I'm waiting on some Bowl of Beauty peony seeds pods to set seeds (or burst which ever the term is) would you be interested? or would you take postage? I'm sending an email just in case :) have a great summer and stay out of the heat! :) Gail

Thanks, Seil, and you're welcome Luis. As I said, we are all new at everything once. Bring those peppers to great fruit and you'll be the legend of your family and neighborhood! For most of us, "the expert" is the person who knows one more thing about the subject than we do. Believe me, I've killed MANY plants, and in working in retail nursery related businesses for many years, I've seen even more "mistakes". Since heat sounds like a real issue where you are, please save yourself heartache and back strain. Buy plastic of foam pots only. I'm not sure exactly where you are as you don't list it on your profile page, nor whether you're putting the pots on the ground, a patio or balcony, but heat absorption and radiation is an enormous problem in high heat areas with pots. Terra cotta (clay) and ceramic pots are cooking utensils. Those two materials absorb heat from the air and direct sun, then hold it for long periods, radiating it into the soil ball, cooking out the water and literally cooking the roots. That will quickly kill the plants inside. Plastic heats up, but not to the extent the two other types will, and the plastic begins releasing that heat as soon as the direct sun moves from it. Foam pots are like ice chests. They insulate the soil and roots from temperature extremes far better than any other material other than concrete and wood. If there are either Home Depot, Lowe's or other large home improvement stores around your area, you should be able to find lower cost pots of either plastic or foam there. They may not be as pretty, and they may not last quite as long as a high quality terra cotta or ceramic pot, but they will support plant growth much more successfully in high heat situations. If you're putting them on a balcony, plastic and foam are tremendously lighter in weight, which will not only save your back, but be safer on a higher story. If you're in a hot area, you very likely have rather alkaline, salty water. If you have to put saucers under the pots to prevent damage to the balcony or patio surface, you'll be better off by putting gravel in the saucers so the bottoms of the pots are elevated above the drained water. Salts from the water itself, and salt from the fertilizer (ALL fertilizers either are salt, or are digested into salt forms) can accumulate and build up to the point they damage and eventually kill the plants. If you've ever raised house plants and noticed the crust that builds up on the potting soil surface, or builds up in the saucer and sides of the pot, you've seen it. Permitting water to flush through the soil and not be drawn back up into it will prevent salt build-up to toxic levels. If your water isn't salty, then you only have the fertilizer salts to contend with. I understand your concern comparing how the potted trees looked to what you expect your peppers to look like. But, they're for different purposes. Often, a potted tree is a landscape element, even on a patio or balcony. You're not "landscaping", you're raising food (presumably, unless you've planted ornamental peppers). In really large pots, you could even grow types of sun flowers for height with the peppers and portulaca under and around them. If you're primarily interested in the peppers for eating and want the portulaca flowers for their beauty, they should be and look fine in larger pots. It all depends upon what your goals are for planting them in the first place. A tree is a more permanent planting. Your peppers and portulaca are "annuals" which have to be replaced each year (usually). If you find they look odd to you, plant other taller things in some with the peppers in others. Several pots with vegetables in them could actually look quite interesting and pretty. Feel free to mix other annual flowers with your vegetables. You can also put in cooler weather vegetables and annuals for your three day winter. I laughed at that one. Our winter here in Los Angeles had a few colder days, but has been up to the mid eighties recently. Too cold for the tomatoes but the roses and other flowers are blooming like weeds. Seil is correct, portulaca can self seed anywhere they find suitable conditions. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, particularly since you like the look and colors of the flowers. They're easily weeded out if they come up where you don't want them and can be really pretty when they pop up somewhere unexpected. I hope it helps. Kim

Wow, that's a lot of plants! I don't have a list of what I'm growing in my little gardens -- sometimes it takes me a couple of weeks in the spring to realize that that weird looking weed in the corner is something I've had for years. I just assume that more plants than not will grow in this area! One of the more unusual plants I grow is agapanthus. Not a particularly hardy variety, this was simply a florists' plant my mother gave me four years ago. But it's come up reliably every year for the past three seasons in Central Ohio. It's planted against a south-facing brick wall with excellent drainage, and apparently doesn't realize it's not in zone 8+ anymore! One of my mother's more spectacular plants is a 15 year old calamondin orange that arrived as a little "get-well" houseplant. It spends the winter on the unheated glassed in back porch in Cincinnati, and now stands over 6' tall in the pot, and is nearly 4' around. It always has flowers and fruit on it, and we've picked 200 ripe fruits at one time.

No, I just "converse" via the forum. Perhaps so, but I was a bit upset when she was kind of chiding us the other day for discussing changes in the zoning map, etc. People are concerned and I think it IS an appropriate place to discuss those concerns. What and where else? I felt like she was being a bit "controlling"? I really would like to see Paul James take her on his show, though. Poor Annie. You need to get some big strong help like I'm going to do. I just can't do that heavy stuff anymore. Plus, I have a disease called alacka. I lack the talent to work with fencing, posts, hammers, nails, boards, etc. Do you know that I saw Ralph Waldo Emerson's house in Massachusetts near Concord? And his garden? I went to see a lot of the writer's homes - Thoreau, Longfellow, Louisa Mae Alcott, Dickinson, etc. It is so beautiful there in the spring. Also saw Walden's Pond. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Gardens and flowers and trees are just stunning up there. They can grow hydrangeas much better than I. The Cape is lovely - we had breakfast at a little coastal breakfast inn - blueberry scones! Saw the sun set on Race Point (furthest point you can go on the Cape). Ferried over to both islands. Lovely, lovely, lovely. Saw the famous Merrimack, House of Seven Gables, Salem, North Church, loved Boston, seafood (can't eat it here anymore), great great great. I was lucky. I got to go with my job, so all expenses paid. Otherwise, I would never have had the opportunity. Winter is like Currier & Ives. But long, very, very long. Roads are never a problem there, though. Susan