Frank....I did tell Chris that if he ever needs help digging....I'm a phone call away (4 hours drive...but still). He was so nice to everyone at his seminar today. One woman had a gladiola that she must have let him know hadn't bloomed for her. He walked to where she was sitting and handed her a replacement. He was shaking hands with everyone and there were lots of introductions of people he had been doing business with over the internet....I got a hug! I hope he is successful for years to come. I just like to support independent business peopls who carve out a niche. I think he should make it! Kristi

Welcome oregontejano, I have lived in Texas most of my life and I LOVE the coast here. You can grow many tropicals on the Lower Coast (from Corpus Christi southward), even coconut palms from North Padre Island southward, and they are becoming quite popular in the Brownsville/South Padre area. I would suggest that you move to the Corpus area or southward, because this area is Zone 9B/10A, and there are so many neat things you can grow in this region, and the fishing and snorkeling/scuba diving is pretty good too, especially in the summer and early fall. Last July, while snorkeling at the jetty at South Padre Island, I saw 10 sea turtles in an hour and a half! Anyway, for palms (my specialty), you can grow queen palms, Medjool date palms, Canary Island date palms, pygmy date palms, Senegal date palms, pindo palms, Mexican fan palms, California fan palms, Texas palm (native to the Rio Grande Valley), the dwarf palm (native to East Texas and the Upper Coast), Mediterranean fan palm, Chinese fan palm, lady palm, various Chamaderea palms, and I am sure several others that I forgot to mention. You can also grow my two favorites from North Padre Island southward to the Rio Grande Valley, and those are the coconut palm, especially the Mexican Tall (the coconuts of which wash up on our beaches from spring to the fall, and yes they will sprout), and the royal palm, though the royal does better with some protection from salt spray. The coconut however, loves salt spray. As far as flowers, try: hibiscus, bougainvillea, mandevilla, oleander, ixora, bird of paradise, etc. The croton does well here too, especially with some protection from winter winds. For flowering trees, the ordchid tree does well here. If you move to the Rio Grande Valley, you can grow large beautiful royal poiciana trees, and they produce a lot of beautiful red blooms in the summer, and even seed there. For fruits, you can grow: sea grapes (close to the coast), mangoes, avocadoes, papayas, pineapples, guavas, pineapple guavas, coconuts (the coconut palm will produce coconuts in the Brownsville/South Padre Island area), lemons, limes, oranges, tangelos, grapefruit, etc. Welcome to our own little tropical paradise. Just be advised that every 10-15 years the area gets hit with a really hard freeze, but some tropicals will recover afterwards, and the others grow so fast, that all you have to do is replant the following spring! And remember to be willing to provide extra water, since as it was stated above the area is semi-arid. But other than the occasional hurricane (the Lower Texas Coast has the least incidents of hurricanes of any part of the Gulf Coast!), it is a really great place to live and much more reasonable cost of living wise than many coastal areas of the U.S. If you have any questions, just email me at: mr.coconutpalm@yahoo.com John

You think you've got it bad, our cable has been pixelating, off and on, and today decided to go completely haywire. Tried to reboot the box, to no avail. Missed Favre's start with the Vikings and won't be able to see the Bear's Packer's match-up, tonight. Stupid *ss Comcast isn't showing up until Wednesday. :(

Nothing died other than the few things that I decided to take out; mostly some big agaves and two huge Mangave 'macho mocha' that had overgrown their pots . Everything that's left is leafing out and getting a fresh start with my new simplified garden plan. So with the 'simplified plan' in mind I went to Rainbow Gardens yesterday and bought a few things; blackfoot daisies, red pentas, globe mallows, and angelonia to brighten things up. Bob said, "I thought you were cutting back". "Uh huh, I am. You can't tell?" I was happy with the inch and a half rain we got this morning since it helped wash the fertilizer in. The little turtle has been doing well. He was so happy to be released back into 'the wild' of our yard this morning that he took off running.