Hi Vineyarder - Welcome to garden web! You're certainly right about many "old weeds" being bred into great plants. Aside from asters, sambucus comes to mind as another native that was improved by plant breeders overseas before becoming popular here. The problem that sometimes arises is when the refined plants produce lots of seedlings that are not gardenworthy. I've seen this with other variegated plants, specifically Ampelopsis (porcelain berry vine). The hybrid form was lovely and, truthfully, it only threw about 4 seedlings over several years. The problem was that the seedlings quickly became rampant, uncontrollable monsters; the only way to prevent the problem was to eradicate the lovely variegated vine as well as all the offspring. Had a similar experience with butterfly bush - although I liked the wild ones enough that I eventually removed the "improved" hybrid parent plant, and just keep a few "wild" seedlings each year.

Check out Bee Hive cheese made in Ogden, Utah....just down the road from where I live. This is an artisan cheddar cheese, with different flavors. The milk comes to the cheese "factory" from a local dairy that is just 15 minutes away...so fresh, fresh, fresh. Bee Hive Cheese tries to use Utah products whenever possible. Founded in 2005 or 2006 (by a couple of business men who were sick of the suit, tie & brief case routine), this artisan cheese shop has won accolades and awards in the artisan cheese contests they've entered. Their Barely Buzzed cheddar (cheddar rubbed and aged in a mixture of espresso grounds and lavendar) won top prize at their first artisan cheese competition in Vermont. The next year, in Chicago, their cheeses again scored in the top 3, and similar results have occurred with each competition they've entered. In 2009, they competed for the first time in the international artisan cheese competition, and their smoked walnut shells & apple cheddar came in #3, internationally. I do not work there, nor am I affiliated...I'm just a loyal customer who loves spreading the word about this very good, and very different cheese. I order the cheese and have it sent to friends and family located throughout the U.S., so if you're interested in trying this cheese, you can certainly do that. I recommend the cooler months though, to keep the cheese in peak condition during transport. From my many discussions with the owners, I know that California has many cheese shops which carry Bee Hive Cheese. Here's a link to the cheese shop. Please let me know if any of you try this cheese. I also highly recommend the Rusk crackers they make there (again, a laborious hand-made process) because they're filled with dried fruit, nuts & seeds and go beautifully with the cheese. Here is a link that might be useful: Bee Hive Cheese

cao100, I feel the same way..I am always on this site in my free time but then I don't seem to find much that I can contribute which hasn't already been said before. I have to say thank you to all the wonderful people who post here. You guys have such an eye for detail. I am forever going back and forth on a thread trying to 'learn' with the pros here. I had this incredibly stressful time at work a few weeks back and I would give myself a treat of 10mins of this forum every afternoon. Its such a stress buster! and its free! :-)) I guess I am worse than most of you who have the courage to post your rooms and ask for comments and criticisms. I am working on that first before I even think of having the competence to make a design suggestions. What I am trying to say is thank you for making my free time more enjoyable and a learning experience at the same time! Vinaya

I too have OTA (Over The Air) channels. I have a roof antenna. Although, it is sitting in my living room at the moment. I really need to find someone to install it on the roof. Anyhow, in Houston, there are almost 90 OTA channels. My antenna that sits in the living room picks up around 75 of them. Half are foreign & religious channels though. What many people don't realize is that with a TV antenna, we can actually pick up true high definition picture. Whereas, cables & satellite services often compress the pictures and what you see on your TV is only what you get from these services. Regardless that you have an HDTV (high definition TV). Anytime someone comes over my home, they're surprise of how crispy clear my TV is. All it is is simply true high definition signal via OTA. Between AntennaTV, MeTV and ION channels, they keep me entertain 24/7. I'm not a big sport fan; thus, paying to watch TV just doesn't make sense to me. I had Infinity and Uverse young salesmen tried to sell me their services. They insisted that their service beat the price of all the others. I repeatedly tell them: No thanks. Then, they asked me: "What do you do for TV?". I simply point my finger up in the air and tell them I watch OTA channels. They had this puzzled look. LOL, these kids had no idea what OTA channels and a roof antenna were. After getting some lengthy explanation, they admitted that they can't beat the price of OTA channels. LOL... these kids...