I have a lot of hybrid vitis seeds, many of which are 1/2 L-50s, a superior Vitis riparia selection from Minnesota. What sort of seeds do you have to trade? Most of my hybrid crosses are with Muscat flavored table/wine types, so they are not pure wild species, but I do have a lot of combinations, using some of the better hybrids. I'd love to get seeds of an early ripening Vitis Lincecumii or Post Oak grape. Will also have cuttings later this fall. Boizeau

Hmmm ... I just may have to take the plunge with the cornus mas, then ... and Ken, I always plant small trees ... besides being more affordable, I love to watch them grow! What about a cornus mas and an evergreen dogwood? Or, a cornus mas and a forest pansy redbud? Or, a cornus mas and a venus dogwood? Or, a stewartia and a cornus mas? Any better suggestions for a pairing? The part that I didn't tell you is that I had a black walnut tree that I cut down (now that's a messy tree!) and still have two trees that I look forward to cutting down once these two trees take off ... don't know what they are but they have compound leaves and thousands of little white buds they drop and they litter the landscape with little twigs all year long ... messy trees with few redeeming values, including poor fall color (pale yellow).

Granddad i have seen that picture of your longbean trellis extension before. What would happen if you didn't add the extension? Would the beans just start to cascade back down? Would it affect yield? i am very curious! Cyrus gardener please contact me privately through my Gardenweb member page-thanks! zensojourner i do not mean to highjack your thread! So far i think no one has mentioned pumpkin or watercress. Watercress is a classic veggie side dish at Korean restaurants here. Thais enjoy pumpkin which is not like the jack o'lantern Americans are familiar with. More like a winter squash or even more like a Japanese Kabocha. Check out this website i just surfed into yesterday, they sell Thai vegetable seeds although they are adapted more to a tropical climate and i am not sure about your zone. i have not ordered from them so i cannot comment on product or service. Kaffir lime is pretty much a must for Thai food. it is not frost-proof but it should do OK in a pot if you suffer from that affliction ; ) i have heard that this can be ordered from FourWinds if you cannot get it locally. Cilantro, Mint, Thai Basil have all been mentioned but if you'd like to get really authentic try herbs Culantro and Rau Ram. Oh and green papaya salad is pretty much classic Thai food. You can use unripe solo papaya but the real green papaya is large, long and used primarily as a vegetable. i've been looking for a seed source myself. Sawatdi ; ) Here is a link that might be useful: Kilohana farms

Another update with pictures. I switched to a larger pot (random one I found laying around with a bunch of fake leaves hot glued to it) and went with Al's mix, as bark nuggets and sphagum peat moss were on special locally - I couldnt resist. The plant seems to do great with it and it seems to have solved the problem with fungus gnats; the miracle gro stuff was bone dry near the top, but inside and in the middle it might as well have been soaked in water. I still have to get used to watering it before leaving it into the sun as this afternoon it was wilting after being watered the day before, it rebounded incredibly quickly but I suppose it has to adjust to not having waterlogged soil. I was suprised actually that there wasnt any root rot, for some reason all of the extra perlite I had mixed in got compacted to the middle right under the plant. Anyways, here are the pictures. thats the fruit, its more of a chocolate colour now. heres the plant, looking at the first picture I posted its grown quite a bit! here is (one of) the scotch bonnet my uncle gave me. Its doing much better, but a few of them have the yellowing at the very top. Any ideas what that could be? those are the other 8 plants. The one on the bottom left is using Al's mix and seems to be doing better than the others, soon Ill switch them all over to it. heres the mystery sprout again, its starting to grow its true leaves (I think thats what they are called right?) so soon Ill be able to identify what it is (well not exactly, Ill be able to know if its from a broken root off the main plant or one of the habanero seeds I thought was dead).