Scott, how do we know Botner's stuff is really correct? I must have at least 20-30 varieties so far that I'd label as "unidentified", in other words, didn't turn out as advertised. It's not just Botner, it's pretty much all sources that are unreliable. For example, I grafted melrose, expecting a nice average sized October eater. Instead, I got these delicious little June ripening crab apples. They're good, but I have no idea what they are. I also got anisim from Botner, expecting an early September ripening red apple. Instead, I have an October ripening green with slight red blush apple that is most definitely not anisim. I grafted missouri pippin, and instead I got chestnut. At least that one was easy to identify. I grafted alkmene and bella de jardin from GRIN, guess what, they're both identical - ripening at the same time, look and taste 100% identical. I purchased a white winter pearmain from Dave Wilson, instead I got a Winter banana. After complaining about it, they provided me with another "White Winter pearmain" that once again was a Winter banana. At that point, I concluded that Dave Wilson's "White Winter Pearmain" isn't a pearmain, but it's actually Winter banana, and they don't have a clue. I remember ordering a St Edmunds pippin from Trees of Antiquity. To my surprise, I got large red fruit. Turns out to be splendour, and it bit the dust two years later for no apparent reason. I grow two De L'estre apples, one from a local source, one you sent me. The one you sent me is smaller with a beautiful red blush. The one I got locally is like a stripeless green gravenstein, but flavored differently. Go figure. i can't make heads or tails out of a chunk of my apple collection.

Thanks for the quick response! Thunbergia it is! I never would have thought it to be related to the black eyed susan vine, but I've seen that growing on roadsides somewhat prolifically at higher altitudes. Thanks again! -Jim

Oops - I had 2 pgs. open at once and put in the wrong link :) that other one wasn't very informative... this might be better: http://www.naturalhub.com/grow_fruit_and_nuts_in_tropical_areas.htm CHERIMOYA Annona cherimola-Medium to very large most sweet and complexly flavored fruit with soft white or cream flesh with numerous bean sized shiny black seeds embedded in it.The fruit is carried on a small tree that is amenable to pruning. It can also be informally espaliered. It regrows easily from a severe pruning-handy because the wood is fairly brittle and liable to hurricane damage. Cherimoyas need a period of cool temperatures (although they are damaged by actual frost), and are therefore only successful in cooler elevated areas of the tropics. They require very little care beyond pruning after fruiting, and intermittant fertilising with a complete fertiliser. They need fairly good drainage or they will get root rot. A thick organic mulch helps in marginal soils. A grafted tree should start fruiting within 2 or 3 years of planting out. Any grafted tree will have lovely fruit. Some cultivars have smoother flesh than others, or have a slightly resinous taste, or the flesh is whiter-but the difference is between 'delightful' and 'fantastic', so it doesn't matter. Cherimoyas are picked while still firm-usually when the green skin takes on a very slight yellowish tinge. They will be ripen in the fruit bowl about 4 days from picking.

To answer both of your questions--well, heat IS relative... Too much is when your Fuchsia gives up and dies... Let me explain what the risk is... It's not quite so much heat PER SE. While not exactly prime Fuchsia country, a few people grow them in California's sizzling Central Valley. They will survive there with shade and irrigation. Bear in mind that nights are surprisingly cool there despite the daytime heat. There are two problems. One is that the chemical processes that keep them alive are optimized for relatively cool temperatures. I don't know what those would exactly be, but probably between about 50-70F. As the temperature rises, they get more sluggish. At some point, especially with warm nights, their chemistry starts shutting down. Temperatures in the 80s are warmer than they actually like, in the 90s downright stressful, and in the 100s they are probably wilting. Dry heat is deadly to most Fuchsias--OK, let's talk about the ONE exception I am aware of: Fuchsia lycoides is native to near-desert in north-central Chile, just south of the Atacama desert!!! Funny thing with small leaves (to reduce transpiration). It is RARE in cultivation and most plants called that in the biz are NOT the real thing. It is very distinctive--if you had it, you'd know it! The rest of them turn crisp in dry heat as they do not have much defense against excessive dehydration. What is likely to finish them off is disease. While their own chemistry is sluggish, diseases like Phytophthora thrive in warm, muggy weather. While their resistence to Phytophthora is higher than that of a lot of their South American compatriots, I have heard enough sad stories of them collapsing suddenly in the southeastern states to realize that it is a risk for them. Dragon, is your trailing Begonia a tuberous kind? They like similar conditions. Yes, keeping the roots cool will help a lot. That's one reason I DON'T grow the hanging bastet types; when they are in the ground their roots are better protected. I would have to water them daily in hot weather (not easy for me to accomplish) but worse I would have to take them down and trench them in for the winter, because their roots will not survive hard freezes. I'm actually not south of you, but quite a ways north! Seattle rates a zone 8b because although summers are relatively cool here, winters are not particularly cold because the mountains east of us shelter us from the big continental cold-front systems, while humid marine air makes almost constant cloud cover in the winter that keeps our winter nights from getting as cold as yours. It's a deceptive rating system because my climate doesn't really much resemble Houston's! Here we have the kind of climate they really like: not too hot, not too cold! They are mostly from high elevations in the tropics, where the weather is "eternally springlike", or on the other hand they also exist in southern Chile at low elevations (the ubiquitous Fuchsia magellanica, which forms extensive thickets in the woods of southern Chile), where the climate is very similar to mine: mild summers, mildly chilly winters, and rainfall peaking late autumn, early winter. They used to be popular here through about the 1950s. Every retired chap had to have one hanging next to his window, so that he and the grandkids could watch the hummingbirds feeding on them. There were hundreds of varieties available then. Then their popularity went into decline, and only about a dozen types are still grown, and not as ubiquitously as they used to be. The most heat-tolerant of their kind that I am aware of is the beautiful Fuchsia triphylla from the Caribbean. It tolerates humid (not dry!) heat, and can also grow in dry heat with plenty of irrigation and some shade. Alas it is also VERY tender, freezing to death at about 32F/0C. For you I am afraid it would be an annual, unless you brought starts into a protected place for the winter. It has been bred and there are many lovely named varieties of it. This is probably the one that you read about growing in Texas and Louisiana. Or possibly, among collectors, F. regia. I have a few other Fuchsias that are just about as tender but perhaps from slightly higher elevations; I have no idea how heat-tolerant they are since it is not much of an issue for me. I have F. boliviensis, for example, that is also very tender, but seems to be OK in mildly cool weather and probably isn't as actually heat-loving as F. triphylla. I can sort of get it to overwinter by planting it deep and mulching it, but I lose the whole top at the first significant frost. I have a beautiful Fuchsia--one of my wife's favorites, called Fuchsia xspeciosa, which is believed to be a hybrid but I don't know of what. Whatever it is, it LOOKS tropical but is strangely root-hardy without much intervention on my part. It is not a heavy bloomer, but its large, slightly fuzzy leaves are attractively blushed with sort of a rosy color. Whereas most Fuchsias are non-descript when not in bloom, this one is always rather attractive. Oh, I have one more that might be interesting to you two: Fuchsia campos-portoi is a native of southern Brazil, where it occurs on hills at some elevation. I don't know how hight, but I was under the impression that Brazil's mountains aren't very impressive. Anyway, it is about as coldhardy as Fuchsia magellanica, meaning you could overwinter it with a mulch, and reputedly it is more heat-tolerant than its more common Chilean cousin. I know for a fact that it is fairly sun-tolerant as Fuchsias go--reputedly it grows in the open. Several of the Brazilian Fuchsias are cold-hardier than it would seem they need to be for the modern climate of southern Brazil (comparable to south Florida); they seem to have some vestigial coldhardiness from when the climate was colder, perhaps. Another of these, that I also have, is F. regia, a tall Fuchsia that likes to clamber into trees; it's not really a climber but it likes to grow onto something else to support it, as it does in habitat. It has a very typical small Fuchsia flower, and it sometimes goes cleanly deciduous. It is very coldhardy, despite coming from a fairly warm climate. Probably somewhat heat tolerant for its kind too.