Hi, A couple of questions: -Would hardy pricklypear cactus (Opuntia humifusa/compressa) be the only hardy pricklypear to endure zone 6 winters? -Would sweetshoot bamboo (Phyllostachys dulcis) be suitable for zone 6? -Comment: Pawpaw, Asimina spp. (including Asimina triloba), contains the compounds associated with increased risk of atypical Parkinson's; you'd have to it is frequently enough, I would suppose. -Comment: I believe that ginko nuts must be eaten in moderation - I remember reading some materials describing them as toxic to some extent. I wonder if making tea out of the leaves would be a good thing, however. -I know Lucky has some varieties survive his zone 6 winters, but anyone have any varieties of Pomegranates survive zone 6, 6a or 5b? - and fruit? -What are the best Amelanchier spp./Juneberries/Serviceberries w/regards to taste? I think that the only berries I absolutely loved must have been A. alnifolia - 5' thin suckered bushes with dark, sugar-sweet berries; the A. canadensis and A. canadensis x laevis I've tasted are not as good as what ever variety that happened to have been. -Will American hazelnut/filbert & American beaked hazelnut hybridize with the European species? -If I were able to obtain a true American Chestnut selected from a stand that showed great disease resistance, would the taste hold up to the Chinese and/or English varieties? -In comparison to a straight D. virginiana or D. kaki, would there be any taste improvement in the hybridization between American x Asian persimmon? -Would you think that a fully ripe Wild Mandrake/Mayapple would be at all toxic; or would it be risky if consumed in excess? -What are cold-hardy, reliable varieties of Black Mulberry (M. nigra)? [non-hybrids] -In zone 6b, my 'Brown Turkey' Fig never dies back to the ground; I do nothing to protect it. -I purchased a grafted D. kaki 'Saijo' and a friend of mine showed me his orchard containing grafted Asian persimmons - the grafts reject after several years; he explained that if you had an American x Asian hybrid as the inter-connection between the D. virginiana rootstock and D. kaki scion, the graft would last indefinitely. I hope the tree will last, contrary to this - probably won't. -Are the berries of native/American shrub-dogwoods and tree dogwoods (other then the toxic Cornus florida - Flowering Dogwood) really edible? C. sericea/stolon., C. alternifolia, etc.? -Besides Black Oak, any other good oak nuts? -I'll contribute a few I can think of here (edibles): Salmonberry, Thimbleberry, 2 varieties of Ligonberries - American/European, Bearberries, Wild Wintergreen Berries, Berberries spp., (water lily and lotus/parts, arrowhead/parts, pickerelweed/parts, Acorus - sweetflag, not iris!), various man-made blackberry x raspberry hybrids, the man-made 'jostaberry' - ribes spp., a wide array of vaccinium spp. (blueberries, deerberries, bilberries, false huckleberries), Garden Huckleberry (not a huckleberry), varieties of cranberry, Akebia, Orange trifoliate, Crabapple spp., nuts: chinquapin, species of hazelnut/walnut/varieties of hickory (including pecans), forbs: daylily species, various flowers, Monkey Puzzle Pine, Pine Nut species, syrup from Walnut & Maple species, Prinsepia, Asparagus, Globe Artichoke, Jerusalem Artichoke, various greens, various man-made stone fruit hybrids, foxgrape (including 'Concord' & 'Neptune'), purple passionflower, Mountain Ash species, Aronia spp., Western Sandcherry, Buffaloberries, native Silverberries, Sala, Yuka spp., Magnolia virginiana for tea - leaves and culinary, chokecherry, wild black cherry, pin/fire cherry, American wild plum, Chickasaw plum, Beach plum, cloudberry/bakeapple berry, smooth & staghorn sumac, teas from birches, American larch, and others - be cautious, tall & stinging nettle tea, the species of Jujube, Streptopus amplexifolius - I forgot the name - I call it watermelon berry, but it's not the above mentioned Che/Melonberry which is a good one to have. ____ When you think about it, there really are only a few fruits out there: Apple (4 types), brown or green Pear, Cherry otherwise know as Bing or Yellow Cherry, Melon, Apricot, Nectarine, Orange, Grapefruit, Grape, Kiwi, Plum, and Pineapple - if you don't believe me, just go to the supermarket or your local cooperate sponsored fruit consumption advocacy materials. Well, they do have around 5 other rare ones: Starfruit, Date, Fig, and Fruit-roll-up Fruit.

Morning, Everyone, Pet...AWWW, Mr. Frog sounds adorable. Yep, I'm sure the frog is used to warm areas. A FL native. Too bad you couldn't keep it as a pet... :) A. fasciatas are beautiful Broms, and will live forever, if babies are removed, placed in seperate pots. Neoregelia's are also gorgeous, but I've never had luck removing their children. Do you see babies? Is it flowering? Good luck, Pet.. PrairieMoon, The thing about lemon is, the scent deters insects, including ants, roaches and fleas..and of course, house plant bugs. Lemon won't kill bugs, however they dislike the scent. One site advised squeezing lemon juice in holes/cracks where insects hide out. lol. Lemon is used for cleaning, whitens laundry and supposely kills mold, bacteria and germs. Which is also beneficial to plants.. Listerine works like lemon..deters bugs..Optional. Before my plants are brought indoors, I add generic Listerine. Believe me, I HATE insects..plant bugs and outdoor types. Spiders, Earwigs, etc. I don't know if EW's dislike lemon and mouth wash, but spiders can't stand it..BTW, vinegar kills spiders on contact. I'd rather not use chemicals, so when a spiders get inside, I grab my vinegar bottle and spray away. Spiders roll up then died. Sorry, to all you spider lovers.:) Do you purchase plants at different nurseryes/green houses/stores? I've seen employees spray, 'surely not plain water.' A local gh has sprayers that lightly mist plants every half an hour. Ever notice residue on leaves? You can bet the residue is from insecticdes. I wash plants off ASAP. Can't stand touching chemicals. Eggs are hard spotting, especially if ones vision is not 20/20. Still, when I buy plants locally, I check upper and lower leaves, stems and near plant base. Sometimes, mold is present. You're lucky you have a room to isolate..Don't worry about proper light the first 3-days to 1-week. I've done a LOT of online ordering. 98% of the time, an info sheet is included. So far, every article I've read says the same thing. Place new plant in shade the first 3-days to 1-week. After the plant is situated, it can go in its permanent location. So, no need to worry about light while plants are isolated. Write a note to yourself reminding you to water. lol. Does 'g' stand for grin??? Cheeseclothe is a great idea, but I can't find it. lol. Can't tell you the number of sprayers gone bad when I chopped garlic and placed in mixture. Even tiny hot pepper clogged the nozzel. I had to remove cap, then wash and remove particles with a tooth pick. lol. That's the reason I now add a clove of garlic the night before spraying Still have difficulty with red pepper, 'when smaller misters are used,' but it's worth a few seconds to clean ut. To top off misting, I buy inexpensive, crushed hot pepper. .99 a bottle or two for 1.00, then sprinkle outside plants with hot pepper. Also, when I mix soils/mediums for repotting, I add Cayenne Pepper in the soil mix. lol. Prarie, we've had ants problems 4-5 years. I spray with vinegar which kills on contact. Remember ants and mealy work together. I also add 1-2 drops of dish soap in plants kept in shallow saucers w/pebbles and water. One last thing. I have 15 or so old, 'cleaned' milk and vinegar containers filled with water. So, when a plant needs a drink, water is room temp, ready to go. When containers need refilling, I add a couple drops of dish soap. Please don't think I spend a million dollars on dish soap. lol. I buy generic soap for 1.00 sold at Jewel Grocery Store. Considering the amount of soap and vinegar used, the cost isn't much....safer than Raid, etc. Prarie, when my Hoyas had mealy, I dumped every last piece of soil and pots. Once winter arrived, plants inside, mealy returned. Yep, Rhizo knows about spiders. She found a Black Window in her LR this last summer. GROSS and SCARY.. Don't like spiders, pedes, or small bees..think they're called Honey Bees..those stingers got me good one day when I turned a window-box filled with water, over another plant. I didn't know bees made a home in the drainage holes. After water was dumped, those stingers were everywhere. Other bees don't bother me. Not really. I used to be terrified of all bees, even though I was never stung. As far as spiders and pedes, I've been terrified of those long legged pests since childhood. And will to the day I'm in heaven. :) PM, Good luck. I hope thie recipe works. You may need two applications, one week apart. Toni

My gardens: 1) New this spring I have a 15' x 45' "standard" (i.e. not raised bed) vegetable garden. It was tilled in February and surface amended with 10 front end loaders full of composted horse manure/stall leavings. I suspect come fall we will till the plant debris back as well as a significant amount of more compost. 2) I have a kitchen garden, also not raised, that is two 5' X 15' beds with a sidewalk through the middle. It was double dug and heavily amended with compost last spring. The soil level has sunk about 4" since last year, but there has been a major improvement in soil texture. I grows herbs in one bed (and won't amend it as heavily since herbs often have better flavors on less rich soils.) The other side is growing lettuces and other early spring crops and won't be amended until those are pulled out in another month and annuals are planted for the summer. 3) I also have perennial gardens. They were amended and double dug last year with structural shrubs planted. Compost was added again last fall, especially in areas that were more heavily clay. The majority of perennials and roses have been planted this spring. I have used 2"-3" of compost as mulch on these beds. I have also use the compost as mulch on my foundation plantings on the front of my house. Unlike most I have a continuous supply of compost, tractors with implements, as well as plenty of arable land. So doing raised beds does not seem to be as logical a choice for me as it would be for the suburban gardener! I did not amend my former perennial gardens anywhere near what I've done here, but the few things I grew last summer were pretty amazing. In hindsight I realize that the lack of appropriate amounts of organic material was a big hole in my former process.

knittlin, I'll stay away from the pretty orange/red Yaupon berries. When I was a kid we had a similar kind of tree near our house and I stood there and ate several berries. After proudly reporting my delicious discovery to my mother, her eyes got very big and panic set in. Long story short, I ended up getting my stomach pumped. So since then my appetite for pretty wild berries has diminished somewhat. Your Library project sounds brilliant! And I would imagine that learning about what's under foot, so to speak, and in one's own yard (native edibles/medicinals) would be something that would peak people's curiosity and perhaps even entice some old timers to share their remedies and recipes with the younger generation! I was thinking about a 'native plants' garden myself with things like Purslane, Lambsquarters, etc. But I'll have to learn more about growing, harvesting and cooking them first. This website discusses the benefits of eating Lambsquarters: http://www.veggiegardeningtips.com/surprising-lambs-quarters/ I believe Scooter Cheatham IS based in Austin. And there used to be a "library/store/learning center" sort of place for herbs and edible native plants out east of Austin just off the OLD airport road (Manor) about a mile past the airport entrance (on the left), but not quite as far as 183. Can't recall its name and don't know if it's still there. It could be connected to Cheatham's project. Also was exploring Cheatham's Usefull Wild Plants site that I linked to above and discovered that they apparently do still teach annual classes AND then have a banquet using the plants they've discovered. I'll bet they have some amazing recipes! http://www.usefulwildplants.org/weedfeed.htm Some of their archived newsletters look intriguing such as the first one that discusses what kind of meals were eaten by the natives and pioneers. http://www.usefulwildplants.org/newsletter.htm I did a google on Edible and Useful Plants of Texas and the Southwest, By Delena Tull and discovered it's available to read online! Or at least a lengthy preview: http://books.google.com/books?id=pnnHgcasN-cC&pg=RA1-PA140&lpg=RA1-PA140&dq=recipes,+purslane+Portulaca+oleracea&source=bl&ots=Vm-SpPMdSr&sig=6fvE7DpZ-GJiYn8AkYwCsS4FVmE&hl=en&ei=Wim6SaLdBIa-Mpq5jbcI&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPP1,M1 Can You Answer These Questions? 1) What do lipstick, World War I campaign tents, and shoe polish have in common? 2) The wood of this tree is one of the finest anywhere in the world for making bows and was prized by Native Americans for this. It is amazingly durable and decay-resistant. Paving blocks (as paved the downtown streets of old Fort Worth) made of it can last 50 years or more. One name refers to its use for bows, another to the color of the wood and the Indians who used it for bows. What are they? 3) This juicy plant thrives in the heat of summer and grows out of the cracks in city sidewalks. It is sold in Mexican and Asian markets as a vegetable. What is it? 4) You just noticed that the mustang grapes you've been picking are entwined with poison ivy. You've never broken out before so you keep picking. But should you be concerned this time? 5) Even though this plant has delicious leaves with more Vitamin A than spinach or broccoli, to most people it's a no-good weed to be mercilessly hoed out of the garden. The seeds of one of its relatives were a staple food of the Aztecs. What is it? 6) The Texas shrub called agarita (Berberis trifoliolata) produces delicious red fruits in late spring. Its yellow roots helped equip World War II paratroopers. How? 7) One U.S. president was also a great plantsman. Who said "The greatest service which can be given any country is to add a useful plant to its culture?" 8) You are curious about the plants in your own backyard and want to know more about them. What can you do? Here is a link that might be useful: ANSWERS