How big is your pencil cactus? I am posting my list here: Seeds I have to trade: Foxglove (white/purple and purple/red) Turnip Jujube Loquat Lemons Oranges Mulberries Boysenberries Blackberries Guava Snow Peas Spinach Seeds I am looking for: No current listings. Plants I have to trade: FRUITS: Mulberries Weeping Mulberries Persian Mulberries Pakistani Mulberries Pakistani Hybrid Mulberries Marion Berry Strawberries Blackberries Blueberries Chokecherry Thimble Berries Oregon Grape Goji Berries Guavas (Indian, Taiwanese Long Type, Thai, Taiwanese, and Japanese) Pineapple Guava Strawberry Guava Sweet Lime Apple (honey crisp, gala, granny smith, fuji, red delicious) Tamarind Nectarine Peaches (White, Giant) Apricot Wampi, Wampee Ume (Japanese Apricot or Chinese Plum) Star Fruit Rambutan Tangelo Mango Dragon Fruit (Purple, Red, Yellow and White) Plum (burgundy, purple, elephant heart, wild hybrid) Peaches (heavy producer, super sweet) Nectarines Jujube (Li, Honey) Tomatoes Service Berry Tree Pomelo Hosui Pear Shinseiki Pear Fuyu Persimmons Olives White Sapote Cherimoya, Sugar Apple Banana Lychee Longan Wax Apple/Rose Apple Calamodin Kumquat Noni (Cuttings only) Figs (Purple and Green) Mango (Cuttings only) Avocado Cherries (Rainier, Bing, Stella) Apples (Fuji, Gold Delicious etc) Pears 20th Century Asian Pear Pomegranate (Dwarf) Atemoya Rambutan Grapes Tangelo (Cuttings only) Oranges Grapefruit (Various varieties) Sugar Apples (sakya) Sapodilla, Sapote SPICES: Madrid and Sea Lavender (two types), Mexican Sage, Mint (lemon, apple), Rosemary, Red chillies. Flowers: Various roses (Still in Dormant Bags) climbing roses rose-bed roses hydrangeas lilies (calla and asiatic) michelia camillas (white, pink, red) hibiscus azaelas freesias tulip pink jasmines confederate jasmines foxglove Orchids birds of paradise. PLANTS spider plants white oak other oak trees princess fragrant shrub with flower jade succulent other succulents aloe ask for more. Plants I am looking for: Anything I do not have or types I do not have. Looking for mainly fruits but am open to everything else. Giant Fuyu Persimmons Other Persimmons Mulberries (Non-Pakistan) Red Sugar Apple Tropical Fruits Fragrant Flowers

Thanks for all the kind words, as always. Troicalgrower89: You are considering: carrie, alphonso, golden nugget, glenn and valencia pride. I haven't had Alphonso yet, but the other choices are all excellent. My personal favorites are Maha Chanook, Edward, Dot, and Cushman. The best tree ripened specimen of the above would win my taste preference contest on most days. There are many other mangoes, that, on a given day, at the peak of perfection of ripeness, that could crack into the elite line up. There are almost too many to name of the mangoes that I am growing that would fall into this category. I built my collection based upon mango selections that were either rated excellent in the early Fairchild ratings back in their publications in the early 1990's or, if I came across a variety that someone thought was the best mango in the world (and I thought they had any idea about what they were talking about). I do own an obligatory Tommy Atkins just for completeness of the collection (I am almost embarrased to say). Of the mangoes you are considering, I would still reserve judgment on Alphonso. Valencia Prida is one of those that I grow that, in a given year or day, it can crack the top mangoes. The others would be just below the elite.....still excellent and worth growing, however....IMO. LOL, I just went back to an old post to a thread in this Forum to see what I had previously said in answer to this question. Here's what I said.... In the very top group would be Maha Chanook, Dot, Edward and Cushman...in no particular order. These would consistantly rate 9.0 or higher on a 10 point scale. After these, there is a group that, while not always in the top group, can, on a given day rival those in the top group. These would include Julie, Carrie, Graham,Mallika, Cogshall, Pickering, Okrung, Nam Doc Mai, Spirit of 76, Ice Cream, Valencia Pride and Southern Blush. These would consistantly rate 8.0-9.5 on a 10 point scale. I also have a seedling tree grown from a Mallika seed that has fruit that has flavor with the best of the best...but is knocked down because of abundant fiber. At least I agree with myself. Best of luck with your Haden graft! John: Good question. I have purchased the Ohia, Ohia Red and Ohia Pink. I have two trees that I know are the original Ohia...that was before I ever heard of the Pink or Red. I have one other tree that is flowering for the first time which is either the pink or red...not sure which. Also not sure how this one will differ from the original Ohias that have flowered and fruited consistantly for many years. Stay tuned for further developments on this front. Ethan: No...no damage on the Dang Rasimi again this year after a second fairly brutal winter. But then again, I really didn't have much daamge this year on any jakfruit other than some peripheral leaf damage on the Tabouey x J-30, Mai 2 and the Borneo Red. Sheehan: No...you misunderstood what I had said. Two of the Maha seedlings have flowered previously. Actually, one flowered two years in a row. However, they have never set any fruit. This year they are all three flowering and I see small fruit development. Maybe I am just looking closer but I am very hopeful that we'll have some to try. In the interim, I would say that there are some fairly different characteristics that indicate individuality. In the picture you will notice that some of the pannicles are deeper red than the others. Also, there was some difference in the timing of the blossom push. Not that this proves anything as I have 4 grafted Maha's planted out and they are off considerably by a number of weeks as compared to the others in bloom timing. Also, the tree on the NW side has much shorter pannicles than the others. BluePalm: Yes, Rosiegold does seem to be very anthracnose prone and the tree habit is scraggly as you can see on all three that I have. Remember, the tree pictured was originally grafted by me and I was calling it the Martinez mango based on what I was told by the suppplier of the scions. I have come to realize that what I have is Rosiegold...so now I have three of them planted out and they all look the same...scraggly. On your question about that Brewster lychee. It was a wedding gift to my wife and I and was in a 15 or so gallon pot when it was planted out in June of 1991. Andrew: My Jean Ellen was purchased not this past Fairchild Festival but the one the previous year. So it has been planted out since around July of 2009....that is one year and seven months. Remember...that is the tree I used as an experiment in my "To prune or not to prune" thread. See link below. Here is a link that might be useful: To prune or not to prune

It was very nice meeting all of you in person - it's a shame I didn't have more time to head out on any of your other pomological excursions, but my job schedule is brutal. Plummy, I realized on my way home that the Fruit and Spice Park greenhouse plant I had mistakenly identified as a durian (and which you cleverly pointed out was an Annona) was, in fact, a posh-te. Kudos on recognizing the genus immediately. NTM, I noticed the same thing about the leaf burn on the rambutans at Fairchild - of course, mine seem to have the same problem. I was there earlier today and found ripe cherapus and ripening mangosteens on the trees - very cool.

It's doubtful you'd be able to grow any of those fruits on that list in your climate. The problem would be with your extreme high temperatures. Most of those berries are cold climate plants. And a lot of the tropical fruits are rainforest species that like year round high humidity. That's not to say there aren't some that will grow, but they'll struggle during hot dry periods. It's easy enough to give a plant plenty of water around the roots. It's very difficult to raise the humidity in the air around a plants leaves when the whole atmosphere is dry. Mangos should be one of the easiest for you. I've also found that Star Apple (Chrysopyhllum cainito) takes a lot of dry heat provided it gets enough water around the roots. And Carambola (Averrhoa carambola) seems to cope with the heat and dry, although too dry can affect fruiting. Cashews (Anacardium occidentale) should be okay there as well. Another one to try is Pineapple. Just grow it from the tops. It would probably need a little light shade during the hottest times. That's all I can think of for the moment.