I'm looking for LOTS of this, either as plants or seeds. My trade list isn't complete---if you have this to trade, send me would 'wish list' and let me see what i can do.

The only tree I have on my urban lot is what I thought was a Norway maple. It takes up an entire corner of my yard, so pretty much a quarter of my property. It took a while to do the entire area, but I have a pathway walking straight towards the trunk that then splits into two paths, one going off to the side where I have a deck and the other simply circles the tree and joins the other path. I have lamium, hay scented ferns, blue columbines, corydalis lutea, fringed bleeding hearts, and a couple hosta growing right at the base of the tree and then under the rest of the canopy to either side of the path I have more of the same, plus brunnera, 5 or 6 other ferns, epimediums, European ginger, creeping forest type phloxes, dozens of hosta varieties, Solomon's Seal, Jacob's ladder, lungwort, sweet woodruff, Lady's mantle, and toad lillies. I do have to water during dry spells and in some areas the plants barely flower, if at all, but they're green and growing and better than clay, rocks, and weeds, which is what was there when I started. I keep a thick layer of cedar mulch around everything but I plan on switching to shredded leaves for mulch once I get a shredder. I do realize you can't heap soil and mulch ontop of tree roots without killing the tree so I didn't go crazy, but the couple inches of mulch I have down has been there for 5-6 years now and the tree is fine. In some areas I dug the ground over, but in others I was lucky I could hack a hole in the cement-like clay and masses of roots big enough to shoehorn the plant in. In that area I stuck with cast iron plants like the hay scented ferns and basic hostas like lancifolia - nothing fussy. I figured what lives lives and I'll worry about replacing what dies. Nothing's died yet! Lisa

I grew it for many years, under a White Pine, in acidic soil (red clay). The pine died after 40 years and the Gaultheria became exposed to afternoon sun. It slowly began to disappear and is now all gone, I think. I believe that soil temperature has more effect on the plant than air temperature and humidity (dew point). We often have soil tmperatures in the upper 70's and low 80's after a string of 100°+ days. Lots of plants wither and go dormant, when that happens. In hindsight, I should have moved it, after having the tree removed, but I had Hepatica acutiloba and Asarum arifolium in that location and they are still doing fine. In that location, I also lost Chimaphila maculata (Pipsissewa) and Chrysogonum virginianum (Green & Gold). Strangely, the Green & Gold had seeded into the neighbors lawn and is perfectly happy and vigorous (to his chagrin) in full afternoon sun! :>)) Rb

Cullina says to surface sow under lights after cleaning the pulp off and then place the containers in plastic. He recommends fertilizing lightly every couple of weeks. I plan on using some of the plastic containers I have collected for winter sowing, only I will keep them in the basement under lights. I have not tried these seeds before but ordered some from NARGS, so just today I read over Cullina's recommendation. He says it is SLOW and cuttings and division are preferred. Luck to you...and me.