Both black cohosh and blue cohosh are on my list, once I ever get beds and soil prepared. Think I'll also try some goldenseal, and maybe even a little ginseng.

Was looking around the web today for sources to buy thinks like cut leaf toothwort, carolina spring beauties, wood anemones, etc. Some things, like bloodroot, trilliums and trout lilies are pretty easy to come by. Others are not. I don't like to dig plants in the wild around here, being as how there isn't really a whole lot of wild here.

It looks like my first priority, however, is going to be to figure out what to do to try to take care of the trees. It is looking like those with significant borer damage are going to have to come down. I took a sickly hickory out last fall that was hollow and full of sawdust, and am realizing that squirrels were not the culprits late last summer and early fall when numerous twigs and branch tips littered the ground for several weeks. The long and severe drought really stressed a lot of trees in this area and that has apparently made them very vulnerable. From what I've so far, insects like the red oak borer don't usually do too much harm, unless trees are already seriously stressed. Arkansas is experiencing significant problems with oak decline in forests since about 2000 because drought has made the trees much more vulnerable.

I don't know a thing about trees, and have only recently started researching and studying about signs of problems, prompted by my concern about the big oak. I'm recognizing some things as indications of insect problems with hindsight. Late last summer and early fall, the ground under this oak and another was littered with the broken tips of branches and twigs. I thought the squirrels were doing it. Now I think they were breaking off as insect larva hatched and ate their way out. I'm hoping to get an e-mail response soon from the county extension agent to let me know if he will come have a look-see.    I'm afraid the trees may turn into a budget breaker.