Thank you for the kind words Ladies … and I haven’t even posted the new ones from this year yet !!! Deb - I have in fact dived into the proverbial pond of seed growing. After the splash I made at the BADITC auction I had better, right ? But, I’m saving that unveiling for a separate post. Stay tuned. :) Dearest Mocc - Was it you who ended up with that variegated bletilla ??? I almost went for that last year, but held off since I wasn’t sure if I would have the space (which I didn’t). Also, bletilla do NOT overwinter in pots at all, or at least they didn’t for me. I had some of the standard striata in a pot from 2012 and this spring in 2013 I finally decided to dump it when there was no emergence by June. Sure enough the pseudobulbs had rotted to mush. I still have two patches in the back yard gardens that are faring so-so. I have plans to move them this spring to the amended front beds, currently they’re competing with some major maple roots. They haven’t bloomed in the last two years so I know I need to move them or they will eventually be strangled out ... and we can't have that, now can we ?!?! Bkay - I’m glad you enjoyed ! Always a pleasure to share. I'm surprised being in Texas you haven't tried some yourself .......... enable. :p Trudy - Indeed, I am definitely NOT looking forward to the culling, but it seems a necessary evil when growing seeds for streaked breeders. But, I finally got my login sorted out over on the HSG forums (thank you again Bob), so you shall see me posting over there soon with progress. And that leaves me with Miss Jo - Goodness Gurl, you type about as much as ‘Long-Winded Ludi’. I LOVE IT !!! What a wonderful story about your experience in Beamsville (listen to me, like I know where that is). I would love for my partner to build me a greenhouse, but he knows that would in essence be Pandora’s Box. For now, he’s content to leave me with my room in the attic. Honestly though, I don’t have enough time working a full time job to take care of what I have NOW, let alone taking on more. What did Ken say earlier this year … ah … hope springs eternal. :) You leave me with some opened ended questions, so I will take the easy one first. I counted pictures, and I believe #17 was this one: Its fancy name is psychopsis mendenhall and the common name is butterfly orchid. Although if you google ‘butterfly orchid’ you get all kinds of garbage, so google the latin name. :) Interesting that you would choose this one, as it is the only orchid of mine that is in bloom pretty much all year. It puts out a flower stalk way high above its leaves, and then will only form one bud at a time. Once that first bud opens and the flower eventually fades and falls off, it will then put a new bud out at the same meristem. It takes anywhere from 2-3 weeks for one bud to mature, but then the flower is open for about as long. So I am basically 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off with a flower. It is one of the best orchids I’ve ever grown. I confess I don’t keep mine watered as much as I should and my temps/humidity are all over the place. If I was more of a perfectionist I could probably get it to throw two of three more flower stalks. Then they would open at different intervals, subsequently allowing a flower to be viewed at all times. Usually at orchid shows they sell them with at least two or three flowers stalks. Mine presently has two, but the original has stopped blooming. Here is a picture I took today to illustrate this. You can obviously see the flower on the left :) and the multiple re-blooming that occurred on the older stalk to the right. I only had both of them open once, and then after that the first stalk stopped blooming. That was back sometime in June though. I can’t quite bring myself to cut it off … keep hoping it will maybe start blooming again … there is that spring of eternal hope again. :p Oh, also, to give you a time table, the original stalk kept re-blooming for almost two full years before the second stalk came up and ‘took over’. Sort of like a changing of the guard, now that I think about it. :) As for your second question - what would be a preferable orchid for you to try, given the limited environment you described ? That is a tough call, honestly, and I have given a lot of thought to it. I think the most ‘forgiving’ would be a phaleonopsis. However, I do not have any experience with growing orchids on windowsills and don’t know that I would if I had a south facing window after the success I’ve had growing under lights. But I understand that most people are far more practical than me, so I stand with my suggestion of phaleonopsis. :) Orchids need enough light both to sustain life and re-bloom. But light is only half the battle. To get a Phal to rebloom, you need to have a noticeable drop in temps from a consistent couple of months of warm summer weather. Ya know what ?!?!? I JUST wrote a four page breakdown for Steve to help him with his little Phal about a month ago (still waiting on those pictures Steve). Email me through the GardenWeb, include your return email in the body of the message, and I will be happy to send it to you. And to anyone else who may be interested. It is basically a four page primer from MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE … I break a lot of rules, so I have to make that disclaimer since any ‘real’ orchid enthusiast would run away screaming if they saw my setup and my methodologies. But hey, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I guess I have been doing something right these last 4 years. ::grins:: But seriously, shoot me an email and I will send you a copy of the word document. Orchids are not impossible, but they are fussy and highly specialized. But that does not mean you can’t have your own success. Take a dive, the water is fine. :) ::enablenablenablenable:: Ludi

Hi Shannyn, Welcome to Oklahoma! Also, welcome to the Oklahoma Forum. I am going to guess that our weather and soil are going to make you feel like you've moved halfway across the world instead of halfway across the country. I believe you will love it here once you adjust to our very erratic weather and learn that staying indoors during the "hot part" of the July and August days makes summer almost bearable. During those months I try to finish my gardening tasks by 10 a.m. or at least no later than noon, and don't go back outside until 5 or 6 p.m. Working outside in the heat of the day with our heat and humidity can be dangerous, so pace yourself. VEGETABLES: I am going to assume you're talking about heirloom vegetables. (If you're talking about heirloom flowers, we can go back and talk about them later in the thread.) COOL-SEASON VS. WARM-SEASON: Many newcomers to Oklahoma think that we have one long growing season here because we are frost-free from roughly April through November in much of the state, and even from March-December in the southern part of the state in a very warm year. However, we have very distinct mini-seasons within that long frost-free period in which different crops must be planted so they can grow at the right times. COOL-SEASON CROPS: Beginning as early as January in far southern OK where I live, you can put onions (short-day, intermediate-day or day-neutral types, but not long-day types like they grow up north) in the ground, although most people in the rest of the state will plant them in February. Potatoes go in next, either in Feb.-Mar. and most other cool-season crops can be planted in Feb.-Mar., including peas, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, kale, swiss chard, spinach and other greens, etc. Brussels Sprouts do better as a fall crop because it gets too hot too early here for them to form many sprouts before the heat ruins their flavor and makes them too bitter to eat. Most of these crops will be "finished" sometime in June, or even in May in far southern OK. The nice thing about Oklahoma is that you can plant a second round of cool-season crops in late summer for harvest in autumn. WARM-SEASON CROPS: Most warm-season crops can go into the ground in mid- to late-March in southern Oklahoma, and in April in the rest of the state. I'll link the OSU vegetable planting guide below for you and think that, since you are in Moore, you generally could plant right in the mid-point of the range of dates they show. You also can grow some true heat-lovers here that might not have done well for you in NY if you tried to grow them there. These include melons of all types, sweet potatoes, southern peas (crowder peas, cream peas, black-eyed peas, etc.), and sweet potatoes. They all go in later than most other warm-season crops because they like really warm soil. HEIRLOOM VARIETIES: Many heirloom varieties do well here. I'll try to list a few or, if I've found all the heirlooms do equally well, I'll say that. ASPARAGUS: Most people here grow the newer all-male types due to their higher productivity so I won't even try to list any heirloom varieties. However, I've never seen a variety of asparagus, new or old, that doesn't produce well here if properly maintained. BEANS: All pole and bush types do well here except for the runner beans and some of the half-runners, and their problem is that they don't produce well in our heat. I especially like the following (but like I said previously, all but the runners do well here): McCaslan, Lazy Housewife, Black Valentine, Cherokee Trail of Tears, Tendergreen Improved, Jacob's Cattle, Kentucky Wonder, Rattlesnake, Henderson Bush Lima and Christmas Lima. BEETS: They all seem to do well here although slow to germinate in cold soil. BROCCOLI: I grow the heirloom sprouting types in the fall (any and all do equally well) but grow hybrids with short days-to-maturity in the spring because that's the only way to get a harvest. From a March planting, you can harvest in May thru early June and then the heat both causes the plants to flower and ruins the flavor. A couple of quick-maturing varieties we grow in spring include Premium Crop, Packman and Small Miracle. Waltham and the sprouting types can be grown in the fall. BRUSSELS SPROUTS: In the fall, you can get a good harvest from Falstaff or Jade Cross if planted in mid-July through mid-August for a harvest from mid-October through November. CABBAGE: Any type I've tried does well here as a spring-planted crop harvested in early summer or a mid- to late-summer planting harvested in late fall. CARROTS: Any and all do well here and I like growing a rainbow of carrots in different colors. If you have heavy clay soil you'll have to stick with some of the shorter ones like Little Fingers, Parmex and Thumbelina. CAULIFLOWER: Any cauliflower I've planted has grown just fine in spring, including Early Snowball and the colored ones like Graffiti, Cheddar and Green Harmoney. CELERY: Very, very iffy here but can be grown with great attention to planting times and creating the perfect microlimate for it. CHARD: All varieties grow well here including Fordhook, Five-Color Silverbeet and Rhubarb Chard, and the newer hybrids like Neon Lights and Bright Lights. The chards produe all summer long and look striking in the garden. You do have to keep them picking while the leaves are fairly small in the hottest part of the summer or the leaves get too tough. CORN: I grow mostly sweet corns, and our all-time favorite is Country Gentleman (shoepeg) although we also grow and like Golden Bantam and Texas Honey June (seed for it is available from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange). I grow hybrids as well, and am especially partial to Serendipity. We also have grown and liked Silver Queen and Merit for many years. CUCUMBERS: If there is a cuke that won't grow and produce here, I haven't found it. I like Chicago Pickling, but also grow some of the bush-type picklers like Spacemaster and Picklebush so I can cram more plants into the ground. Lemon Cucumber is an heirloom that thrives in the heat, but be sure you harvest it while it is smaller and no darker than lemon yellow. EGGPLANT: They all do well here but often have issues with flea beetles if planted too early. If you wait until May to plant them, the flea beetles usually aren't much of an issue by then (at least here in southern OK). I think the smaller ones in the fascinating range of whites, lavenders, etc. taste better than the older, larger dark purple ones Pingtung Long Ichiban Rosa Biana GREENS: Collard greens, spinach, mustard greens, turnip greens, etc. all do well as cool-season crops but finish up pretty early here.....by the end of May or earliest June in southern OK. LETTUCE: Any and all do well here and are surprisingly disease-free. However, they are strictly cool-season crops and cannot take our June, July and August heat here in southern OK. Folks in central and northern OK may be able to keep them going into June in a good rainfall year. When you see a variety described as "heat-tolerant" or "produces all summer" or whatever, just remember that although that statement might apply in cooler parts of the country, it doesn't apply here. Lettuce just melts away in our heat. Black-seeded Simpson and Bloomsdale Longstanding are more heat-tolerant than most. MELONS: Most of them do well here although some do better than others. Some of the heirlooms we like are listed below and the list includes true cantaloupes, muskmelons, crenshaw and casaba types, etc. Pike Collective Farm Woman Noir des Carmes Rocky Fore Old-Time Tennessee Ha'Ogen Cochiti Pueblo Schoon's Hard Shell Hollybrook Luscious Piel de Sapo (aka Frogskin Melon) Crane Eden's Gem Early Frame Prescott Prescott Fond Blanc Orange-fleshed Honeydew Christmas Canary Petit Gris de Rennes OKRA: They all grow well here. We like Hill Country Red, Clemson Spineless, and Cowhorn. ONIONS: Any short-day, intermediate day and day-neutral types will grow here. George grows Yellow of Parma. I grow modern-day onions, not hybrids, and get great harvests from Texas Supersweet (aka Texas 1015Y), Candy, Contessa, Super Star, Yellow Granex, Southern Red Belle, etc. A lot of us are trying Red Candy Apple this year, and it is a red version of the very popular sweet onion Candy. In the south, the sweet onions grow better than the hotter long-storage onions which tend to be long-day types that don't bulb up here. PEAS: I can't say much about green peas because I don't grow them here in extreme southcentral OK since we get too hot too early here for them. Mulberryknob (Dorothy) can tell you about peas and so can some of our gardeners from northeastern OK. PEPPERS: I've never met a pepper, heirloom or hybrid, that isn't happy here in our heat. Be careful not to plant them too soon or they'll sulk and be unproductive all year. I plant them 2 or 3 weeks after my last spring tomatoes go in because they need warmer soil. Other than avoiding early planting, any hot or sweet pepper you want to grow will do just fine here RADISHES: All do well here as early cool-season crops. SOUTHERN PEAS: Pennyrile Red Ripper Pinkeye Purple Hull Cream Mississippi Zipper SUMMER SQUASH: Any and all do well here, including Yellow Straightneck, Yellow Crookneck and all the patty pan types. In the zucchini world, we are partial to Costata Romanesco and Cocozelle. In our heat, they get really big really fast, so harvest every day or two before they turn into huge monsters. WINTER SQUASH/PUMPKINS: We have an extensive thread on these that has been around a couple of months now so I won't repeat what is in it. Squash vine borers and disease are hard on certain types and not quite as hard on others. The most disease-resistant one I grow is the heirloom Seminole pumpkin and the best-tasting one for pies is Winter Luxury Pie. If you can't find the old thread via a search of the back pages of this forum, let me know and I'll try to find it. TOMATOES: I hardly know where to start. Many of the ones you are used to growing will not set many if any fruit here. Brandywine is a good example. Excellent flavor, as I am sure you know, but you're lucky to get 6 fruit from a plant in our heat. There are a few of the large-fruited heirlooms that produce well and I'll include them on the lists. Oxheart types do not produce many, if any, fruit in our heat and are a huge disappointment here. CHERRY, GRAPE, CURRANT AND PEAR TYPES: Pretty much all of these grow well here, so you can let your taste buds be your guide. I grow tons of these and dehydrate thousands of the tiny fruit to eat all winter long. Here's a list of some of the ones (both hybrid and heirloom) we like: Black Cherry SunGold SunSugar Lime Green Salad Dr. Carolyn Riesentraube Grape Coyote Tess's Land Race Currant Red Currant Fargo Golden Gem Snow White Super Snow White Orange Santa Ildi Galina's Cuban Yellow grape Yellow Currant Rosalita Red Pear Yellow Pear Sweet Chelsea Sweet Million Isis Candy Bi-Color Cherry PASTE TYPES: Opalka Polish Linguisa Martino's Roma Amish Paste San Marzano Redorta Grandma Mary's Paste Jersey Devil Viva Italia SLICERS: EARLY: Sophie's Choice Glacier Bush Early Girl New Big Dwarf Better Bush Mountain Princess MAIN SEASON: True Black Brandywine Brandywine Sudduth's (better producer than all other BWs here except TBB) Black Krim Ananas Noir Cherokee Purple, Green or Chocolate Indian Stripe Black From Tula Carbon Black Pear Black Plum Chocolate Stripes Paul Robeson Better Boy VFN Druzba Nepal Mule Team Jet Star VF Box Car Willie Aunt Ginny's Purple Aunt Gertie's Gold Dr. Wyche's Yellow (an Oklahoma heirloom from the Hugo area) Dixie Golden Giant Janue Flammee' Persimmon Russian Persimmon Azoychka Livingston's Golden Queen Livingston's Gold Ball Lemon Boy Jubilee (aka Golden Jubilee) Zogola Tangerine Porter Porter Improved (aka Porter's Pride) Black Prince Aunt Ruby's German Green Green Giant German Johnson German Giant German Queen Tennessee Britches Valena Pink Big Rainbow Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter Estler's Mortgage Lifter Stump of the World Goliath Momotaro Earl's Faux Pruden's Purple Marianna's Peace Rutgers Sioux Super Sioux Eva Purple Ball Homestead 24 Caspian Pink Coustralee Livingtons's Paragon Livingston's Favorite Livingston's Magnus Livingston's Perfection Liningston's Main Crop Pink Tiffen Mennonite Tappy's Heritage Ramapo Moreton Supersonic Primetime Brandy Boy LONG-KEEPING VARIETIES: Burpee's Red October Burpee's Longkeeper Yellow Out, Red In Old-fashioned Garden Peach Winterkeeper Green Thumb TURNIPS: All do fine here and we like Purple Top White Globe. WATERMELONS: All do fine here as long as they are in full sun and well-drained soil and get lots of moisture. Our all-time favorite is Blacktail Mountain and we grow other smaller ones including Yellow Doll, Bush Sugar Baby, Sugar Baby and Jurasik. Others that have done well (but take up lots of space) include Ali Baba, Moon and Stars, Chriss Cross, Rattlesnake, Crimson Sweet, and many others. FOR FALL TOMATOES: I usally plant a lot of the Livingston varieties and some of the longkeepers plus whatever looked good enough in July that it was allowed to go on into fall. One key to remember is that our summer heat shuts down tomato pollination/fertilization very early so you have to plant your tomato plants as early as you dare and be prepared to cover them up on an occasional "late" cold night. By about the third or fourth week of June most years, the temperatures are high enough that most of the larger tomatoes (not including the small cherry, currant, grape, pear and plum shaped ones) won't set new fruit until the temps drop again, so early planting pays off and late planting means not many tomatoes will be harvested until fall. Some crops you grew in NY cannot handle the heat and do not do well here in general, although some people have managed to create just the right microclimate for them. (That is rare, though.) Rhubarb and raspberries are incredibly hard to grow here as they do not like our heat. Apples and pears can be iffy as the apples often fall victim to cedar-apple rust and they both tend to get fireblight about the time they start bearing crops. Stone fruits like peaches, pears, plums, apricots and almonds grow pretty well here but bloom too early some years and lose the crop to a late frost. Many heirlooms do well here, but it takes trial-and-error to discover which ones can handle the heat. I have found, though, that almost all of them produce pretty well if planted at the appropriate time. Many of them have adequate disease resistance too. I know you'll have many questions as you adapt to our climate and soil. Don't worry. We're right here to help you adjust. Dawn

I have zero experience with turface. I'm able to get my paws on pumice for cheap. So I just use pumice and a peatless C&S soil. Some things I plant in 100% pumice:). I've heard people using turface. As long as it doesn't decompose I'm sure it's fine. I see people use This. Just press the green this if you didn't know;). If you switch to gritty mix you will leave out the soil. Usually with gritty mixes there are 3 ingredients so the ratio is 1:1:1. The only reason why I keep a little soil in mine because it gets so dry and hot in the late spring/summer. Not counting last winter, but usually our winters are even dry compared to most:). So they soil holds onto moisture a little. If I did pure grit my plants would shrivel up or I would have to water all the time. No thank you;). I would leave the Aeoniums the way you have them over the rest of the warm seasons. Do a little research and once September comes switch the mix if you want. Perlite can be annoying, but some people do not mind it at all. Just preference:). Look up Al's gritty mix for succulents and you will get tons of info. I would love to help I just have zero experience in that department. Here's a nice post Al's gritty mix. The OP I don't think planted succulents, but it's pretty informative:). You'll get the idea:).

What? Houzz just killed my comment. I've looked for the JC book and found prices from 110.- over 600.00. Wishing for a reprint, too. It's so very nice the Hermine Stover's book is available for use to read, though I would have purchased it. I will print it, so that I can have some actual paper. I've managed to keep a Schlumbergera and a Spathiphyllum alive in this dark dungeon for a few years. I'm getting antsy over my new plants, and their supplemental light needs. It's been a fun summer, but not at all a budget buster. Golden Hahnii 4.00, Moonshine about 10. francissii 8, hahnii Hahnii 4.50, Hahnii Jade 4.50, H. Jade marginata 4.50, Hahnii marginata 4.50, Samurai Dwarf 4.50, Futura Superba 5, 3 leaves of some cylindrical 10 ish. Introductions are almost out if the way! I really did hit a bit if a honey hole in a store some distance from here, where I was able to stop once. A future visit will surely find me bring something else home. I have a Nutty fund going for more plants. It will soon be time to order, I believe. There's just too much eye candy on these pages. It's been very hot, very humid, with a breeze. It seems that Samurai Dwarf was holding something in. It seems to have grown taller, wider and thicker. Moreso than from a fluffing from a drunk of water. For a slow growing plant, Sansevieria growth spurts can happen pretty fast. Everywhere I see this plant, it is called Samurai Dwarf. If that is not it's real name, it's stuck with it. It'll be for it's own good. It will get that plant bought and into people's lives, and they will have a name for it. I've seen The number with this specific plant, and not the Warshiik plant, which is listed with no number, but this listing is trade. I saw where parentage if thus plant was supposed to be Warshiik x Pinguecula. Somewhere, there is supposed be a Salaf. This might make for a winter project that won't really go anywhere, but that's ok. I really appreciate the talk here and the attention given to these plants. There is just not bumpers of that happening.