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The Friday morning before Thanksgiving we fled the area and the snow under the cover of darkness. The three-day two-night trip was long planned and had no gardening implications. However, my wife and I could not resist doing the 50-mile an hour inspection of every garden center we passed.

They looked too much like it was Christmas for my pre-Thanksgiving tastes. Although we disagreed I am sure the Christmas trees I saw leaning against a rope and nicely baled were cut and not ball and baled for replanting.

To my way of thinking, trying to get much more than three or four weeks from a well tended cut tree is difficult. Besides, if you want to stretch the season it should be after Christmas as you procrastinate about taking it down.

Spruce, pines and firs dominate today's cut live tree selection. Each group may have several varieties to choose from.

Pines have the longest needles and perhaps the strongest evergreen smell. The longer needled white pine is soft while the others are a bit stiffer. While pines hold up well in the house, disease and more difficult field shaping seems to be pushing them to the Christmas sidelines.

Spruces have short, sharp needles. Selections run from blue to green to a gray green. Spruce may be the most economical, but can be faulted for having the poorest needle holding once cut.

Firs have come to dominate the cut Christmas tree market in recent years. All firs are easy to train although they may be a bit slower growing than pines and spruce. They have short soft needles that hold well in the house.

Douglas firs are the most common of the locally grown varieties. They have been my choice for many years until recently. You also may spot balsam firs that have a bit finer texture. These often come from the west coast, Michigan or North Carolina. I confess I am writing about something out of my area of expertise but I am not aware of anyone growing them locally.

The new premium tree is the Concolor fir. The silver-blue needles are a bit longer and curl slightly. The tree also grows a bit looser than either of the other firs. The branches are also a bit more upright at the ends.

If you are using a live cut tree, the most important success point is to make sure the tree will have water. When you get the tree home regardless of whether you just cut it or it sat on a lot for several days, cut about an inch off the stump and immediately get it into water. Warm water for the first application is even better.

All plants have built in protections against water loss. The stump of your Christmas tree will quickly seal after cutting to prevent water loss or uptake for that matter. That's the justification for the last paragraph.

In a week or so we'll slow down and look for a live cut tree and our Christmas season will begin.

As the first snow flurries fall outside my window, my thoughts turn to winter flowering houseplants. The big three in my mind are Thanksgiving cactus, Christmas poinsettias, and cyclamen for Valentine's.

My mom recently brought her Thanksgiving cactus upstairs so we could enjoy its beautiful salmon-pink blooms. Usually she is the only one who sees it in its basement window home. She's had it 20 years and it thrives on her benign neglect.

Thanksgiving cactus, or Schlumbergera truncata, is distinct from Christmas cactus, Schlumbergera x Buckleyi, in that is blooms in November and has more sharply toothed leaves. Both plants need 12-14 hours of darkness in the fall to bloom. You can either put it in a closet from 6 pm to 8 am every day from mid September on, or situate it in a sunny window in an unused room.

Do not over water. I repeat. Do not over water. These holiday cacti are epiphytes, meaning in the wild they grow in the air attached to a tree or other large plant. They do not need much moisture, or soil, to thrive.

Holiday cacti are easy to propagate from cuttings, snip a stem with 3-4 leaves, dip it in rooting hormone and stick it in moist soil. If you want to get fancy, place a plastic bag over it for a week or two to create a humid tent. We've noticed these cacti bloom much better when allowed to get root bound. Don't be in a hurry to repot them.

Everyone loves or loves to hate poinsettias at Christmas. These Mexican native shrubs have become a Christmas staple in the hundred years since the US ambassador to Mexico, Joel Poinsett, introduced them to us.

The folklore surrounding poinsettias describes two poor children with no gift to bring to the nativity scene who pick some weeds along their path. When laid on the manger, the greenery burst forth into brilliant red flowers. What a miraculous gift for the Christ child.

While I was in Florida my school grew and trialed around 200 varieties of poinsettias every year for the various breeding companies. One hundred years of breeding has created some real eye-poppers, but my favorite is still red.

Like the cacti above, poinsettias require a dark period to bloom. If you want to keep yours from year to year, you have to follow the closet trick described above. However, poinsettias are more finicky than cacti and I would recommend buying a new one.

The other holiday flower I mentioned is cyclamen. When I was a girl I remember Dad bringing mom and me little pots of cyclamen for Valentine's Day. I think my brother got Matchbox cars.

There are several species of hardy cyclamen that bloom in our shade gardens in the fall. Unfortunately, the florist cyclamens with large delicately-fragrant blooms in shades of pink, purple, red and white are not hardy.

These cyclamens are native to the Mediterranean and North African regions. Accordingly, they don't like high heat and too much water. After their bloom period, the foliage fades and the plants go dormant. Don't worry, this is normal and you haven't killed it. You can put it outside on a covered porch for the summer, but be sure to bring it in before temps go below 50.

Water it only sporadically when the soil is very dry. If you don't take it outside, put it in a windowsill and forget it for 2-3 months. When the foliage begins to perk back up again, resume watering and fertilizing. Like African violets, try to avoid getting water on the leaves and crown.

With all these holiday favorites, benign neglect seems to be the key. Let them get a little root bound, don't over water them, and put them in a sunny window and forget them. Luckily this holiday season, in the hustle and bustle of shopping, cooking and merriment, your houseplants don't need much care to strut their stuff.

Each year as fall gives way to winter I realize why I think that ornamental grasses play an important role in any landscape. I am not suggesting that now is an appropriate time to plant grasses.

Most of our ornamental grasses are considered warm season grasses. Although they strut their stuff now, they grow primarily during the hottest part of the season. My recommended planting window for best success is from late May into August.

The grasses are showiest when they are sited so that they are backlit. In other words, look toward the sun through the grass. On numerous occasions I have located grasses so that I walked toward the sun as I left in the morning and walked toward the sun as I returned in the evenings.

Miscanthus, or the plume grasses, may be losing a bit of their dominance in the garden as people discover the wide selection of grasses available. There are dozens of selections of Miscanthus giving us a spectrum of heights, blade width and blade coloration.

In general, Miscanthus can become a bit floppy with age. Planting in your poorer soil and severe reduction or elimination of fertilizer and water can minimize this.

Of this group, my favorite is one called Miscanthus purpuresans or flame grass. It grows just past my waist, expands more slowly, sports a very white plume and the blades turn a brilliant red in the fall. I have never seen this one flop and I have one that is eight or ten years old.

Rapidly gaining in popularity are the native grasses. Little Bluestem which has a Latin name about a foot long beginning with an S (editor's note Schizochrium) is a highlight in my garden. It should approach my waist but it hasn't yet. The plume is interesting, resembling a crow's foot, and the blue blades fade to a blue-tan in cooler weather.

There is also a Big Bluestem and Indian Grass in the collection of native prairie grasses in the marketplace.

Another native are the panicums or frost grasses. I think you can visualize a very airy seed head on a frosty morning backlit by the sun. They can be spectacular. 'Heavy Metal' with a bluish cast was the first on the market. It has been joined by a number of taller cultivars. They seem a bit more vigorous, too.

I'm looking for spots to try some of the larger ones. There is some fear that the larger ones may flop if treated too well.

Another favored group are the pennisetums. They are the foxtail grasses, which some people refuse to consider because we fight a very common annual weedy grass from this family. I especially like the variations of Pennisetum orientile available.

I can't forget Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster' or the other feather reed grasses available. 'Karl Foerster' is the most widely planted grass we have. It forms a tight clump and offers an early summer plume. Ten-year specimens are still less than 18 inches in diameter in my garden.

The very popular short blue fescue cultivars are a bit touchier than you might expect. They will not tolerate overly rich soil and must have excellent drainage. For best color move them out of the full afternoon sun. I learned that slowly the hard way.

This ramble could continue since there are many others I could mention, but my suggestion is to look around now. Identify a few that you like, then plant next summer to enhance your fall garden for many years.

Fall may be the best time to plant, but since fall follows our summer exhaustion and not winter's cabin fever, most of us plant in the spring. That makes fall my opportunity to do one of my favorite things.

Recently, I have been a bit more focused on habitat gardening. That's thinking about the impact our gardens have on the many other little critters that share and contribute to our garden enjoyment.

That leads me to a review of native plants and their place in our landscapes. Twenty years ago I got all excited about native plants. Then, as I watched my species plantings and compared them to selections or cultivars of the same plants in other gardens I began to backslide.

Back then the native plant movement had a rather narrow focus, which was often limited to species plants or those you might find growing in the wild naturally. This, I think, has changed as we attempt to marry the benefits of our native plants with high landscape qualities.

One of my fall targets has been the large shrub bed I started planting about five years ago. There were several selections that were under performing and a few that had lost their excitement. They were removed, and for the most part, replaced with selections or cultivars of native plants. At this count there are 20 different native shrubs and trees in the planting. I didn't count, but I would guess that there are almost an equal number of non-native plants there, too.

The other deficiency in my landscape is large evergreens. As a master procrastinator, I have thought about targeting that problem for at least ten years. Several days ago I bought a small pickup load of well started white pines and Norway spruce and planted them to shield a gutter that has existed since I first played in the area more than 50 years ago. The evergreens are also near my bird feeder, and if I live long enough, will give cover to the collection of birds that frequent my feeders.

Then there is the job I never get to. My right arm feels that the small flat barn shovel is becoming an appendage. After over 40 yards I'm getting pretty good at slinging mulch with that shovel.

Since it is obvious that my fingers can still tap out letters on the computer I will confess that I have gotten lots of help with the mulch. It is just tough convincing my hands and arms that that is true.

If you want to get into the garden during the few remaining warm days I think that trees, shrubs and spring bulbs are still good candidates for planting.

Of course there is mulch, but you can't have my shovel, as I still have at least a dozen yards to go. After that I might feel I've had a good year in my gardens.

Walking around my yard the other day in preparation for a visit from my in-laws caused me to notice a few things.

One- I have been delinquent in my weed pulling. I blame pregnancy and a brand-new baby. Luckily a few minutes work uncovered my perennials hiding beneath. A little attention now and some well-placed mulch will make my life much easier next spring.

Two- some of my annuals were more successful than others. My marigolds all apparently signed a suicide pact in late August. However driving by yards around town, I still see many beautiful orange and yellows going strong after the frosts.

My cosmos are now almost over my head, and gave prolific bouquets over the summer. If they don't re-seed themselves, I'll plant more next season.

The standout, however, was the lantana. Each plant bloomed like crazy and was covered with butterflies all summer until last week's frost.

Lantana is a genus with several species in cultivation many of which are native to Florida. I lived in Gainesville FL for 4 years and saw many impressive specimens of lantana that grew to shrub size and were cold hardy.

Lantana love hot, sunny spots and don't need much moisture. A plus for me, as I hate dragging the hose almost as much as dad does. There are two forms, depending on the major species in the genetic background. The trailing ones are great for hanging baskets and containers, and the upright ones are nice in the garden.

The range of colors is pink, purple, red, hot golds, and white. Usually each flower has different shades at one time. I'll defininitely plant these again.

The other standout this summer, which my husband commented on numerous times, was the cleome, or spider flower. My grandmother planted them years ago and they've been happily reseeding ever since. This is either a good or a bad thing, depending on your disposition.

If you like cleome, but don't want the thorns and to be weeding them out forever, there is a new variety called 'Senorita Rosalita' that might be worth a try.

I would encourage you to take a look around your yard and take stock for next year. See what was successful and what wasn't. If you're like me, you won't always remember in the heady days wandering around the greenhouse.

Hopefully you won't need a visit from your in-laws for motivation.