"Oh, 'Starting from Scratch,' book..thank you. Once some woman emailed, 'few yrs ago,' asking me to fax 79 pages to her. I told her I didn't own a fax machine..she then asked me to 'TYPE THEM OUT.' lol..Yes, ma'am, right away.." Hey, I'll take a copy of that! You're about finished right? Holy ___! Sweet potatoes, I read about that retardant spray after I had potatoes in the ground. Maybe they were local and it wasn't used or one of those dumb luck things that work when people don't know it's not supposed to. I just cut 2 potatoes in half and buried the pieces a few inches down. They grew vines all summer, and we dug up the potatoes when frost killed the foliage. Yum! About 25 potatoes last fall, and what will come from what's grown back this year is yet unknown. Not bad for a few minutes' work and the cost of only 2. Thanks for the kind words, but I don't put up pics of the failures. There are definitely some. I just do so many, I end up with plenty of successes. That's my fav thing to do with plants, chopping them into pieces and watching them grow back. The eyes are where the foliage sprouts out, the black holes. It takes a very small amount of the inside attached to the eye on the peel to start growing more potatoes. The spot we call veggie patch is for ugly/unruly plants like sweet potato, tomato, zucchini, cantaloupe. But all around with the flowers and Coleus I have peppers, Basil, sometimes a broccoli, lettuce, spinach, okra, onion, garlic, the other experiments I mentioned before. I want some purple eggplant plants next year, and purple cabbage. Tried swiss chard seeds but it was too dry where I put them. Veggie seeds are cheap, worth trying where there's a spot. When you want to pick a tomato that's as big as possible but still green, you notice way too much about how they ripen. Between green and red, they are white for a time. The immature seeds are too wet, gelatinous for frying *as well* when they go from white to green. In case anyone wants to copy/paste: Gramma's: Slice green tomatoes fairly thin, usually 5-6 slices per slightly-smaller-than-tennis-ball-size. Moisten slices in water, then coat with: mixed: 8 parts flour, 1 part sugar, some salt/pepper Fry in oil, flip when medium-going-on-dark-brown. Drain on paper towel & eat plain, on a sandwich, or dipped in something, like ranch, spicy ranch, or remolaude sauce! Where I'm at lately (this does 2 tomatoes): bowl 1: plain flour bowl 2: 1 egg, 1 Tbs water, 1 Tbs spicy or buffalo ranch, 1 Tbs regular ranch, dash worcestershire sauce, dash hot sauce, few taps of coriander, couple pinches dry chopped rosemary, pinch of garlic powder. I don't measure anything, but that should be pretty close. Put slices in bowl 1, then 2, back to 1, then fry, same as above. You can also add crushed corn flakes to bowl 1 if you have the time and like a crunchy breading. This is making me hungry!...

1. It likes mainly shade/part shade/dappled shade. Regular water, not a bog. 2. It is a naturally deciduous ginger that is root hardy in your area. It will go away in winter and return in Spring. Flowers will come up first before leaves. FLowers are usually either white or purple, a few have gold flowers. Most continue to flower after leaves appear. Yes its a "true ginger". The name is generally Kaempferia or Cornukaempferia. 3. Size depends on type. Gilbertii and Gilbertii 3D are extremely smallish, 4-7 inch narrow leaves. Grande is very large, leaves can be almost 2 ft long and 8 or so inches wide. Raven and Indian Crocus have upright leaves about a foot long and maybe 3" wide. Most of the others kinda hug the ground and have leaves maybe 8-10 inches long and 5-6 inches wide.

I won't go into it too deep on that situation, but I can honestly say this company is not paying royalties to me and a few other people that are responsible for most of their new introductions. We WERE working with them, but I certainly never will again. The concept was simple enough, I get new material propagated exclusively for a couple of years then they could sell it abroad while I get a very small royalty. Legally the royalities are only collected by them, but the forwarding of them to the rightful owners has been ignored. Unless there is a patent, they can of course buy these plants on the market with no obligation of royalties. It (to me at least) makes more sense to work with breeders and collectors to get the best plants as soon as possible and be geared up and ready to go when you have the greenlight. That way you'd always have the access to the new and best material and the breeder/collector has a solid year or two to recoup their investment with no competition. It now takes me a bit longer to get new stuff going in numbers, but its happening. Unfortunately TC labs are notorious for screwing people over not just in the US, but everyone I've talked to in the trade has had the same problems with different labs in different countries etc. Sulee Rainbow is an introduction of mine (not my hybrid though). I'm working with that breeder on more cool stuff. Sulee Sunrise and Sulee Sunset are in the works. Most of the introductions over the last few years were from just a handful of people. The last two of mine to go through the TC route were 'Twice as Nice' and Kaempferia rotunda 'Silver Diamonds' (haven't received a penny for either of those). I did get a whopping check of $18.00 for Globba pendula 'Silver Comet.' I can't say who you can trust for sure, but I certainly can tell you who you can't! lesson learned. Their loss. Silver Comet and Twice as Nice will always be two of my best introductions, but certainly not the last great intro.s to say the least. On a tangent, I do promise to stop using "Silver" in plant names after 'Silver Elegance.' On a bright note though, there is always tons of new stuff in the works (by me and others). It always amazes me just how much undiscovered material there is, let alone hybrids and other breeding projects. Tim Chapman

It's been yet another unbelievably loooooooong and excedingly tiring day, moving things to our new, infinitely more spacious, wonderful home. Waaaayyyy surprised I'm still even awake! Here's a listing of Terry's thoroughly fab, generous/wonderful box contents: "Lucious Lilac" tea candles - Mmmmm,...scentsational! A deliciously scented candle in a jar. Garden gloves with polychromatic flowers - Definitely Elly's. :) Tin of "Before and After" mint candies--Peppermint and Cinnamon - Since the candies are sugar free and I'm diabetic,...the contents are mine! Elly can have the 3-D lips tin. Ordinarily I'm big on saving useful tins, but in this case I'll make an exception. :) Elf/Gnome pot percher - Kewlest! Shultz "Multi Cote" time release plant food - Yeah, baby! Feed the plants that feed us! Rooster themed kitchen towel - Perfect! Not collecting, but we're're never the less a rooster oriented family, overall, since El's sister, Sharla, consistently enters a rooster in the "National Rooster Crow Championship" contest, held in our neighboring city of Rogue River. 4 oz tin of "Harvey & Son" Spiced Plum herbal tea - Saving this for when we're all moved in to our new digs. Smallish "Spring" birdhouse & "Welcome" metal flower decorations. Resin seed-n-gardening hats plant poker decorations. A wonderful "Father's Love Letter" Christian mini-poster." A "Come Away My Beloved:" Christian devotional book, featuring numerous KJV Scripture selections, by Frances J. Roberts (1.4 million copies sold as of 2002) - Terry, we thank you so much and I especially appreciate the large print! :) A wonderful, informative, 3D-ish homemade flower card! Reeeally nicely done! Plants, etc.: Allium moly luteum (aka Golden Garlic) - 20 bulbs Nandina Domestica bush Mixed Iris rhizomes - Love purdy surprizes! Pink Yarrow (Achillea millefolium rosea) Rose Campion (Lychnis coronaria) Planted all in large containers at our new residence. Extreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeme apologies for taking this long to post,...but lately, with all we've been doing (often well into evening hours), as soon as I'm able to finally kick back and relax, can't help it but I just crash-out. - Nearly there this evening as it is. Haven't moved in 23 years. Oy! You better believe we'll be doing a yard sale!! :) Bless you, your entire family, and major thanks, Terry!! :) - Darrin, Elly and Roy