@vegpatch: message sent; mahalo! @yoli: if I'm not mistaken, I've seen mamaki plants at home depot but not the seeds.

RobertEire: Gai Laan (often spelled Kai Laan, and called Chinese Broccoli and Chinese Sprouting Broccoli, among other attempts to create a European name) is one of our favorite vegetables and I'd guess would grow very well in Ireland --once you work out the proper season! It is a winter crop here, and gets tough and bolts when the days are lengthening AND the temperature gets into the 100s (F) --not likely to be an Irish problem. California has a wonderful Asian seed source, EvergreenYH (http://www.evergreenseeds.com/), which carries several varieties in nice large packets. The difference between the varieties didn't seem to be very great --they all produced well, they all tasted good, and they all began to make flowering stalks at about the same time when planted in early September. The flowering stalks are the part Kailaan is grown for commercially, but the leafy thinnings are delicious also. The stalks are quite long, with a shiny outside skin and very sweet, succulent interior. When they grow fairly slowly (cool weather?) they are thicker; as the weather warms the outside skin becomes fibrous --but it's very easy to peel. My suggestion would be to plant in spring, and if the Kailaan bolts quickly, with tough skinny stems, try another planting in midsummer, or perhaps even May, so the main growth time is when days are shortening. It will take some frost --if you can protect it you could try a fall planting, though it's a bit late now, I'd think. The dark green leaves and loosely clustered flower buds (only a few per cluster) add a different texture and flavor to the stalks. We like our Kailaan more or less braised --started with a very quick toss in a little oil, to coat the stalks lightly, finished under cover with a little water or chicken broth, then dressed at serving time with a few drops of soy sauce. It is very good steamed, too. Another vegetable you might like to try is Komatsuna. Same season, but mine seemed less sensitive to day length. Komatsuna has very large, shiny dark green leaves with a sweet, succulent midrib. It is a brassica but not like any other I've grown. The leaves are smooth and thin, not like a cabbage or a mustard, and the flavor is not very mustardy. Just a few plants fed us two or three meals a week for months --two or three leaves made a dish for the two of us, and you can pick from the same plant again and again. Eventually the ribs started to get tough, so I stripped the leafy part, and when it began to bolt the flower stalks were very good too, and produced for quite a long time. The bases of the flower stalks needed peeling eventually --very easy, like kailaan, no trying to peel between knots and branches as when peeling broccoli stems. We have fond memories of Ireland and the great root vegetables the landladies at the farmhouse inns served. It was spring --around Easter-- and possibly just what was left by that time.

Bok Choy and Pak Choy are the same thing - just different transcriptions of the Cantonese words for White vegetable. The best book on Asian greens for Australian conditions is: "Asian Herbs and Vegetables - How to identify, grow and use them in Australia" by Penny Woodward (published by Hyland House, 2000). Rose-Marie

Wow guys! Thanks for all your help! rednofl: I'm definitely on the lookout for the thai basil and asian eggplants! I checked out evergreen seeds and may end up ordering through them. I won't pass up papaya seeds either, since I can only find the usual suspects around here and would like to grow one that works well as a veggie in Thai cuisine. fern: Kangkong would be ideal in my swampy backyard but it is categorized as an invasive. If I lived further upland I'd try it, but its too risky here. I might try pandanus in containers if i can find it, and curry leaf is a must. Do you know if its hardy here? I just got a kong pao chili plant and am using some of the peppers tonight in my tom ka gai, along with the lemongrass I harvested. cora: I just visited the site and will have to get a catalog! Its so much more fun to peruse through an actual catalog as opposed to a computer screen. fawnridge: Darnit! I can't believe I did a typo in the title. Anywho, are you referring to a type of ganja? Thats all that comes up when I search for it. Thanks for your ideas, guys! Also, I have a coworker whose Vietnamese neighbor gives her lychees from her tree every year. Is it possible to grow this in 9a?