tee hee :)

I know this is slightly off topic, I have way too much blood in my caffeine system, could use a cup of coffee! Anyway as far as blocking the neighbors, I stumbled upon the Florida Anise, a nice large shrub that grows in the shade and flowers, hardy in your zone, too. Another advantage is it is a fast grower. I just plant a cultivar called Haley's Comet, in an attempt to spruce up a shady part of my yard. I remembered you have quite a dilemma!

I just had to bump this up. I missed it the first time. It makes me smile. Hoping others will start slightly silly threads. I miss these.
Irma

What can I say? I have some strange thoughts before I have my coffee.

Too funny. I can picture in my mind someone coming out to see different flowers than they put in the pots.

I just did a search on Fl anise, since I'd never heard of it and it is lovely. I think I need one, Morningloree where did you find it?

HAH! Years ago, I had a neighbor next door who was one of those EXTREME holiday yard decorators. OK, not for me but whatever floats your boat. But, half the time she never put away all the items and just added the next holiday items right on top of them. So one Easter, she had left her giant black Halloween witches' cauldron out in the yard up until Easter. So I watched as she left on one of her hours-long shopping trips (probably to stock up on more holiday yard junk) and I went over and grabbed up all the bunnies and chickens and stuffed them into the giant cauldron and wrote in big white letters on the side of the pot "wabbit stew". I did other things to her that can't be discussed on this forum that were even funnier but that's another story.

Katkin,

Many native plant nurseries have one or both of the anise plants for sale. I think they even tend to have them at the MG sales at the Extension Offices. Lake and Sumter Co are having their fall MG sales next Saturday. If you can make one of them, I would suggest getting there early. The prices are so low that landscapers and nurseries are quick to pick up entire tables of plants so they can re-sell them for profit. It has been so bad the past few sales I could see it as justified if someone 'rudely' grabbed from these business's claims.

It may also be possible to collect seed pods (which should be about ready for harvesting) and germinating your own, though I do not know how hard/easy they are to grow from seed.

Personally, I lack a shady location to plant these, but I no longer need a scent barrier as the offending house was hauled away this past July.

Thanks Leekle, but I am about 2 hours south of that location and I have my grandson's football game that afternoon. I'll have to check around here and see if I can find it.

"wabbit stew"? really rita, ya made me spit my coffee!

Rita
now a days you never know who has a camera trained on you! be careful out there! hehe!