Mike, First I want to say, the plants I received, beginning Jan 1, 2010, were in 3-4" containers, bulbs and cuttings. Only a handful were larger, meaning 8" to 1' tall. Total: 58. :) :( Marguest, your Banana Tree is beautiful. The colors amazing. There's even a pup. Did you find it on Ebay? Mike, to answer a few questions. I MUST stay away from Ebay..It's one addicting site. Not only do they have great deals on plants, but plant supplies. There's also a few online nurseries I browse every other wk or so. The internet makes it too easy to shop for such an exciting hobby. A few clicked keys, next thing, a package is at your front door? One word of Warning for those who really want to stop buying plants.. Well, an attempt. Do NOT sign up for nursery News Letters. It's convenient, swaying us to their site, displaying their wares. Hear the clicking keys to Paypal? lol. As for local nurseries, fortunately, there are two that sell very very nice and rare specimens..luckily, opposite directions, both a long distance drive. An hour on non-congested days, 1.5-2 hours during 9-5, Rush Hour traffic. Although, traffic has gotten so heavy the past five years, the only time to go anywhere with time to spare is between midnight and 5am. Problem is, the stores are closed. lol. Our grocery store, Jewel's, always has plants for sale. Mostly, basic plants like Spaths, certain Dracaenas, etc. My problem arises when they have dollar sales. 3-4" potted plants for 1.00. Every so often, they'll have a rarer specimen. Buy 3, pot them up, and you have a lovely plant for 3.00. Four years ago, they had, mixed in with other dollar plants, Schefflera 'brassaia/actinophylla, a plant I hadn't seen in years...last one) I grabbed it up fast. lol. That's about it. Not too bad for 9 months. lol. Toni

I can tell you, the very few Gerogia and SC peaches we've gotten the last couple of years have been awful. Good before and good this year. It's a four hour drive to Atlanta, so maybe 1 1/2 to the border? Close enough. If we're talking trees, I'll take a lemon, lime and peach! I can live without apples, plums, or figs. Those always taste the same to me. I must not have ever had a "great" one of any of those. Of course, in the last couple of years, I've had local eggs and dairy, and they didn't strike me as all that different. They were organically raised too. Must just be my tastebuds (smile).

i lost my senior great dane girl 5 weeks ago to bone cancer. it was sudden and shocking and i still look for her. my remaining dane girl and eden were joined at the hip, pip took the loss very hard and had been grieving so much, it broke my heart. i contacted pip's breeder and one of her former co-owners and asked that they keep an eye out for any adults that any breeder friends might be considering a new home for (retired show dogs, etc.). the co-owner gave me the contact information for one of her people who had a dane boy she had been looking for just the right home for and the rest is history. meet "flighty foto my way", call name "frank". frank will be 4 years old on 5/31. he is a very sweet boy and he and pippin hit it off immediately at our meet 'n' greet friday. they do zoomies numerous times a day, sleep curled up together and are just a perfect pair. pippin is so much happier and that makes me happier. even though i miss eden terribly, i am beginning to heal now that pip is feeling better. frank is a bit on the thin side because he lived the last 4 weeks with a female dane who was going through a heat cycle and when that's going on, intact males ignore food, do a lot of pacing and fretting and routinely lose weight. he's eating like a horse so i'm confident he will gain and be back to his normal weight soon. i'm giving him a few weeks to settle in and then i'll make an appointment to have him neutered.

i've lived in cypress and now west of angleton (south of houston) and i've had many parsley of the flatleaf variety live 2 years and 1 lived 5 years the one that lived five years was planted in a container at the base of an enormous pine tree in two year old leaf mulch compost no soil at all i think they really can't stand hot direct sun over a long period of time and i know i never watered the one that lived such a long time i have several nown that are 2 years old and they're already suffering from being in the sunny raised bed they really like cooler weather her in south texas the ones in pots under the trees are doing much better, and the pots have to be large i've never planted the plants you mentioned besides parsley, except for mint and that is very thirsty stuff and you should really keep it contained i have some around the base of a lemon tree now and we'll see how that goes, we'll be mowing around that tree... herbs that i have kept alive for over a year and should have been able to keep alive because they're perennial are oregano, marjoram, several kinds of thyme, 2 kinds of sage, lemon balm and chives i am using these in a raised bed (about 12 or more inches high) made of rose soil they are growing as companion plants to roses and day lilies and some other small shrubs i can tell they really aren't happy after days of continual rain i think well draining soil and not too much water is the recipe for herbs--and the butterflies and other pollinators love the herbs