Funny, I never noticed the curled-in leaves at all before this thread. I will have to pay more attention to it. My DW's microclimate might be the key. It is in a cool, shady, damp area of the garden. Look closely and you can see moss on the mulch. I rarely water in that part of the garden. It is the last part of the garden to lose the snowcover. It can be very wet there in spring and I don't go in that area much at all. Every spring I say I am going to move a chunk of it to a better location where I can enjoy the early flowers. But I suspect I ought to just leave well enough alone.

I live in Seattle, zone 8. I have a Barry's Silver planted approximately 9 years ago that is more than 9 ft. tall, 4 ft. wide. I'm suspicious that it is beginning to revert, at least in terms of size. The brown interior is beginning to be more visible, but up until now, this tree has been gorgeous, with no burning, no maintenance. Don't think I've ever watered it except for the first year. I almost wish it would die, as it is way too big for its location, but too big to move and too nice to cut down. Everyone who comes into my garden seems compelled to pet it.

Hi I am still having a time trying to get a new trade list on this site. To answer your query. I will list a few easy to access for me right now. Most are way down in the bottom land valley below the house, which is really wild at this time of year and hard to access, but of the hardy runners that I can get to and dig starts of are the following: Sasa palmata, Phyllostachys aureosulcata, Phyllostachys aur var spectabilis, Pseudosasa japonica (Jap. arrow bamboo, Otatea azteca (Mex weeping bamboo now in large pots, I can take a few cuttings, Bambusa ventricosa (Buddha belly bamboo) and possibly a Giant Grey timber bamboo 9Phyllo. nigra 'henon') I am not sure if your gentians will grow here, I am in zone 6 but winters have varied in temps from zone 5 to zone 7 b at times. We are very wet this year but it usually gets hot and dry for most of our summers. Could use some tips on where to plant them, best type of soil, how much water, what and when to feed, etc.etc. It might be best to do this via personal e-mail for the shipping details, what do you think?

Apparently Stush, plants AND their leaves are survivors. I think leaves from extremely thick sans like Silver Blue, kirkii Superclone and the like need a 'dry propagation' technique with little to no watering. And they'll definitely not suffer since they have a year's worth of moisture stored in their leaves, literally. So a month or three waiting to root is a piece of cake. One thing I've noticed about using bottom leaves for propagation, sometimes the plant is getting ready to discard the leaf when you take it for prop'ing, and it starts yellowing shortly after you put it in a medium. The yellowing starts at the tip and works down, and there's nothing that will stop it. The leaf will yellow completely and die within a week or two. I just had a leaf of a rare sans do that, much to my disappointment. Russ