Kevin you make me laugh!! Meanwhile - My sister is considering buying a place out here in the PNW (pacific northwest) and I keep putting OR (Salem, or Portland area) into her head! Who knows there just may be another sempervivumer in ya'll's neck of the woods! (but this wouldn't be until a few more years!)
ok and I did collect seed pods today - sadly I'd forgotten that I had already gotten rid of the seed pod and dead hen of Jeanne D'arc, so it'll be next year for that one But I did get Downland Queen, Treebeard, Bronze pastel, and Amanda - all of these would be really cool! But I'm thinking that what would come from the seed is something really similar to the parent (without knowing the pollen parent) We shall see though. If its so easy to get new and exciting semps, why aren't more people doing this!! Kevin I'm not belittling your work - I'm actually recognizing that there is much thought that goes into the process!

JungleShadows said:If you lived in Salem I could let you plant a 1.2 acre all to yourself... do I hear the sound of someone packing???

Kevin

Greg, I'm sure you'll stay put, but if not, I'll compete with Kevin -- we've got 220 acres and lots of roofs to plant too! We even have a snug little log cabin (off grid) just made for someone like you...

But if you end up with Kevin, you could meet my other brother, who as the white sheep of the family likes to keep his Plymouth Colony pedigree buffed up. Let me know, MR

Well Greg it looks like you have created a bidding war for where you settle next. Of course MR doesn't realize it might take everyone in her order to straighten out your bad ways! And of course I have the draw of living in Zone 8 and in a region that is knee deep in nurseries and plant nuts.

Tell your sister that Salem is much saner and safer than Portland!

MR my relatives founded Salem MA but I prefer the west coast for gardening!

Kevin

Kevin - that's funny - from one Salem to the next huh!!! What perfect semp conditions you do have Kevin!
MR - I do want to visit - I have another sister who is in the Syracuse area, so stopping at the monastery when visiting her could be doable! I know its not closeby, but within driving distance

Oh my, Greg! It will be great to have you and Lynn (and anyone else who is in the area!) stop by. We've got a very nice guest house (on the grid) as well as the cozy little log cabin, so you don't have to rough it, Lynn -- and you can always visit the Baseball Hall of Fame (I've never been there) as well as the Farmer's Museum (we have season tickets and they have a great carousel!) and the Fenimore House Museum in Cooperstown.

Now that we've actually survived this year's annual trustees' meeting, I'm going to have to go out and pull weeds or they will be all there is for show and tell!

And start my next rock garden for all of next year's new semps!

Ouch, Kevin. My dad's ancestors avoided Salem. Although it would be cool to have a witch as an ancestress! Some went right away to Duxbury, the rest to Boston or New Bedford and thence to Upstate NY when it was the Wild West & George didn't have money to pay his veterans so gave them (the Indians') land... Of course none of those early guys were nearly as respectable as we've made them out to be -- one of my later ancestors was the first person in America to be arrested for drunken and disorderly conduct outside the meeting house on the Lord's Day and went on to father 16 children without benefit of matrimony. Of course that wasn't the story Grandma told us -- one of my cousins dug that one up on her own!

gg5 said: MR - I do want to visit - I have another sister who is in the Syracuse area, so stopping at the monastery when visiting her could be doable! I know its not closeby, but within driving distance

Greg, Syracuse is an easy 2 hours from here. I don't know what it's like in your part of the world, but here, anything under 4 hours is considered close by. We're just about dead center in NY State (they call this the Central Leatherstocking Region thanks to James Fenimore Cooper...) with Buffalo at one end and Manhattan and Long Island at the other... Bring your sister along! MR

MR, my relatives bolted from Salem after the witch trials (probably thinking they were next!) and moved to central MA. They lived in the house on the commons next to the church but weren't too saintly either.

Salem OR is the most sane place I have ever lived. People are mostly quite normal and we have all the services of a city but none of the nonsense that you don't want. Coupled with that I'm an hour from the coast and an hour or so to high desert and the Cascades. Can't beat that. Oh yes and no mosquitoes to speak of either. Should I be selling real estate here?? Greg and Julia have always remarked that everything looks so green here in the spring, much more so than Seattle.

And of course we can grow anything. Yes you can hate us...

After living in the northeast for my first 25 and the deep South for another 30, I'm finally in a nice climate. Don't miss the summers in the south or winters in the north.

Getting back to semps, after fighting the birds and chipmunks and losing in two beds I( finally got some bird netting, re0did the beds, and covered them. The bird netting actually is quite invisible until you're on top of it. In this one bed I lost about half the baby seedlings and I vowed that they're not ruining the rest. Luckily most of my best crosses were in a bed near the driveway that they have stayed away from so far and tthe plants there are a good bit bigger. I used the open spaces in this bed to row out some of the selected seedlings and also a few of the 'Killer' group that the class worked on this year that I couldn't bare to just throw away.

Kevin

Kevin

Kevin, I don't hate you; since the folks I've been staying with in Florida recently aren't going back this year (sadly, he's had a stroke ) I'm just wondering if you'd want a house guest for my 3 week rest in January!!?? That would certainly be a way to set some tongues wagging!

Sounds as if you even need to do weeding then (now that IS an advantage to northern winters!) so I could earn my keep! (this IS a joke -- and of course, a little wish thrown in!) MR

Kevin, now don't be talking up the PNW we will be over run. Rains all the time, big mosquitoes and just plain terrible place to live. In addition only warm 2 weeks out of the year, July 15-30. Born and raised here in Washington don't listen to Kevin!!!

I may have to do the same those darn things are very brazen, dig in my semp. bed while i'm standing right there. Almost wish for a cat, DH hates cats.

Ages ago (dinosaurs roamed the streets) I lived in San Francisco for a year. Beautiful -- yes, but cold all year round -- almost colder in summer than winter! I have a brother living outside of San Diego -- and I think that is my idea of the perfect climate. Cool every night, warming up to the 70's every day... Of course the problem there is no water -- and then you ALL have those pesky little earthquakes... Well, you can't have it all.

Since semps turn out to do so well where I've ended up , I think I'll stay right here. They've turned out to be much better medicine than anything my M.D. has come up with in recent years!

Since I have the invitation I may well spend my rest near San Diego. I know they have a good zoo -- there must be some good plants to look at there, too! And I'll get back just in time to start next year's seedlings! MR

San Diego should be beautiful in Jan. I the zoo there is wonderful. I grew up north of San Diego, in L.A. County. That was when they still had orchards and everything wasn't covered up by asphalt and buildings.

Julia,

You sound like the Oregonians, visit but LEAVE! Now that I'm here I can say the same thing although it would be cool to have Greg and you here in Salem too. Think of all the mischief we could get into.

It's RAINING and boy do we need it. I'm doing a happy dance!

Kevin

Not raining here yet.

It sure would be fun to be close to the rest of the group but i'm pretty much happy right here. I will just have to visit more than one time a year.

Ditto on that one Julia!! Kevin very sweet invite - and I do love that area for all the reasons you state! If my sis moves there she wants to buy some property and have several different buildings so she'd have a guest house!! And, I do think I could get her interested in semps and other plants!

valleylynn said: I grew up north of San Diego, in L.A. County. That was when they still had orchards and everything wasn't covered up by asphalt and buildings.

Sad how our generation saw the end of farming as a way of life -- something that only lasted 5,000 years or so (weren't we were "hunters and gatherers" before that? I'm not sure what we are now!) My SF roommate grew up where you did, Lynn. She used to come back from weekends with her folks with bags of avacados, which we not having 2 nickels to rub together, lived on 'till she went home again...

Probably at this point in our lives we'll all continue to "bloom where we're planted," but visiting and dreaming are still allowed. Unless, of course, Kevin is able to start up the equivalent of an artist's colony for semp lovers. Then who knows what might happen???

I picture little yurts springing up at the top of Kevin's acreage.

Wow now that's an idea! Sempercolony!