So okra can be treated as a perennial too? Mine are still producing but some of the plants are going dormant. I have trimmed/pruned them so it is just a stalk and I am thinking about leaving them on the ground. Have any of you done this? My first year growing okra successfully (I tried before) and it does not seem to be dying. Some plants are still putting out flowers, but it got down to the 40s so I doubt it will continue much longer. Perennial okra? really? will this give me an earlier start in the spring? This is what I notice with eggplants so I am leaving those on the ground for sure. I still have flowers and fruit ripening on the eggplants too.

Case claims, in his reference book on trillium, that green seed will sometimes germinate without going through the winter cold period. He also notes that mature seed germinates the first year but that the growth occurs underground so that the seedlings are not visible. I received T. ovatum seed from another GW member and got a pretty good stand of seedlings after one year but T. albidium did not emerge this spring so it will take the full two years. You may want to consider putting a baggy over ripening seed pods about this time of year to prevent their abcising and being scattered by the ants.

Several years ago I had young hostas 'Paradigm', 'Paul's Glory' and a division of an old 'Gold Standard' planted in a row, not knowing better (perhaps a 'Manhattan' in between). In early spring they looked alike to me, that was a confusing time. In a different part of the garden I had a young h.'Rainforest Sunrise', and that looked like a copy of the others though smaller. Now 'Paradigm' s leaves are wider and with wider darker border, and I planted 'Paul's Glory' elsewhere. I think someone needs to become a hosta connoisseur to appreciate these fine nuances in plants. There are a lot of potential duplicates in appearance, so it seems to me. Imagine planting all the greens with yellow borders in a group, etc. Have a good one! Bernd

I garden in a high desert environment, the nights are in the 40's until mid july and never get out of the 50's. Its a 100 day season. So it takes forever to get the soil warmed up. I get far more production from container plants, its not even close. I make my own 'potting soil' mix using all different sizes of pine bark from beetle-killed trees, perlite, pond-bottom soil and Azomite for trace stuff, charcoal I've sifted out from my wood stove, compost, styrofoam packing peanuts - what ever. Keeping in mind that drainage and aeration are crucial. And every fall I dump it out on a concrete slab, eyeball it to see if it needs more structure as the bits disintegrate, and this year I'll solarize the lot in trash bags to sterilize it. Then I mix it up with what ever new perlite or bark bits it needs and off we go. I have 60-odd containers ranging from 5 - 15 gal. I can put 4 plants in the larger sizes. I soak compost overnight in a big tub and sorta strain that out and use the water to feed the plants - 3 times a season. Of course, your milage may vary.....