Oh my. What is a passionate rose lover like you doing in that glacial hell hole? Reading about your endeavors has exhausted me and I haven't even lifted a shovel. I admire your grit and determination, but would love to see you rewarded with thousands of blooms on your rose bushes for all your hard work. I bet they could use engineers in zones 7 to 10!

Where are the large game hunters? Home playing computer games where they can kill, kill, kill, die and be reborn, all in the comfort of their overheated houses! Fewer and fewer young men are taking up the "manly" sport of hunting. Ask any hunting club! Hunters are disappearing from the landscape! And here's another point to consider: Take City and State-owned, overgrown, "forever green" forests, so dense they no longer provide browse for the deer or berries for bear, add the "improved grazing" along the sides of every state road and federal highway (deer death traps looking for times to happen), sprinkle generously with accessible dumpsters to provide continued instant gratification for the bears which are shipped here from Westchester County and parts south -- Bear that have already learned that people food fills stomachs much more quickly than picking berries and climbing trees to snatch bird eggs and apples -- They are shipped here, where momma bear teaches baby what is fit to eat and where to find it. She doesn't teach her babies to forage for berries and fish and ants and mice and other small game. Instead, she teaches them how to pry open garbage cans, sift through dumpsters, and access bird feeders. It isn't a kindness to move the bears 100 miles north to a less-densly populated area -- it's a sentence -- for them and for the country populace as well. If the bears can't be moved to unpopulated areas, they should be humanely destroyed -- they have bad habits that won't change unless they are placed where their supply sources are limited to foods found in the wild. The balance used to be kept in check by coyotes, wolves, foxes, bobcats and the occasional mountain lion. All the large game predators are gone -- the victims of trappers and bounty hunters. The only predator the deer have to fear now is the human automobile. And the bear have no natural predator at all. In this area, they are truly the king of beasts! And to add icing to the cake, have you read about the attempt to introduce elk to the Catskill Forest Preserve? Elk. Huge deer. It takes an 8-foot fence to adequately screen a 4-foot deer. How high a fence is required to screen an elk? Don't we have enough problems? When the elk become a problem (not having any natural predator to stem their growth) will some study group suggest the reintroduction of mountain lions to keep the elk in check? When will man learn to STOP FOOLING WITH MOTHER NATURE! Okay, okay, I'm stepping off my soapbox right now. I promise. There goes Marie, whispering "Well, for today, anyway"

It is New Years, My Birthday, The 4th of July and Christmas at my house today. I received my box from Anita, and Im just in awe over it. I hope I donÂt miss anything, and here is what she sent me! BRUGS: Milk and Honey Peaches and Cream BULBS 10 Allium Bulgaricum 10 Fritillara UVA Vulpis 10 Fritillaria Meleagris 30 Brodiac, Queen Fabiola DAYLILIES Chines Offerings Dearly Sweet Green Flutter PandoraÂs Box Pixy Deception ShelbyÂs Song (OMG, THE FAN IS HUGE!, and IÂm so thrilled to get it. Shelby has hit the five mark being in remission and this plant says it all!) Strawberry Candy Undercover Angel Vera Biaglo Winter Masquerade HOSTA "SUGAR AND CREAM" CHOCOLATE VINE SOLOMON SEAL PINAPPLE LILY CD-Flower Master Avon tea light and holder "All about Apples" Autumn scene puzzle Nice note cards and Envelopes Fan light If that wasnÂt enough she sent me an insulated lunch box with>>> Candy bars, Milky Way, Snickers, Twix, Tuna Medley with Sundried tomatoes & basil (yummy, hubby and I had these for lunch!) Pecan Pies (We had this with our coffee for dessert.) Capri Sun, Wild Cherry Lemonade on the Go ANITA, ANITA, ANITA, I don't know what to say, this box was incredible, and be sure that another box will be heading your way next week. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! LIFE IS GOOD! Annie

No not rustic colors rudbeckia Diana,sorry,looks like someone might beat the pants off you in this...lol....!;) It is getting so close I can feel it,one of you are going to get it soon!:) -It is perennial to zone 5 -It isn't Goblin Gallardia -It IS a rudbeckia -It is 18-24" - This one could be just the right thing for a craving! -It isn't Rudbeckia Toto rustic -It is not rustic colors rudbeckia