Hi from La -hoping weather continues spring-like, am ready to plant more kale and carrots, other than the green-blue and orange, preferrably Red and Purple Kale and White and Purple Carrots. I have other flowers and veggies not listed on my page, let me know your wants and hope we can make a swap. thanks, Bea

laceyvail, Carrots are a cool season crop and best for a fall planting for harvest throughout winter. Just go ahead and plan on a fall planting. You can always check with your state's Extension Service. Each county should have it's own Cooperative Extension Office which provides free publications and information for the asking. They will have valuable vegetable/gardening tables available specifically for your area determined by universities and horticultural research scientists who have collected data from growing those crops in your state. Your tax dollars are already paying for this service so you may as well get some use out of it. Vegetable Planting and Planning Calendar for Missouri (download the pdf) complete with spring and fall planting dates (underneath the spring planting dates for appropriate crops), how much to plant per person, etc. They can also tell you the average last frost date for your area and ideal planting times for specific crops and varieties in your area. See how detailed this example is:

I don't think it is Fumitory officionalis. I'll wait until the flower opens up, but based on the look of the flower in the pictures I found on the web and the bud that is about to pop open, I don't see how it could possibly loos like the flower in the pictures. Either way, I will update here.

Catherine, I have only seen the persimmon in California's Central Valley & south. Here's what the CA fruit growers say: "Origin: The oriental persimmon is native to China . . . It spread to Korea and Japan many years ago . . . The plant was introduced to California in the mid 1800's. "Adaptation: Persimmons do best in areas that have moderate winters and relatively mild summers--suitable for growing in USDA Hardiness Zones 7 to 10. It can tolerate temperatures of 0 F when fully dormant. However, because of its low chilling requirement (less than 100 hours), it may break dormancy during early warm spells only to be damaged by spring frosts later. The leaves are killed by 26°F when growing. Trees do not produce well in the high summer heat of desert regions, which may also sunburn the bark." They are pretty trees but that tendency to break dormancy after only a few warm days looks problematic. I find it interesting that the persimmon is classified in 2 groups - astringent and non-astringent. Boy, they've got good reason for that! Apparently, the astringent varieties are not necessarily bad - they just require full ripening. Conversely, non-astringent types are not necessarily good. Confusing . . . I enjoy whatever they have in the produce aisle when they are still somewhat crisp. I could be wrong but it looks from Wikipedia that the American persimmon isn't grown for fruit - golf clubs and billiard cues yes, fruit, perhaps no. The pawpaw is a different genus & species. See, that idea that fruit trees take too long has come back to bite you (I don't really know if that was your thinking, Catherine, but I've heard that so many times from younger people.) My apple butter is from a tree that I planted as a young guy at my place then promptly dug up and moved to my father's backyard. It is now about 35 years old. Actually, it is the last of the dwarf/semi-dwarf trees I moved there. I bought an apple for Mom & Dad not long after they moved to that house. It has been gone 6 or 8 years now. The Northern Spy survivor once had a sister which grew but didn't want to make fruit. Dad always seems too willing to attack trees with a chainsaw to my way of thinking. That tree went out the gate about 10 or 15 years ago. The French plum was damaged by a lawn mower incident and then began to have serious peach borer problems. It was such a fine tree that Dad cut it down and replaced it. That 2nd plum is now about 20 years old and usually produces really well. The peach tree didn't have borer problems but fire blight weakened it every year. It died without ever producing a single fruit. We planted a doughnut peach a couple of years ago. It is going great guns as is the white peach in my own backyard. I had big hopes for that one this year but it still hasn't set any fruit - only about 4 years old now. One thing seems to be for sure, as night follows day, seasons follow season . . . Like sands through the hourglass . . . blah, blah, blah . . . but even a little tree on dwarfing root-stock can ripen boxes and boxes of fruit after the kids have grown up and left . . . Okay, so that means they have a reason to show up during harvest anyway. digitS'