I vote for square leaf. The part I restarted as a cutting didn't take long to root, and it grows nicely, very tolerant of my forgetting to water it sometimes, and it's super cute to boot. I vote against linearis, if it gets hot. Mine sulks every summer and I have it in an air conditioned room. Granted, my AC doesn't work super well and it gets closer to 80 than I like, but I'd say it still sulks when it is between 75 and 80 also. I love calycina, as a nice forgiving hoya with wonderful fuzzy leaves. It is very pretty, with a nice shaped leaf and so far, a pleasant vining habit. I would look into fitchii also. It is gorgeous! And doesn't really seem to be giving me any problems. It has gotten dry here and there without really reacting at all. And it grows pretty fast. Polyneura has actually been very forgiving as well. I've let that poor guy dry out a bunch of times (for a while it was in the direct path of forced air heating!), and it hasn't minded. I'm not sure if I've just been lucky with it, or what. I'd previously heard that it shouldn't go dry and could be fussy. Hope that helps!

Just wanted to address the picture (my pics) issue really quickly. I have often been accused of over-sharing on the internet. I live on a corner lot, so anyone who frequents this forum could probably drive by and recognize my garden. If a pedophile is lurking here, they could see my kids and perhaps figure out where I live. That does concern me somewhat, but I watch my kids like a hawk, and I think that a true pedophile has many more extensive and disgusting sources of phtos than my baby butt garden pics. I can't help but share pics of my garden and my kids, they are my biggest sources of pride and I just love to share. I know I am naive but I feel in my heart that most if not all gardeners are good folks. I trust this forum and I feel safe here. As for my grow list: I am going to try to grow Nematode Resistant plants when possible. I am scaling back this year as far as varieties for this reason. I am currently on a seed hunt for: Pole Beans: Poamoho or Alabama No 1 Bush Beans Monoa Wonder or Harvester Lima Bean Nemagreen Bell pepper charleston belle or carolina wonder Wando Peas My herbs, lettuces, spinach etc don't seem affected by RKN so I will again grow tons of them. I hope to grow around 20 Nematode resistant tomatoes (assorted). I cannot find any nematode resistant cucs, squash, or soybeans, so I am unsure what I will do for those or if I will just skip them this year. I'd also love to grow carrots and beets but last year both were a complete failure (tiny stunted crop). Jo

Well, now that I've finished the Pick-A-Peck of Peppers Swap, I can focus on this year's pepper crop. My growlist changed quite a bit since I first posted my growlist. Here is the final version, though I may possibly still add a couple more: Aji Panca - sowed about a week ago Aji Yellow - 2 out of 2 are up (Thanks, Ajijoe!) Alma Paprika - all four are up, yeah! Ancho Gigantia - 1 out of 2 up so far Ancho San Luis - 1 out of 2 up so far Chilhaucle Rojo - sowed about a week ago Chimayo - 2 out of 2 are up Choricero - sowed about a week ago Cosa Arrugada - sowed about a week ago College 64 - 1 out of 2 up so far Czechoslovakian Black - one sprouted and fizzled out, resowed Frank's - 2 out of 2 are up Fresno - resowed Georgia Flame - 2 out of 2 are up Giant Szegedi - 1 out of 2 up Jimmy Nardello - 1 out of 2 up Joe E. Parker - 2 out of 2 are up Kalocsai V2 - resowed, then 1 sprouted the next day from the first sowing Lemon Drop - 2 out of 2 up (I literally had seeds in my hand to resow, and they suddenly appeared, LOL) NuMex Espanola Imp.- sowed about a week ago NuMex Pinata - sowed about a week ago Peppadew - sowed about a week ago Pimente de Padron - sowed about a week ago Sandia - 2 out of 2 are up Santa Fe Grande - had to resow Serrano Tampiqueno - 1 is up, and the other is on its way I'm pretty pleased with the germination so far, considering, I have no heat mat or light set up. That will change soon though. My husband brought home an old light fixture from work, and bought me a grow lamp to go in it. Now he just has to mount it to the table that my peppers are on, and I'll be all set : ) How's everyone else's pepper crop coming along? Bonnie

Jay, I am married to a former Pennsylvanian and he still has relatives there who garden and every summer I envy their cool temperatures (you know, they think 85 degrees is hot) and their usually abundant rainfall. When we go there to visit in summertime, everything is so lush and lovely that it blows my mind, especially compared to how roasting hot and tired everything looks in this part of the country at the same time. On the other hand, Late Blight seems to be on a tear there the last few years, so their beaufiful crops can fail suddenly. Marcy, That's a great list from the Kerr Center. Thanks for linking it. Susan, I think each of us adds/drops varieties for many reasons. After growing tomatoes for 25 years on my own and for at least 15 years with my dad prior to that, I'm just through with the massive experimentation. The truth is that out of every 20 or 25 new (to me) varieties that I try, maybe one or two is worth putting into the permanent growing rotation. So, rather than constantly looking for something new, I'm trying to refine the grow list and weed out those that perform least well in a broad range of conditions. I've reached the conclusion that there really aren't many, or maybe not any, incredible undiscovered varieties out there that taste/perform significantly better than what I've already tried....so I've stopped looking. I had high hopes for the Brandymaster series, likely because it is so tempting to believe there could be anything that could match Brandywine's flavor. They've performed so poorly here that I doubt I'd see a better performance next year or the year after. While many of you may be seeing significantly hotter or drier weather this year than in your average year, for us here in southcentral OK, our rainfall has been exactly 'average' for the year to date and so have our temperatures. If anything we've had slightly lower temperatures, in general, in Love County than we usually have although higher than average heat indices. So, for me, this is a pretty typical year except the real heat arrived in mid-May instead of late June so we got hot earlier, but not necessarily hotter than average...just earlier than average. A tomato variety that didn't perform well in what was a fairly typical year here at our place this year likely wouldn't perform any differently next year. In Oklahoma we have a wide range of average annual rainfall....some folks may average 15" of rainfall per year in western OK while others in eastern OK may average 50-60" or more. Humidity varies widely as does soil type and pH. So, what grows well for someone in highly alkaline soil and water in western OK may not grow nearly as well for someone in eastern OK with entirely different weather and soil. I enjoy looking at everybody's lists and hearing how different tomatoes perform for different people but I know that works well in areas drastically different from mine may not work well here. Growing in containers is much more complicated. First of all, nothing that I grow performs as well in containers as in the ground. Heat and pests hit container-grown plants much harder every year than those in the ground. The grasshoppers have completely stripped my container tomatoes of every leaf and fruit, but have only done sporadic damage to in-ground plants. It is the same thing with spider mites....only the container plants have had issues with them this summer. For me, container-grown tomatoes are great from Jan. or Feb. through the end of June or early July. After that, I might as well yank out those plants and toss them on the compost pile because they're toast. Last year, the tomatoes in containers did somewhat better than they usually do....but we had much higher than average rainfall and much more rain/clouds/cool weather than we see in an average summer. I'm looking for plants that perform best in the worst of conditions, not the best ones, because more often than not, we get the worst conditions every July and August. In containers, I plant tomatoes that can tolerate the heat and the restriction of their root growth and still perform. That means I often grow tomatoes in containers that I don't consider 'good enough' to plant into the ground....stuff like Better Bush and Husky Red Cherry. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm just at the point that I want what produces best for us here, and I don't want to keep looking for something 'better' because I don't think there is anything out there that's really that much better than our tried and true varieties that make our grow list most years. For a long time, I gardened for fun....trying any and every thing that interested me. We ate all we wanted fresh and gave tons away and didn't care if we put up much for the non-gardening season or not. In recent years, though, I've developed a deeper appreciation for the truly superior flavor of anything/everything that's grown locally and picked/prepared/preserved at its peak of perfection. Thus, I give away little and try to raise as much of our annual food supply as possible. In a good year I fill up three freezers, a root cellar and manage to can 2 or 3 or 4 hundred jars of 'stuff'. Since that is what is important to me now, I want plants that produce well, that provide tasty food we like and that are not prima donnas requiring a lot of pampering. Thus, I'm less inclined to experiment and more inclined to plant what produces really well with little fuss. In a lot of ways, the 'experimentation years' were a lot more fun, but the farm-garden-preserving years have been much more productive. Now my family is spoiled and I must produce as much home-grown food as possible because they don't like grocery store stuff as much as they used to. Even DS's firestation co-workers prefer fresh, home-grown and I'm going to try to plant a lot more for them next year so I can send them all the tomatoes, peppers and other yuummy things they're craving. There just isn't room, or enough improved soil, to experiment with varieties now as there used to be. I don't mind that, really, because as long as what I'm growing is producing well, I've gotten over thinking there are incredible varieties out there just waiting for me to find them. Megan, Black Plum grew very well for me for a long time and then for 2 or 3 years it didn't and I dropped it. It is odd how that happens....and I loved Coyote too. If my garden were twice as large as it is, I'd bring it back to the grow list. So many varieties, so little time (and improved soil). The tomatoes I grow from seed invariably outperform storebought ones and I don't know why, but I've seen it enough years to know it is true. Dawn