I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving week. Kids are back to school tomorrow, much work to be done, Christmas gifts to buy and plans to be made! We even have a CHANCE of snow on Tuesday (won't stick.. but still!) I received a couple more packages this weekend: Here's the updated list: Here's an update on swap members and packages received: 1. poisondartfrog /Alana ~ pkg rec'd 2. lois / Lois ~ pkg rec'd 3. onedaylily / Margie ~ pkg rec'd 4. farmergirl2009 / Ellie ~ pkg rec'd 5. roper2008 / Linda ~ pkg rec'd 6. texaspinkie / Rebecca ~ 7. apoppyfield / Ann ~ pkg rec'd 8. caroleapony / Donna ~ pkg rec'd 9. tlfox / Tiffany ~ 10. shemeows / Maria ~ pkg rec'd 11. hibiscusfan / Suzanne ~ pkg rec'd 12. tracyokc / Tracey ~ pkg rec'd 13. flowergirl34 / Vina ~ pkg rec'd 14. ktrout / Karrigan ~ 15. thatannagirl / Anna ~ pkg rec'd 16. Indiana.Matt / Matthew ~ 17. ibartoo / Linda ~ 18. pumkingal / Lisa ~ pkg rec'd 19. october17 / Ellie ~ pkg rec'd 20. xiangirl / Heidi ~ pkg rec'd 21. kellyk49 / Kelly ~ pkg rec'd 22. gardenunusual2 / Tanya ~ 23. tomerrol / Tom ~ 24. beautifulreddahlias / Nina ~ 25. puffie / Muffy ~ pkg rec'd 26. flower2 / Mitchell ~ pkg rec'd 27. cashclan / Sharon ~ pkg rec'd 28. shant (?) / Shanti ~ 29. vajeff / Jeff ~ 30. sinbadsmom / Kathy ~ pkg rec'd 31. lceh / Lynne ~ pkg rec'd 32. peaches0104 / Julie ~ pkg rec'd 33. lightning96 / Beth ~ 34. snapdragon36 / Debbie ~ pkg rec'd 35. Molanic / Morgan ~ pkg rec'd 36. docmom / Martha ~ pkg rec'd 37. nan-6161 / Nancy ~ pkg rec'd 38. sandysgardens / Sandy ~ 39. drippy / Kim ~ pkg rec'd 40. rane_grow / Iris ~ 41. Gretchensgarden / Gretchen ~ pkg rec'd 42. daisydawnny / Dawn ~ pkg rec'd That's the current update of received packages as of mail delivery to me on Saturday. I'm sure more will be arriving all this coming week! Now, don't forget about the game I posted last week! So far, only one person has turned words in and they did a GREAT job!! Here's the details for you again: The latest game challenge will be a simple one as this is a wild and crazy week for everyone that's busy cleaning and cooking or traveling for Thanksgiving. Before you know it we will be stringing the lights and shopping mad sales at all hours of the night and day... The dates for this challenge will run through Dec. 10th. The challenge is a simple word find game. A popular one that's been making the rounds on the round robin forum this year. Email me a list of as many words as you can come up with from the words "Winter Sowing Swap". All words must be at least 3 letters and up. For instance, "Winter" could be one word. "Sow" could be a word, "tan" and so on. (There! I just gave you 3 freebies! :) The winner will receive a bonus flower package of 10 packs tailored to items on their wish list. Have fun! ~Wendy

Clement, thanks for the pics of your grafting set-up! Here's something I hadn't seen before. This Picea pungens sat in the humidity chamber for about 4 weeks. When I took it out, there were roots growing from the side of the trunk! New growth on Pinus ponderosa understock.

MangoKush: I would say they are sour in the unripe stage and a tart/sweet when ripe, it's a favorite amongst children more so than adults... I don't know much about the various cultivars here in the U.S. though so the trees here may be much more sweet... In the PH the carambola and the bilimbi are present in both sweet and sour varieties, and the bilimbi is usually only found sweet in PH so I'm not so sure about the claims of just the sour kind in Asia. There's a few good wikiarticles. :)

Thanks nullzero. It's an emperor lychee. Can't wait until it is big enough to support fruit! It bloomed like crazy this year, but I didn't let it set. I'm very impressed with it. Have heard that lychees can be sensitive. I'm going easy on the fertilizer - 1 handful per month of Don's "Going Bananas" banana fertilizer as he recommended. And it is in a spot that gets quite a lot of wind. Didn't really know to protect it from wind, so I just let it be to see what happened. So far, doesn't seem at all sensitive to the wind. Fingers crossed it will continue on being nice and healthy=) MangoDog - Yep, I do very few things spur of the moment. I'm all about researching stuff first. There are some nice charts that show disease resistance, fruit size & pit clingyness. IFAS Chart Info on Tropic Sweet Tropic Sweet is listed as freestone. I bought mine from Mickey at Plant-o-gram. He recommended it as a healthy variety with tasty fruit, but said that while the pit was "freeish" in his opinion it was more of a semi-cling. Like you, I wanted freestone too, but decided I'd accept clingstone in exchange for excellent flavor. For a 1 1/2 year old tree 8 peaches seems pretty good. I bet when your tree gets a bit bigger you'll get bigger fruit, especially if you thin them when they are small. How do you like the 4 & 5 in one type trees? I considered multi-graft trees, but decided it sounded like too much work to keep all the varieties balanced. How old are your trees? I'm curious if the low production is because they are still young trees, or if it has to do with the multi-grafting? Dianne - sure are right about that! I love wandering about my garden after a long work day of staring at a monitor=)