Sounds great! I'm in.

Heidi, what beautiful leaves. The fall color will not be good here this year because it is so dry. I miss it. Some years are just beautiful but this year it looks like barely any color.

Would love to participate :)

I hope everyone is doing fine. We had so much rain yesterday morning. Wettest I have ever been when walking the dog! Every layer of clothing was soaked. We need the rain so not much of a complaint. It was just an inconvenient time.

This picture iwas not taken this year but is from a plant nursery near me, They have beautiful plants for sale and nicely displayed.

I stretch it right out to the end, LOL. Actually, I just dug/pulled about 90 leeks and I have a couple hundred heads of garlic left to deal with. Those will both be sliced and dehydrated for future use. I've already dehydrated about a bushel of sweet peppers, I use a lot of them. I have some pepper slices in the freezer for fajitas and such but because we raise 25 chickens a year, process a whole steer, buy a pig from a neighbor, put at least one deer in there, the freezer space is at a premium. My Granddaughter's boyfriend likes to hunt so he has gifted me with about 30 goose breasts. My nephew brought me a big salmon. With corn and berries and an occasional pie crust or bag of cookie dough, my freezer room is spoken for and I have FOUR freezers!

Annie

I'm cleaning freezers before this year's beef is ready, we'll be picking it up from the processor sometime this coming week, so I canned 5 quarts of beef stock from some short ribs and various bones and trimmings. Tomorrow I'll do the same with the last of the chicken backs and necks.

I also made a batch of raspberry jam with some raspberries from the freezer and made 7 half pints. I'm thinking of making a batch of cranberry/raspberry sauce as I discovered I still have 9 bags of cranberries in the freezer from last year!

Annie

They came in 2ft tall boxes (at least)

Some had flowers. They all had several buds!

Some had a little trellis.

So I got two 2 gallon Peach Swirls,

a 3 gal Tangerine Skies, & a 3 gal Lavender Crush. The 3 gal were 41.00 each and the 3 gal were 38 each (I think) and like I said, shipped free! The soil was even still damp.

I am making a gazebo area with Tangerine Skies, 2 Bathshebas that I already have in pots, and a Sally Holmes that I need to move out of a raised flower bed. The peach swirls will go in pots on either side in front of the gazebo. LC will go somewhere else lol.

I also ordered Lady in Red from Home Depot website but it comes from another vendor, I guess l, so will ship in a few days. I have heard good things about LIR. I want to plant her with my Florentina & Red Eden..a big red festival lol.

I also ordered a few roses from Home depot : Pacific blue and reminiscent Coral .

Honestly, if you want something super practical that you'll actually keep reaching for on the shelf, I'd recommend looking for field guides or modern herbal references that focus on both identification and preparation methods rather than just dense clinical overviews. I picked up a well-known local herbal guide a while back, and what made the biggest difference for me was finding one with clear color photos and easy-to-follow drying or infusion steps, otherwise, it's really easy to get overwhelmed by all the old-school folklore and confusing terminology.

I have Berry Poppins, but I also have Mr. Poppins so I couldn't answer about the other polliators.

Mine were also small (I do mostly mail-order so everything is small!) but this is the second full season I have had them and they are doing well - and berrying! I also happen to have Little Goblin, and Mr. Poppins also pollinates that as well. I couldn't decide which to get so I got both!

Mine are in part shade. They would probably do better with more sun, but that's not happening in my yard lol. I've seen other hollies doing well in shade and understory conditions so I thought I'd try. I am happy with their progress so far. Perhaps smaller, but I wanted winter interest in my garden so I am happy with how they are doing.

:)

Dee