Hi again Sleepypoint, I have some techniques that I have used and thrown away, one of them was wrapping the individual blossom. Some people have a good deal of success with it. What I typically do is wrap the plant in some thule (think bridal veil material) when the plant just begins to flower. I only leave it on for a few days, then whatever fruit I get are isolated. Even if I do not get any fruit yet I will remove the thule for a day or so to let the plant breathe more freely and adjust the thule when I put it back on for the size of the plant. I found a higher incidence of mold and poor performance on the plants that I left the thule on for too long. As far as being open-pollinated, you do not need two plants of the same type. In fact, even if you just targeted which plants you wanted to isolate by when they were flowering you could just bring the plant inside, put it in a sunny, ventilated place, and allow it to flower and set fruit. Voila, isolated seed. Thanks for letting me know where you got the plants. I'm interested in checking them out. E-mail me if you get the chance. Mark

sue what a wonderful thought. i nominate my mom. we've been talking about converting the front bed to a perennial bed, since she's getting up there in years and it's soooo much work to do what she's done forever. so we are flexible there and i'll leave it up to her partner's discretion as to what to send her. i've put in some stuff, but it could sure use a lot more. movies - we did get her a dvd player for christmas - i would say the old time musicals -- you know all those roger and hammerstein type movies, or maybe rock hudson doris day type - the quiet man with maureen o'hara and john wayne. i'm sure there are others but they slip my mind right now. (if any of that needs to be corrected, i'll let you know, but she's very easy to please) she loves dark chocolate, especially butter creams. she loves irish stuff/knick knacks. this is truly wonderful, thank you so very much. maryanne

My family had/have a quarter plus acre organic garden in Brooklyn in NY city from around 1956 through 2008. We raised all our vegetables and most of our fruit, to feed a family of 8, plus sundry friends and neighbors, in addition to selling some vegetables to a local health food store. As the children grew and left the city, the garden was scaled back, but my Mom continued to raise her food until last year. She still does some very limited container gardening, and hopes to do more next year if her health improves. I have been organic gardening and farming since the age of 4 and continue to raise all my own vegetables and most of the fruit on my farm in the Fingerlakes, for my own use, in addition to providing for the family and friends who get to take home carloads of stuff when they visit. -Rosalinda

I love spine-tingling scary books and movies, but no gore, serial killer or slasher movies. True to Leafy form, even when I was a kid I preferred scary movies with beautiful rooms in them--two of my favorites were "The Changeling" starring George C. Scott as a widower living alone in a creepy (but gorgeous) mansion, and "Audrey Rose" which featured the kind of NYC apartment I dreamed of when I was growing up in undistinguished suburbia. Think about it--nothing is scarier than thinking you might have to give up PRIME REAL ESTATE because of an unfortunate ghost/curse/reincarnation/demon possession. I loved the book Amityville Horror although it made it so that I was unable to go into Dutch capes, basements or attics for decades. And then to find out it wasn't true?! Heartbreak. I still remember the rooms from a movie I saw in the late 80's early 90's that was a murder mystery that somehow involved a pair of fancy German scissors, (?) also set in really beautiful rooms in a California mission style home--I want to remember the name so I can watch it again for the decor, but I can't! Anyone know what movie I mean?