My soil is neutral to mildly alkaline I think (based on what grows well here....) What Kirengeshoma really seems to meed is damp conditions. Mine grow in 'the wet corner' - which is very wet in spring but dries out in summer. But, since it is the lowest spots where four properties drain to, run-off from summer rains keep it from getting too dry in summer - except this month this year(!) The Kirengesoma is looking pathetic this year - only a few flower stalks. Going back through earlier pictures, these from early August 2010 are the best. The 'wet corner' patch - notice that they spread to form a large patch when they're happy! A closer view of the flowers - which are held fairly high above the foliage:

Sorry about the pests--I tend to find orange and yellow flowered forms of Tecoma to be pretty durable and pest free. Your pics look like some type of white wax scale to me, but I could be wrong. You can rub them off, or use a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol to rub down the stems and leaves of your plants to kill the scale (big chore, and try to do in the evening so the plant isn't exposed to a ton of direct sunshine while it's drying, and test-drive a spot for a day or two first before doing it all over the plant). Of course, since it's a sucking insect, you could use a sytemic insecticide which will make the whole plant toxic and kill them, though that's definitely breaking out the Big Guns. If it was my plant, and small, I'd do the cotton ball rubbing alcohol routine once a week for a month and see how it goes, and then review my other options. I imagine some of the heavy horticultural oils might smother them too. Let us know what you do and how it works out. Great pic, by the way, I wish I could get close ups so clear. Take care, Grant

I grow Abutilon, not sure which type. I got a cutting from a friend. The flowers are hanging bell shape and are yellow with orange veins which makes them look orangy. It gets much larger than you want. 10 ft or so. But I have rooted some stems and made smaller plants. The first year they stay rather small and do bloom. Mine have overwintered the last few years which haven't been as brutal but we did get down to 22(official low) in Augusta several times but my yard where I have them is covered with tall pines so it's about 5-6 degrees warmer there than the official low. I have found that you cannot plant the rooted plants out the first fall or they will freeze. So I bring the pots they are rooted in, inside when it's going to freeze then plant them into the garden in the spring. They seem to be able to survive the 2nd winter. Hope this helps a bit.

Hi zeedman, hope everything is going well with you. Thanks again for the two kinds of "MN" cowpeas, they did wonderfully even with the bad growing season we had here. My project is making slow progress. I have more raw data to go through than I have time available. Much bigger project than I anticipated (as is usual for me). I thought it would be safer to have all my hard work on an offline computer so I acquired a second one that is dedicated just to the project. I linked a database to a spreadsheet. I settled on using the database for general information and I give every variety its own number. That number is referenced on the spreadsheet for further details and information. The spreadsheet offers a quick side-by-side comparison of varieties by using category checkmarks. Works pretty good. The thing is, the more time I spend and the more knowledge I acquire, the more obsessed I become. Beans sure are fascinating. A big problem is categorizing because of all the different terminologies and because many beans have multiple uses. The yellow/wax was one small issue, but there are more such as Romano beans versus flat beans, Lima (and Fava?) versus broad beans, French beans and filet beans, horticulturals and shellies, etc. Are cornfield beans distinctly different from typical pole beans or just regional terms for the same thing? Why are runner beans varieties of Phaseolus coccineus but 1/2 runner beans are varieties of Phaseolus vulgaris? That kind of confusing stuff. I am having to constantly go back into my "finished" data and correct errors or update information. Two steps forward, one step back. Second big problem is that I wanted a photo of each variety with beans set on as well as a photo of the dry seed beans. Not going to happen in my lifetime. ;-) Was such a distraction and time-killer that I dropped the whole idea for now. All in all I would say I am generally making progress, considering I only have time to work on it in the winter. I am a lot farther along now than when I last posted on this thread, but have a long way to go. I branched out into greasies, cutshorts, fall beans, teparies, tropical and subtropical beans, asian beans, foreign varieties available commercially, extinct varieties, etc. I also am working on cowpeas and soybeans just because I am so interested in them. When I get frustrated with the snap and dry beans I work on these categories instead. The biggest eye opener by far is how much duplicity is out there. I am convinced a great many varieties are actually the same ones with different names. I have come across seed companies and even growers and market sellers that arbitrarily change the names for selling purposes. Heck, I am even guilty. I got some bean seeds in a trade and the woman, an immigrant from eastern Europe, didn't know what they were so I named them after the nearest towns they came from in her homeland. What am I to do, call them "Unknown 1" and "Unknown 2" forever? I don't think what I did is quite as bad as changing a name to make a variety sound "cute" or make them more marketable, but the end result is confusion just the same. Finally, I hate to sound greedy, but I think this project may be worthy of publishing if I can get it finished, rather than free-sourcing it on the web. Several people I have shown it to have suggested looking into that possibility. Wasn't my original intention but because it is so complex I now feel I should try to get some kind of return on my investment of time and energy, if possible. This is nowhere on the priority lists, though, and if it ultimately doesn't happen it is no big deal to me. My personal collection is growing. With this year's orders and trades I am at well over 100 varieties of bush and pole snap and dry beans, asian beans, cowpeas, and soybeans. We have an informal little local club of hobby growers that are all interested in these so we coordinate and plant different varieties and swap seeds with each other. Pretty fun. Take care, -Tom I know it is improper to ask - wrong forum, wrong thread - but if anyone has any white wax beans would you be willing to part with a few seeds? I really want to acquire some. Thanks much.