats... the first episode is on the 29th I think... hehehe! And yes, I'll be watching, especially since it's going to be a 2-hour premier! Thunder... thunder... THUNDERCATS... HOOOOOOO!!

The multi-colored flowers in the foreground are blanket flowers, and yes, they're a cousin to coneflowers! Ain't it cool?

Laura, keep posting! It's not really meant to be a competition (although I think it evolved into one), just a different way to determine the order in which we choose our boxes. I've been working on a list of them, and let me tell you, there's a lot of different plants that're going to be in the air next week, flying to their new forever homes! It's hard to keep up with unless I can completely focus all my attention on it! But I'll make it!

(Linda, do I smell fresh sugar cookies needing to come out of the oven?)

-Dan

Thundercats is coming soon, lol.

"pulling more sugar cookies out of the oven and icing up the lemonade" I love to see pics of everyone's gardens! I think I'll pin my daughter down next time she's over and post some of mine.

Suz, as for not knowing what things are..I have the same problem. My famous saying is "I don't remember planting this!" My mother actually bought me a fake rock that has that saying on it!

What is the last movie everyone watched..TV or otherwise? I watched a movie last night on Fear.net. It was called "She--Freak". It was made in 1967 and one of those terrible movies that you KNOW how it's going to end but you just had to finish watching it to see if you were right...it was sooo BAD!!!...LOLOL!!!

Water For Elephants! Christopher Waltz (sp?) should win an Oscar, a Golden Globe and whatever else they can hand him-He was SUPERB! Even if they did change his character, somewhat, from the book. I thought Reese Witherspoon would be a perfect fit, but somehow, she was a little off. Great Movie!
Shirley!

Thanks, all! Yeah, I love our garden. I'd like fewer of the orange daylilies, though! So many!

Elizabeth: no cats in the mail. ;) Also, they might eat the plants!

Laura: Oh, right! I also need to find a noisemaker, still. You're definitely not alone!

Dan: Ah, irish eyes photo, yay! Wasn't sure even what kind of plant they were, so I didn't check google. Perhaps I should have!

poisondartfrog: sadly, I have no idea what anything in the garden is called unless someone else IDs it for me. THe previous owners have not ided anything for us.

Shirley: Excellent, you got everything priced and downstairs!

Grace: actually, the garden was already established! I'm slowly figuring out what we do and don't want to keep, since we moved in here in February. I do love the house and garden, mind you. :)

Thundercats! Wee! *glee* Of course, I kind of hope that Snarf is less irritating...

Linda: I need that saying. Mostly because I'm kind of new to this whole thing, although I've had interest for a long time! ;)

Last movie I watched was actually Transformers last weekend, amusingly. It was decent, really mostly lots of explosions!

Ok, need snack and to go help my housemate organize her study!

Later, all!

Suzanne

Wow I threw out the Thundercats as a joke. I used to love coming home from school & catching all of those afternoon cartoons. Didn't think so many would relate. (SZ, I'm with you on the Snarf snarf snarf comment.) And DEFINITELY did not think there was actually a movie being made. wow. I might just have to haul my butt to the theater for that one.

I only go once a year for the Harry Potter with my HP friend. With old age comes annoyance at people yapping over dialogue & kicking seats & cellphones ringing. I'm turning into that cranky old lady & I'm not even 40 yet. But I do love the big screen for Harry Potter.

Last movie was at home on netflix - Brazil. My 2nd time seeing it.

keep cool, folks. It's a scorcher out there today. My loquat is singed. grace

when the locusts start singing and it's not even 9am yet, it's going to be a scorcher!

Grace, Thundercats isn't coming back as a movie, they've rebooted the television series. Now my neighbors will get to hear me yelling "THUNDERCATS, HOOOO!!!" every week! They are sure to feel blessed, don't you think???
Want to hear something funny though? The character I'm looking forward to seeing the most is Mum-Ra...lol!

Hmmm, last movie I watched was Battle:Los Angeles. I love alien invasion movies! Best one so far I think was District 9.

I'm off a little early today, so I think I'm going to do some relaxing, and then do some sewing. I've still got to get my project done for this month's Seeds-and-Stitches group.

Ta-Ta!
-Dan

No! A whole series?!! I must look this up. Dammit, I got rid of cable because it was so frinkin expensive & switched to streaming only. Can I wait or get it somewhere on the Internet, or am I destined to be back in cable enslavement?
deep breath, deep breath, grace. playing in dirt will help me work this out.

Oh this heat! I know some of you have the heat worse and then drought on top of that, I just can't help whining!
I potted up over 200 plants yesterday and only 40 or 50 today. Uggh! I'm exhausted!
The "5", I'm sending are looking nice and healthy for the trip to...? I like to pot them up before the trip so I know they will be less stressed out. They have been potted for a while and are looking pretty darn good :) I know I have to rinse off most the soil and wrap in wet paper towels or shredded news paper, then bag the roots, not the tops.

Hey, what size box are you all gonna use? med right? I have NOT been in many swaps (this is my second) and now that the hour is getting near, I'm getting a tad NERVOUS!!!!
I need to go to the PO and see what the boxes look like. lol
:) Laura
GO THUNDERCATS!! I had a crush on Lionel.

Lion-O, not Lionel, lol Brains been fried from the heat :)
:) Laura

Evening all! I'm whining also, the humidity is just terrible and yet I know I shouldn't there are others out there where its much worse, still...........whining.
Shirley, I had hoped to put a nice pond in on one section of the property, hasn't happened yet for one reason or another and so I ended up with one of the pre made plastic ponds. It's I think just shy of 4 feet deep in the middle so I put one of those electic donut things in it to keep the water from freezing in the winter and so far so good. I made an all natural filter that was on a gardening program on tv and its worked great the water is crystal clear. I traded last year and got some water lilies and they just bloomed this week a real pretty pink! I was checking things out today and looking for the big tadpoles that I had bought and was suprised to see a bunch of tiny little baby fish, yes!!!
Now as for movies, I love the older sci fi ones. Only have one sci fi horror channel but I have one channel thats old movies and for some reason they've been showing one night a week some of the old black and white ones from the 50's and I hate to admit it but I watched one that I remember from my childhood that I always loved "Them!" The only thing I really like about the cable is if I start a movie one night and want to go to bed its usually on again the next day or so. Okay better run for now have to run down and help a neighbor whose just healing from a tough surgery to get her animals in for the night while her husband is away on business. Kathie

Thank goodness this day is done! Went and got the SUV this morning, took the sweeper to the repair shop, stopped at a friends to pick up a card table, brought a load of laundry home-her dryer went belly up, finished my own laundry, did a last minute run to Meijer, packed the car-my neighbor Patty is the best-a little picky about packing a car, but still the best! Also talked with my daughter for about an hour-both babies are sick-bummer-I wish she lived closer, all I can do is listen. Got all the watering done but the front-have to wait for the sun to set. Busy, Busy day! And I kept finding things I wanted to take back for the sale. I'm going to look like the ragpicker's child!
And I think I have been adopted by two dogs-one is a female lab type, looks like she just had pups and the other is a scruffy little male. He made himself right at home on the back porch-the cats freaked! Neither one of them have collars-I gave them some water-not sure what to do here.
Grace-maybe someone can tape them for you.
Cable enslavement-could there be anything worse?
Laura-I checked the top of this thread-doesn't say what size, but I think on the first thread, Dan said a medium flat rate box, I think.
BTW-I'll have internet access at my brother's, so I'll be able keep in touch with this swap as it comes down to the wire!
I need food.
Shirley!

Okay, here's the "horse race" standing so far...

sjc48...39
dan_the_mailman...37
smitties...30
lindaruzicka...24
poisondartfrog...23
wispfox...20
auntyara...15
mamasllamas...13
celeegra...13
sinbadsmom...10
suegardens2...8
cryptid...7
lovesherflowers...4
xiangirl...3

and with that, I bid you all a good night...
Dan

No way my plants will fit in a flat rate box, but I can usually ship for about the same money in a larger box.
Next movie on my 'to see list': Cowboys and Aliens with Harrison Ford.
I am going to refrain from posting for a bit, back in a day or two.
Alana

YES! I'm in the top 10! lol
Hey did you all know that balsam impatiences reseed in different colors? I started with just 2 colors last year. light pink and dark pink, and now have those plus red and purple! soo cool! and they reseed like crazy!
:) Laura

So. Warm. It's supposed to storm soon. I really, really, really hope it does.

Today was my first day working with my advisor for grad school. Did a bit of intro to what I was doing, and got myself oriented in the lab. Figured out what classes to sign up for in the fall, too.

Feeling pretty good so far; found out that I need to be in tomorrow morning unexpectedly so that I can be educated in the web software and fill in the info on the lab's website. Glad I asked today, since the next one is next month!

Think I will not walk there tomorrow; just too warm! Too humid, really.

Added some weeds I pulled (roots up!) to the top of some of my recently planted and starting to grow seedlings (cukes and peas) so as to better help them cope with the lack of rain.

The fish are far too warm (apparently they prefer 75 or below, and when I checked the water temp earlier it was 85. 80 more recently). Poor things. They should be ok, since they have lots of oxygenation!

Now, on to replies!

Grace: Thundercats rocked! I kind of worry that if I watch it now, as an adult, it won't be that interesting. But! the new series is in wiki, and there's a couple preview videos, and you can watch ten old episodes online. It does not appear that it will be watchable online, at least not legally. You may be able to rent/buy DVDs later, though?

Mum-ra _scared_ me as a kid!

Laura: I have _no_ idea what size box to use. I was kind of wondering that myself... I know that the medium flat rate isn't tall enough. Not sure if there is a tall version of the large. I may just see about finding a fairly skinny, tall box, since most of the plants I'm thinking of sending are rather tall.

Mmm, impatiens. I don't actually know much about them yet, so that's really neat to know! And red and purple are really neat to have had appear out of nowhere!

Kathie: electric... donut things? We're trying to figure out what we should do about the freezing problem this coming year. We know we lost some to the freeze last year (4 died, 7 lived). This looked interesting, though!

Shirley: busy, busy! Randomly being adopted by dogs has to be interesting. Do they seem like they were starving? Or not well groomed? If they don't look starved or like they haven't been groomed recently, they might be mooching off you. ;)

Ok, gotta go start getting ready for bed.

Later, all!

Suzanne

It's starting to rain!

Me, the plants, the fish, the cat, and my two fellow housemates are all very happy. :)

Suzanne

Hey Everyone-just checked the first thread, there is nothing about the size of the box. Which is good, because I'm sending some tall plants too, wouldn't fit in a medium box. Sorry if I caused any confusion!
Kathie-we must of been posting at the same time, didn't mean to ignore ya! I don't have room for even a plastic pond, unless I take out one of the side beds-and that could happen!
Laura-a friend had impatiens reseed, she was thrilled, didn't have to buy any for that bed! Your colors sound beautiful.
Wisp-Glad it's raining for you-sure hope it rains here over the weekend. The dogs look really neglected. You can see the mom dog's ribs. Patty, my neighbor, said she would keep an eye on them and arrange for someone to come and get them-that could be tricky tho.
Grace-I keep meaning to ask you-where in Northern PA were you? Anywhere near the Elk? I was born and raised in W. PA, went up several times to see the elk herd-never found them.
I should get to bed early, would like to get an early start and miss all the traffic out on 75-I really don't like travelling on that road.
Talk to ya all later!
Oh, I'm #1! Can't see that holding up, once the sale gets going!
Shirley!

Just finished a post and it disappeared. Anyway, just got my husband home from our trip. I picked him up at the airport last night and we had to take my bil home to Kalamazoo so stayed at a hotel for the night. Found out there are many, many greenhouses both wholesale and retail that supply plants all over the country. Woo hoo. Couldn't pass those up. I stopped at one to see what their famous "cart sale" was. You could load up one of their two shelved carts with as much as you could for 45.00. Of course they had some rules but man were the people getting quite a bit for their money. One lady had 5 flats on the bottom shelf and many large plants on the top. Everything was still so healthy looking too. We had already filled up the car (along with the luggage my hubby had) with 8 bags of peat moss that was on sale at Walmart for 2.50 a bag. I settled on 4 for 10.00 perennials including a Pow Wow echinacea which was exciting. I then went to another place and got three quart perennials for 1.79 each. It is a sickness I tell ya, a sickness.

Anyway, my hubby is out watering the bushes. Thank goodness cause that is a job I am over. Too overwhelming for me. I am going to have to start regular watering my flower gardens because it is too dry and hot and no rain in sight.

Alana, I agree on the flat rate box. I can usually get more in a bigger box for less or equal to the flat rate.

Suzanne, send me some of that rain please. Oh and to let you know, we get our water from our pond. We have a system that super purifies it and the outside water spigots don't go through the whole system. The water we drink here is so much better than the city water we use to have at our old house. It comes from a local river and has so many chemicals and purifiers done to it, our bathroom would smell like a pool when we ran a tub. Tasted terrible too.

Margo

Oops forgot. Thanks for the drink Celeegra, I could use it. By the way, those blanketflowers come in many different varieties of which I am determined to collect all. I have several of them and they are very hardy and bloom all summer and are drought tolerant. Love em.

margo and shirley was spot on the coneflower search
echinacea-paradoxa is the one i've been looking for , theres no stores around here that carry it, i'll keep looking! maybe i'll get a trade partner that has a plant :) ok thats just wishful thinking, now i know it's name so i can track it down on the internet. thanks again great detective work, and i didn't give you much to go on just an upside down thin petal yellow flower! holly

oh forgot to tell everyone that I've been over worked the past few days I'm getting back on gardening tomorrow rained here today so i can dig up a bunch. it's been terribly dry here i was afraid to dig anything up for another swap i had going, should have had mailed out. now i can really get some good roots with this rain today. I'm sleeping in and then digging and then off to the mail box with a box ...........talk to everyone again on friday, holly

Good Morning Everyone!
I see that some of you are wondering about what box to use when shipping your plants. I'm leaving that up to you to decide. Some of us will have tall plants to ship, some of us will have bulky ones, and there's just no way we can all ship in the same sized boxes. All I ask is that you ship your plants with their roots wrapped in enough damp paper towels to survive their trip via priority mail with a delivery confirmation number.
Don't forget to send a local newspaper and noise-maker for the garden along with your plants!

Mamasllamas, I'm glad to hear you figured out which echinacea it was that you're wanting! Lol, I don't have that problem luckily, I just want them all...lol!

Well, it's "off to the races" for me, so I'll chat more tonight! Everyone have a good day!
-Dan

Morning, Suzanne, the donut thing for the fish pond looks like a donut with a cord attached. I think its thermostatically controlled and around thirty dollars. My little pond is above ground and I've read needs to be 4 feet deep to not freeze at the deepest part. Little nervous about this so I plug in the donut and drop it into the deepest area. I found it at the local agi store doesn't really warm the water it still freezes over the top neat to see the fish moving under the ice. I had 2 running last year and very happy to say also didn't see any change in my electric bill! Need some breakfast, Kathie

Bought two more coneflowers yesterday....I'll tell you which ones when I check their tags. One is orange and the other one is yellow..big help, huh?..LOL!!

oops, one is red, not yellow and it doesn't have a tag..

wow the coneflower rage is still on!
I have to tell you I'm loving the blanket flowers & think I need to do a little hunting. I know I got some seeds in trades last year.

Margo, sounds like you got some really sweet deals!

I'm neck & neck with mamasllamas! I'm not really competitive. I just wanted an excuse to say mamasllamas. tee hee. Love that name! :)

Shirley, I was in Milford PA / Lake Wallenpaupack area. Nice because it is always a few degrees cooler there, higher elevation, more dense forest & waterfalls than NYC. There's also a raptor rescue center that always has some amazing events. There was one including a golden eagle, peregrin falcon & snowy owl, with a surprise cameo from a wild bald eagle that happened to be around. Crazy. Also the most amazing sugar baby watermelons & local raspberries. Yum. I love summer fruit.

Suzanne, I had a black goldfish that used to play with me. I would stick my hand in the water & she would swim into my open hand until I lightly pulled on her tail & she would swim away & then swim back into my hand for more! It started with an especially hot summer where I kept sticking my hand in the water to check the temp in there. She also loved it when I added "air conditioning" (aka ice cubes). I know it's not supposed to be good for their scales, but she *loved* it & would swim around in the cold meltoff.

Holly, Suzanne, send some of that rain my way, because my garden is suffering. Unless Margo wants to pawn her hubby off to me in this trade to water my plants (will he fit in a large flat rate? I'm assuming he's considered a perenial)
:0 stay cool, folks. grace

I wonder if flat rate boxes are only good for really heavy things like paper?

Margo: sadly, the rain didn't last long, and it's back to hot and humid. I'm sure that the plants appreciated what we got, though! And it was at night, so the sun didn't immediately evaporate it.

You have a pond big enough to get water from? Wow!

Kathie: very good to know about the donut! Thank you!

Grace: we keep considering adding in ice, since it's far too warm in their water! I wish some would go into my hand; that'd be really neat. :) So maybe I will!

Alright, dinner and then off to therapy. :)

Suzanne, hungry

Suzanne, our pond is a third of an acre in a kidney shape. We have a dock out in the middle but we haven't done much swimming this year. Not sure why, it just seems we have been busy doing other things.

Holly, my paradoxa coneflower is doing pretty good and I might be able to work something out with you but would prefer to wait til things cool down. I can give it a good look when I weed next week and let you know if I feel I can separate some for you.

Dan, do you agree that the roots not only should be in wet paper towel but with a plastic bag around it as well. 1. The paper towel won't dry out which is how I lost all the plants that were sent to me last year from the west coast 2. there won't be any leakage for you guys at the post office to wonder about.

Is anyone else having tick problems this year. With the warm, dry weather, they seem to be a bigger problem. It is usually in the back acres that we find them but I just had one crawling on me here in my chair. Chances are the dog or cats brought it in. I hate them, they creep me out.

Choosing is getting close. Tomorrow is the last day to sign up. I'm getting excited. Margo

I don't know how the rest of you are doing with your weather but the heat has hit hard here. I had a plant I was going to include in my mix but the plant is not doing so well so I switched. I had to email Dan to change it. You all may want to do a walk through and make sure the plant list you sent to Dan is still a good mix. Margo

Evening all, well at least I got to have the windows open today and a nice breeze flowing through still muggy but not quite so bad.
I keep reading about the echinacaes, I know its not quite the same but I had gotten a cherokee sunset I think rudbeckia plant a couple years ago very pretty shades of chocolate. I also have black eyed susans that drive me nuts, they're pretty but boy do they reseed and I don't want that many. Yesterday one of the black eyed susans opened and wow!! It must have crossed with one of the chocoate cherokees and is it pretty, the outer edge of each petal is yellow and half way to the center is chocolate brown and a couple of the buds are doubled this is a keeper, I will definitely save the seeds!
Isn't tomorrow the day! Can't wait! Kathie

Margo, you're right, plastic bags around the roots would be a good idea.

Suzanne, flat rate boxes are a great idea if your plants will fit in them. We have a lot of different sizes and shapes of them and the priority boxes. I'm going to do my digging on Sunday, then decide what size/shape box to use.

We're getting close to the end of this thread, so I'm going to go post part 3. I'll be back!

Okay kids, you can go to part 3 now and continue the great conversation!

Here is a link that might be useful: Part 3 of Letting Freedom Ring