Patty: I know when the Cuties come in but what I meant to say is I don't know when the Tango mandarins are ripe so I could sample Cuties and know I was getting Tangos. Melikeeatplants: It is a Mexican/Socialist lie that "We stole(states)"... The Mexican/American war was fought as a direct result of El Presidente Santa Anna ordering his General to attack and occupy Texas. We gave them every opportunity to stop the war and and negotiate a border treaty with Texas. They refused just like they had refused to do even since Texas's first defeat and capture of this same Santa Anna years earlier in the Texas War of Independence. The liberal left has rewritten the accounts of that entire era to make sound as we were the aggressor on poor mistreated Mexico. That is exactly what should have happened to a lawless nation that refuses to live in peace with its neighbors. Only they never even until this day quit making armed advances into Texas. And the water source of the Colorado R. and every drop that is in it falls on our soil. And it it is ours. Not so similarly the Rio grande gets water from two countries and we have to share it. And they refuse. And that is the best you can expect from Mexico. Actually after it flooded a lot in Mexico and Texas they wanted to pay us back when all the resivoirs were full and the water was flowing into the Gulf anyway. With friends like Mexico.. Larry

Hey Alex, Your palms look like they didn't miss a beat from last year.I'm glad you showed that vinca.I have that vine taking over my back yard.I never knew what it was,it has pretty little purple flowers on it,but LORD is it invasive.The only difference between yours and mine is mine has solid green leaves,yours looks variegated.Keep your eye on it,there's places where it's three feet thick in the very back of my property.I don't know where it came from,but I want it gone.I've sprayed it with roundup,burned it,poured bleach and ammonia on it,and it still comes back every year.I like the look of all your other plants,but that one.The same goes for crape myrtles,they pop up everywhere,dont get me wrong.I have two big ones,a white one and one I call watermelon color.I wish palms would pop up like them,I wouldn't mind some fortuneis or some palmetto volunteers.Maybe in ten years or so they will start popping up since it seems like everyone is growing them now.Talking about heat it's been 90* plus for the last three days.I wish I had a pool,I'd have it opened up days ago.Love the Spindle palm.Well I hope your Banana starts doing better. Randy

yup finaly got it , box looked like it was runed over, lots of plants in perill, the pond plants are more mushi than green, the susies and puple cone flowers, well we have roots we will see..the roots on the daylilys were growing through the paper towels, but they are resilaint, some were just wraped in newspaper with no wet material, we will see on those too...with this heat i dont think half will make it...i was hoping it will rain but no monsoon on sight and i ran out of pots, well ill baby them and see what happens...and it wasnt sent priority.

My cymbidiums have bloomed best after the rainiest winters - but maybe that is simply because I didn't fertilize, and the salts got washed out. I haven't tested that out. I have an L anceps thread on another orchid board and a guy from Mexico says over and over, they stay completely dry in winter in their natural habitat. There's a guy in Sausalito who has really good results with L anceps, and he doesn't water them at all in winter, and they are bone dry under a cover. In other seasons he waters them once/week on an automatic system. I met some people from San Mateo County who grow L anceps in greenhouses, they water straight through winter and some of their plants are monster sized with hundreds of blooms. I guess that's why these three categories of orchids are considered easy to grow! Different things work for different people.