Hi Chris, Great viewing. I just love those silver spinies. Can you tell me what the one is in the second last pic? I hope that some of our attendees at the conference are thinking of bringing a few of these back to Oz! Cheers, Paul

Moccasinlanding, i am embarrassed to say I do not know if that is an English Dogwood .. it was here when we moved in, and I am very very new to any gardening other than mowing the grass. I really have just started to hobby garden 4 years or so ago. Ken, as to that one Great X under the shrubs, I will try to get a early picture of it this year. I thought I bought all five of my plants the same time and place. Also unless my memory fails it looks brighter at first, Anyhow I will try to get some early comparison shots, heck it will be fun to have a photo project for the spring... The funny thing is I had them purchased and in the ground before I found out they can be DIFFICULT, my first thought was DANG ! I really liked that type. So far they have been no problem (it pays to be ignorant) or so they say... I have heard of locals with hundreds of types that can't keep Great Expectations alive, or lose them over a winter. So I just enjoy them and hope for the best... they haven't come up yet ! fingers crossed. This post was edited by leafwatcher on Tue, Mar 19, 13 at 23:44

Don, he wasn't my first parrot....He could be likened to finally getting a Porsche, if you're into cars. I brought him home when he was 5 weeks old.... about mid-April, 1999. Here is his baby picture when he came home. I'd been going over to my friend's house (the breeder), to hand feed him when she pulled him from the nestbox. I continued to hand feed him, with what is called "abundance feeding" so he weaned himself, at 22 weeks old, without feeling deprived. He weighed 600 grams as a well fed baby boy, and he weighs that now as an adult. He has beautiful feathers, no fat, great muscle tone especially in his breast which allows him to fly efficiently.....but consider that birds are so aerodynamic, with hollow bones, hollow feathers, they eat moderately frequently, also poop frequently and do it almost EVERY time before they take flight....which is a clue to imminent flight, by the way.

I've used a friends Omega grafter on temperate trees and had moderate success. Long term issues included cleaning and sharpening. I had better success with a razor blade and wood plane. Plus I think tropicals take better with long cuts exposing lots of cambium as opposed to the more squat cut of the Omega. Sheehan, do you remember the grafts at Montoso on the Rambutan? They cut the rootstock into a wedge shape and cut a cleft partway through the scion branch and bundled them together? If the graft did not take at least the scion survives. Wonder if it would work for Spanish lime? -Ethan