Dumb question... What sort of fellow is your friend? Is he a "Grow stuff" sort of fellow - or not? In general - If your friend likes the idea of fruit but has never grown fruit, and you don't really know what he likes... and you REALLY want to get a fruit tree of some sort... Get him a Blueberry... Nearly zero maintenance, they don't get huge, don't make a giant mess, and the odds of getting good fruit are pretty high. On to the rest of my opinion... One thing to think about maintenance wise is dumping piles of junk on the ground that your buddy will have to attend to... Your friend may well end up cursing you each fall as they have to go pick up a ton of spiny, bug filled, staining, or stinky debris off the yard.... ESPECIALLY SO with Chestnuts - as a mature tree will dump THOUSANDS of spiny witches eggs on the ground... These are extraordinarily painful to touch - much less if you happen to step on one... Picking them up off the ground requires gloves! Personally... My opinion - don't gift a Chestnut unless your friend really wants a Chestnut and knows what he is in for... Walnuts produce BASEBALLS with THICK husks that drop all over the place - and their husks produce a ton of black, stinky, permanent staining goo that gets all over everything... Black walnuts are especially bad in this regard... Their leaves also stain EVERYTHING! In this regard - I would consider a Pecan before a walnut.. Mess wise - many "Large fruit" trees can make a big mess if you aren't committed to cleaning up after them.... Think of all he old Apple and Pear trees that folks cut down because they shower the yard annually with apple and pear slime.... More so with Mulberries and their Purple Stain! Thanks

Hi All, I really haven't been buying much this year to have more than I plant. At least not yet! In couple more months maybe I'll have to decide what to keep and what to share. But for right now, I am out, sorry guys. If I do find that I have more available, I will be glad to post them. There's a place called the "lily auction", but I can't offer you a link unless someone asks for it. Ebay is another spot to try, too. Some of the less expensive breeding plants are Spacecoast Starburst, Awesome Blossom, Taos, Spacecoast Cranberry Breeze, Spacecoast Cranberry Kid, Darla Anita, Sherry Lane Carr, Pearl Harbor, Magic Amethyst, Ed Brown, Victorian Lace, Mandalay Bay Music, and a lot of others. The daylily seeds can sometimes be expensive, so most people would rather do trades. So if you have something to offer, you could try to post a trade here or search the members trade list. You can find the members trade list at the bottom of the main page on the forum where you sign in. There's a link at the bottom of the page called "member services". When you click on it, you will see a list, one of which is to search members exchange lists. I hope this helps a little. Thanks so much for everyone's interest. Marbree

Herman, I got the purple colored Osbourne Prolific. I always thought they only came in a purple variety. I have had no trouble ripening this one even without much heat, and it has been a terrible year on the west coast as well. What is up with the weather? The last couple of Osbournes I tasted was very soft and juicy with high water content. It had very good sweetness. Yummy. This is the first season that I had this fig tree. I bought it in a 15 gallon, and it already gave me great figs. For me, I consider this a big deal, that I can get good figs despite where I live. San Francisco is known for very mild spring, summer, and fall weather. We're in the 60s to lower 70s during summer most of the time. Sometimes fog blocks out the sun. The only good thing is that we don't have freezing winters. Winters are also mild, so we get very few chill hours. Unlike people who have to lug their figs inside every winter, I can just leave them outside because its rare to see it go below 30s. However, the low summer heat causes figs here to ripen later than in hotter regions. The lack of heat also means that rarely can I ever have my figs compete in a taste test against others grown in hotter areas. Never the less, the figs that I have had so far were still yummy. The trouble I had with the Osbourne is that the purplish fig color seems to attract birds who peck at it. I easily solved that problem with a zip-lock bag with a couple hundred holes poked through it everywhere. If you don't poke enough holes, the condensation will rot your figs. I have yet to see my Desert King or Excell figs get attacked by birds. Its like they don't even notice it. Lucky me. By the way, I have tasted some Brown Turkey Figs in the market, and they were very bland. I have an improved brown turkey as well. I sure hope mines don't end up tasting like the stores. Do you know when Improved Brown Turkey is suppose to ripen? The figs look like it is just starting to swell right now, and is about the size of a large date.

Cactus dude, its all good. If you're not familiar with mid Atlantic and Northeast Beach culture, its radically different than going to a beach in California. California is more about day tripping to the beach. It's a year round beach climate and people go there to surf or picnic or watch the sunset. Here, our beach season is short. Businesses have three precious months to make money for the entire year. Rent is VERY expensive. Anything that sets you apart from your competitor or makes your place look more "beachy" will help make the season. Tourists generally don't do day trips either, as most of the east coast cities are a few hours drive from their favorite beach resorts. So visits are often in increments of every weekend, entire week's vacation or entire seasons renting a house (often year after year or generations). Repeat loyal customers are big business. The thousands spent on "disposable" palms can translate to hundreds of thousands for the beach club, bar, mini golf or restaurant. Same for the garden center that sold the palms and installed them. Growers too.