Whoo-Hoo!!! I knew it, I knew it. I knew it, but had forgotten until now. So what your neighbor said ( A beautiful single stem pink "lily" comes up around August 20th) when they actually meant a single stem with several pink lily blooms. I am so happy you now know what they are, and that you got pics. Your neighbor was certainly right about their bloom time, so are you going to make her a cake? Did yours bloom, or did you get pics of hers? I took spectacular photos but have to fugure out how to post them on this site. Ok...can you get the pics into the computer? if so, then open up a free Photobucket account and upload your pics to their site....it is fairly self explanatory. Then either copy the HTML code found below the pic (for a regular sized pic (which 'might' end up being huge)and paste it into the message box , or else copy the HTML Thumb code found below the pic and paste it right into the message box. That will make a nice thumbnail pic, that will be clickable if the Photobucket settings are set up right. This is assuming that you are comfortable with having either multiple tabs or multiple windows open at the same time. I tried and tried to help a member post pics and she was having an awful time. Come to find out, she was trying to do it only using one window. Sue...thrilled for ya!

Hueytlatoani, thanks for identifying the grocery store banana. I'd like to find one of those. Steve, I'm in Lake Charles. Would you happen to be in SW Louisiana also? Maybe close? Don--3 times bigger trunks??!! Good grief, they must be trees! I don't know if these are dwarfs. The fruiting stems are coming out of trunks at about maybe 8-10 feet. They are part of a grove that's migrated over from the neighbor's back yard. I see you are in Kansas...this must mean very careful winter protection. I've picked the ripe fruit; the remainder are still quite small and very green so I don't think they'll be ripe by Christmas. Not any change in size today from the pictures which were taken on the same day they were posted. Supposed to be 33^+/- here Sunday morning. Hope these have enough protection to make it. We'll see... Thank you all for your responses. CC

I know the spected one is an aloe maybe both are that's all o can provide but I'll look into it now. the left aloe; Aloe aristata Haworth 1825 (Torch Aloe) from South Africa forms a small stemless 6-8 in rosette. The triangular soft green succulent leaves have raised white spots, especially on their undersides, finely toothed edges and filamentous tips. The rosettes offset freely and with time will form a substantial clump. Offsets may be removed and used for propagation. Aloe aristata is often grown indoors as a window-ledge succulent plant, but it is very hardy. In the Drakensberg mountains it grows at up to 7500 ft and is equally happy growing outside through the wet English winter, provided that it is potted up in a very free-draining medium. It does well on a sunny patio, potted up in almost pure granite chippings mixed with a small amount of soil. i can't see the right one but you maybe able to spot it. Here is a link that might be useful: info from here This post was edited by mushibu10 on Wed, Aug 20, 14 at 11:52

Thanks Annette, I guess it's not Auntie Vi afterall. In that pic your bean definitely looks more maroon on a cream background. Mine is tan and brown, with the faint, splotchy, purplish-overlay. Hard to describe and I couldn't pick it up in the photo. I'm leaning toward the Oregon Giant right now, since it was found throughout this region, the descriptions match what I was told, and the dry pean pic on "abeancollectorswindow" is pretty dead on. We'll see how it grows. Once all yours grow out you must tell us which is the tastiest purple-stripe! Here's something amusing...the man that gave me these beans, took them back to Italy a few years ago for his sister. She now grows hordes of them for sale locally. So it's only a matter of time that they're brought back across the big pond as a new "purple-stripe" variety from Italy! Tatiana