Matta turn from dark green to light green, the interior has a honey texture. There's a drop of honey on the eye when it's ripe. besides some spots on the skin it behaves well in the rain. I named it after the person who brought it originally. He asked me to propagate a few cuttings for him. Unfortunately he passed away once they rooted. Bass

I keep forgetting to come back here and post about the swap, as I do it on the Mountain madness yahoo group. Sorry about that, I guess life just gets in the way. So...bear with me. Our swap IS on May 6th, and by Monday I will hear back from a special place I am wanting to hold it at. So far I have gardeners coming from Cosby, Jefferson City, Seymour, Knoxville, Whitehouse , and elsewhere. There will be an article about it in the Seymour Herald soon, and also in a Sevierville paper I can't think of the name of ( forgive me !). One of the topics I hope we can discuss...organic gardening, you won't want to miss it. Now...that's all the advertising I'm up to lol. Cheryl

Well, thanks to you folks at the ETN Plant Swap, this side of my house has an official theme! It's going to be a Tropical Garden! The dimensions of the garden are 14' x 15'. It gets sun from 9am to 5pm nearest the deck, and 10am to 6pm at the east edge. I've graded the area to be as close to level and flat as possible. We just tilled 5 inches of decomposed leaves into this bed. Actually, the leaves were so deep we didn't bring up a lot of clay... so it's mostly just finely mulched leaves, sticks and coffee grounds and an occasional hunk of clay at present. I stomped all over it thoroughly to try to compress it, but it's still a little spongy when walked on. Is this an acceptable medium for planting these plants, or should I be adding something? Here's what I have to put in it: Varigated Hibiscus (need to dig up?) Versi-peach Brugmansia (need to dig up?) White Brugmansia (need to dig up?) Clerodendrum thomsoniae (Bleeding Heart Vine) Cestrum nocturnum (Night Blooming Jessamine) Cannas in many colors and foliage colors! Buddleja (butterfly bush) Hibiscus syriacus (Rose of Sharon) Crocosmia Touch-me-not Grasses Tomatoes Colocasia esculenta (Taro root) Angel-wing begonia (B. x superba) Tamarindus indica (Tamarind) seedling (may not live, but if it does it will be a tree) Dracaena fragrans (Corn plant) cutting (need to dig up) Ponytail palm Yucca Daylilies Irises Kniphofia (Red hot pokers) Gladiolus Calladiums (need to dig up?) Castor bean Red honeysuckle I'm also getting: Musa basjoo sapling (Hardy banana) Now my question is, design! I'm not sure of the best way to lay all this out. Do Bananas give much shade? How tall should I expect it to get? If it does provide shade, perhaps it would be good to place near the deck so the deck gets some shade in the hot part of the day? A friend suggested getting a yellow locust for next to the deck, and planting the banana elsewhere. I'm interested in your opinions on this. I'd like some privacy from the neighbors to the east. What to plant on that border that won't get too tall and block the sun for the other plants? I'm thinking 12 feet maximum. Are Buddlejas and Altheas good for this? I'd like a nice relaxing area in the middle of the bed, where I can do a little sunbathing without feeling like people can see me. I have lots of cobbles of all sizes, and quite a lot of marble pieces. Would either of these be useful here? Another thing that would be helpful to know in planting this is heights and space requirements. It's a long list so I'm going to start researching it, but it would be helpful if you know offhand what heights, widths, spacing, and other requirements or restrictions I should know about - I'm so new to tropicals!

Congratulations! Quite an accomplishment! Are they in your garden?