Some where along life's journey, you **MUST** visit Dominica, an island about 3 islands north of Grenada! I guarantee you will never regret it! We made our home on Dominica for about a year but even if we had been there a lifetime, I do not think we would have seen all the wondrous and beautiful sites that are the island! Morning starts when the sun pops up over the ocean at 6:00 AM and as the morning goes on you watch over the mountains (volcanos) as the mist accumulates and clouds form and it dumps rain on you from about 2:00 to 4:00 PM. Everyday. There are no words to describe the beauty of the rain forests. It is hot and very humid but surprisingly not oppressive to climb through the undergrowth. Perhaps the excitement and the adrenaline kicking in? Hummingbirds abound. Everywhere. The Sisserou parrot, the nation's pride, is a majestic bird indeed. They are THE MOST protected of Dominica's natural wonders. If one of a bonded pair of the parrots dies, the mate will cease to eat and soon will also die. The zoo there finds on occasion a lone bird mourning over a lost mate and capture it and try to feed them and get them to recover and find new mates. I saw one such male at the zoo but none in the wild. Go to the open air market (don't stand under a coconut palm) on Saturday and take your pick of ferns (I have no clue what they were), orchids, flowering this and flowering that. Most times the seller is not aware of the identity of what was being sold. There was a Rasta we befriended and he would save \"plants of curiosity\" for me. (Legal. All legal!) Plants generally will cost you up to $5.00 EC. You want to but a pig's tail for soup or a cow T-bone steak all the same price per pound...$2.50 EC. That is roughly $1.00 US. Go early for your shopping (6:30 - 7:00 AM) before the flies set in and on your soon to be groceries. Visit the old Brit. fort there and you can readily find cannon balls from early battles. Beaches near Portsmouth are black from the volcano. Storms bring up squid, sponges, sometimes fish on the beach. Go for a walk early (5:30-ish AM) and rescue these guys and toss them back into the sea. (Do not pick up red or orange sponges with bare hands.) Look out over the ocean and you may well catch a glimpse of whales, dolphins, or sea turtles doing their thing. You may even be asked for a dance by a Coconut Crab as he waves his claw at you and does the side step left and side step right. Mountain chicken (little frog legs) is an island delicacy. So is Ting, a carbonated grapefruit juice drink. They have Coke..make from cane sugar rather than corn syrup. Delonix regia everywhere. Weedy little things. Wee seedlings sprouting like spring maple seedlings in Ohio. There is no rabies on the island. There are no poisonous snakes...but the snakes they do have are huge! So are their centipedes. I brought one back to the Ohio State University entomology dept. that was 11 inches long. (Yuck!) The people are delightful and will go out of their way like no one else to help you or do anything for you. You step out on the balcony in the morning to be greeted by the absolutely perfect rendition of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik whistled by the neighbor as he has tea on his porch and watches the hummers at his Bird of Paradise patch. You just haven't lived until you have ridden into town in the back of a pickup truck with three pigs! :-) Night comes at 6:00 PM. Fade to black. Mosquitoes come out then so be sure you have your mosquito netting ready. Cholera and Dengue Fever are common. When dining at a restaurant, a word to the wise, look at the bread or rolls before eating them. There are very tiny ants that quickly move into baked goods such as bread, though the pastries they make seem safer. Electricity can be iffy at times...where ever you are. The favorite saying seems to be: The lights will go on when the generator is working. But who needs lights when you have a sky full of stars and a meteor shower every night. Oh how you wish you had the nerve to lie on the ground and just be drawn into the starscape but there are things creeping about at night: lizards, crabs, snakes, something like fire ants (or maybe they are a type of fire ant) those darn centipedes and don't even mention the spiders. They export bananas and fresh water. Much of the water goes to Antigua. If I could I would go back to Dominican a heartbeat. Oh..If traveling there try to get your prop plane to land at the Canefield Airport. The other airport is a blind approach over the volcano and more than a little scary. That's about it from the Dominica Tourist Bureau (Ohio office, dontchaknow?)

In Southern California: Rehmannia elata (Chinese foxglove) Pretty flowers, long bloom period, easy to grow and divide, spreads but easy to control. Then when it is finished blooming, it can be taken down to the tuft of foliage on the ground, making way for other plants. Until it sends up additional flower stalks. Bletilla striata Yes I know it is an orchid, but it acts just like a garden perennial. Pretty purple, pink or white flowers that last for months. The foliage is attractive; some are slightly variegated. Quick growing and easy to divide, but not invasive. Super easy to grow. It even has a sense of humor--occasionally sending stems straight down, through the drainage holes of pots, without U-turning after their exit to correct their silliness. Kalanchoe mirabilis Several plants seem to be sold under this name, but I like the short, shiny green leaved red tubular-flowered plant. It is neat and attractive. They flower at a time before most of the plants in the garden get rolling, then bloom for 4-5 months. Look nice out of bloom. Easy to grow and increase by sticking a branch in the dirt. Lotus berthelotii (ParrotâÂÂs Beak) Yes, sometimes some of the foliage just freaks out and parts of the plantâÂÂs foliage takes on a scorched look, even though the rest of the plant or the neighboring plant, shows no damage. But when it blooms, which it can do for long periods, multiple times during the year, it is an attention grabber. Bergenia Coarser leaves give a nice contrast in the garden, although they look better with regular old leaf clean-up. I have grown it in sun or shade. It flowers off and on all year. Tough, no-fuss plant. Arenaria montana I love this plant. Nice green leaves, pretty white flowers. Short and neat. BUT it seems to hate SoCal heat. I buy the very rarely offered A. montana at the nursery, place it in a bright but mid-day sun-sheltered place in the garden, and fawn over the little patch until an some unusual weather pattern makes it call the whole thing off. Then I look for another. If more folks in SoCal would grow it, I wouldnâÂÂt have to search so hard. ;-)

Orange, unless you choose to grow the way Steve is trying to help you out with, then I would go with Dave's advice...It's spot on.. Steve, I have to politely disagree. LIGHT is not EVERYTHING but is very critical factor and more so in your case at this time. Without your aeration methods, your plants would decline quite rapidly in the mixes you are using. It is the mixes we use, fertilizer we apply, light, watering habits, temps, bug sprays and the care that we put our plants through, the environment we provide that is 'everything'.. If I were to name one critical factor to start off with that is at the beginning of everything, then I would start with a good mix, then follow with good cultural practices.. I can tell you that every nursery owner that wants to see their plants thrive despite the ability to provide all the light they can get, invest thousands of dollars on the perfect mix for their plants, then sell it quite expensively.. I have seen some of the nicest plants quickly degenerate in poor mixes used in pots, despite all the sunlight provided. Yes, did you know that one can kill their planted trees in the ground with poor drainage, even if provided lots of sunlight? We have seen this demonstrated here? Therefore that is where people like John, Patty, Rhizo and many others come in to help out..If 'light' was everything, then growing citrus would be a piece of cake, a walk in the clouds, right? This post was edited by meyermike_1micha on Wed, Nov 6, 13 at 8:48

Hi Dave, I don't have a photo right now. It's a bit dark, as it's early morning here in Atlanta. The varieties that I'm noticing this with are Matt's Wild Cherry and Yellow Pear. The other tomatoes (Cherokee Purple, Eva Purple Ball, & Green Zebra) don't seem much better. They all have the thin leaf issue going on to some extent... I have sprouted seeds before in organic soil mix I bought at the store and had no issues in the past. I guess I should have stuck with what worked for me. In any case, I'm hoping these thin leafed plants might be able to get better in the ground where there are nutrients. I have this funny feeling though that they might be stunted somehow-pretty mad at myself for not being practical and fixing what was not broken. Thank you for your quick response, Dave. Stella