planto, if I saw your aralia, I would buy it too. it's really a beauty. I have to say, once I figured out what they like and put them on water-wicks to prevent them from drying out (am an underwaterer, keep forgetting... my duties!) - they are pretty much care free. but I did keep the baby fern-leaf bagged for the whole year! white it was establishing itself. they need very bright light. mine get sev hours of morning light and then western thru sheers : fl to ceil gigantic windows. and they were still dropping leaves in winter! it was because I set nite temps to 65F and near windows gets to 62F - they hated it. once I figured out to bag them - no more drops. by the way, you say you have hi humidity and very warm - that's optimal. 85-95F + above 80% humidity that's just heaven for them. I have 60% in winter and 80% in summer and 70-74 indoors - but that's not enough for ultra growth.

Thankful to hear someone call Bingo! Annie, I will give another person a chance to call Bingo until the end of the day in case they have not been able to get online at this point, but if I don't hear from anyone you are the winner. I had no idea we could be down to just 2 more words to be drawn at this point and so many people still needed those two words - or at least one of them! Wow, this was a long Bingo game. Kelli, I'm so happy to report your package showed up in today's mail! It makes you wonder what they do with Priority Mail though; doesn't it? There's no indication it went somewhere else or had a problem of any kind. It's a wonderful package. I smiled when I saw the Sno-Caps. I wanted to get those to put in your package because they seemed perfect for the swap theme and I went to 3 stores and couldn't find them. Anyway, I love Sno-Caps! Kelli also send a pretty note, a journal which is great for recording garden events, and a pair of red gloves. You know I may try putting on hand cream and wearing them in the evening. My hands get so dry in the winter. Kelli also sent 4 packs of seeds Nicotiana Woodland, Echinacea Pow Wow (white), Rose Mallow (white), and Winter Thyme. What great names and I will enjoy all of them. Thanks so much for everything. I will check later to see if this completes our January swap. With the new horse arriving this month, I feel like I have not been on top of things as much as I like so sorry about that but I'm so glad that you enjoyed the swap. I enjoyed this theme, too. We took my new horse, Piper, to the vet for shots, etc. today and she would not get back on the trailer. I guess she liked it there. (Ha! Ha!) Anyway, I think we were there over 2 hours trying to get her to load back on the trailer. My husband finally had to detach the truck and drive home to get some grain to lure her back on. (Whew, it would have been getting dark in about an hour and the vet's office was trying to close down. Piper has a mind of her own on some things and we are working to get her less "opinionated". As my friend explains a 5 year old horse is kind of like a teenage child. Someone should have sent her to her room or make her stand in a corner to get her to behave long before this! LOL Okay, I rambled long enough. Talk with everyone later - and if I am too worn out from my vet experience, I'll be back tomorrow morning. Jeanne

These are really pretty! I made some a few years ago, but mine were all the same. I really like your variety. Bet they look great on the tree! You should definitely make some more for yourself.

Susan, some of my WV family (Stonewood, Glenville, West Milford) has been posting about the size of the flakes on Facebook today. They all think the flakes are beautiful, but I think they're all pretty sick if the snow. Sounds like it's been pretty heavy for you guys this year. Hope you have some sunny days soon.