A simple answer "NO"!! First off the neighbor is actually my parents neighbor, I have known her since I was a baby. With that said there is a major difference in walking on someones property that you do not know, and taking seeds from someone you have known all of your life. Where I live now there is a neighbor of mine and she is always out in her flower beds. I have waived to this woman, tried to talk to her. One time I did talk to her and that is cause she came to my house to ask a favor (she is an elderly woman that lives by herself) I quickly obliged to help her. I would not dare walk on her property much less take seeds from her plants. Believe me she has a beautiful blue spider wort I would love to get seeds from also. I personally think that each situation is totally different. If I do not know you and know that you will not get mad, I am not going on your property. A farmer is the only exception here, they do not want those flowers, if they did they wouldn't be killing them. Do I dig up flowers?? NO!! Also I would never go to the store with the intention of collecting seeds from plants, but if I was just looking at the plants and I saw some that had seeds. Yes I may consider pocketing some, not all but a few. I use to work in a nursery, and believe me I collected the seeds. The owners laughed at me, they thought I was stupid. They actually told me that, they said go ahead collect all that you want but they will never come true. Like ha ha you idiot, well I just went ahead and collected my seeds. Thinking the entire time you guys are the idiots, and ya own the nursery, ha ha ha. This spring I will take some pictures of before and after the farmers and the county spray. Yeah our county sprays also, lol. Maybe that will help you to understand where I am coming from, when you see beautiful natural rose bushes, hibiscus, foam flower, black eyed susans, virginia creeper, mulberry tree's, all on the roadside one day. Then a few days later you see the horrible destruction these trucks have with their herbicides and and also just there shear size of the truck. Maybe that will help you to understand a little more. I understand that no one can totally understand if they themselves have never witnessed it. It will break your heart, I promise!!

Thank you for posting the picture . For those of us stuck with dial-up or older computers , it is nice to be able to view a photo that does not take an hour to download ! So many times I do not see pictures because they contain too many pixels or megs . It will be nice to see the sun some day . Now all I can think of is mosquitos . Fay has given them ideal breeding conditions ! Good luck to you Lynne . Batten down the hatches . Now the media is predicting tornadoes . Mary

Iowa Praires presented in Watercolor really tells it all. Check out the book: The Elemental Prairie Sixty Tallgrass Plants Watercolors by George Olson Essay by John Madson This is truly the best portrait of Iowa gone by. I recently had the honor of going to a presentation by George Olson. I've been working on a small praire on my back acreage. I plan on expanding to my road ditches. This was a very good time to bring this to light Ironbelly. Very Well spoken. Whoops writen I mean.

Too much sun shouldn't kill a J. maple but it can cause leaf scorch until the tree gets used to it. Extra deep waterings can help to some extent but the tree will eventually become acclimated. Crimson Queen is considered to be quite sun tolerant, too. There is also a big difference between no direct sun and complete shade :-) Complete shade is usually created by wide overhangs or dense surrounding foliage. The north side of many structures receive minimal direct sunlight but are often very bright, indirect light situations. Many plants grow well in this light situation and your maple may be fine in this location. I have a red laceleaf maple (cultivar unknown - it was there when I moved in) that IS in complete shade from very large surrounding conifers. Not only is it thriving but its color is still very intense and deep red.