Hi GAgal. I'm in north FL, same zone as you. I have pretty much the same weather and soil as south GA. One that does well in my garden, that fits your requirements for the smaller rose is Clotilde Soupert. Not totally thornless but few and far between. One of the first to bloom in the spring, she laughs at our hot humid summers, and will still be blooming at Christmas. The flower opens more in dry weather, can ball a little in wet, though I find it quite charming. Lovely old fashioned powder scent (to me). I've had her I guess close to 10 yrs now. I see in your last post you are wondering about a rose for a teepee. Again, in my own yard Don Juan has been a real survivor and bloomer. But not thornless. Do you need thornless there too? Have you checked into any of the tea roses, they do well in this area. Are there any rose gardens near you? It's so helpful to be able to actually see real roses growing in your area. Donna

Catalpa is not invasive in the way the term invasive is meant to be used. While Empress Trees are invasive as the term is meant to be used. Despite appearances, they aren't closely related. Both Catalpa species are listed in Georgia, though it is uncertain what their original range was, as they were widely dispersed by Native American Indians before the arrival of Europeans. If you don't like them, that's fine, but they do fit the criteria you asked for, are very tough, and are native to the SE U.S.. Arktrees Here is a link that might be useful: Catalpa species in the search area

wow, over a decade later, I am resurrecting this thread :p I am growing Mixed of Tropical and Native (Path to a food forest) Pawpaws (shenandoah, Susquehanna, Mango, Maria's Joy, KSU Atwood, KSU Benson, Allegheny) Feijoa (two varieties, Apollo and unknown) Persimmon (Hyakume, Fuyu, Giant Fuyu, Jiro, Maru, Chocolate, Coffeecake) Phalsa (Potted) - Grewia Asiatica Guava (Mexican Cream, Larkana Guava) Jujube (Honey Jar, Sugarcane, Li) Figs (bunch to list) :p Apple (Pink Lady, Candy Crisp, Gala, Red and Yellow Delicious) Pears (Bartlet and MoonGlow) Plums (Bubblegum, and 2 varieties I can't recall) Peaches (2 varieties) Eleagnas Cherries (Bing, Unknown Red and Green Cherries) Blackberries, Blueberries, Huckleberries Grapes, Currents(Black and Red) Goji Rhubarbs Meyers Lemon and Improved Meyers Lemon Mulberry so on

I had incredible yields of Khing Yai - there's still some in the ground so I haven't counted it all yet, but looks like at least 10:1. Yellow Hawaiian was only 3:1, Bubba Blue was 4:1. Big Kahuna was a flop, 1:1. It rotted in the trays and didn't sprout. I can't sell frozen ginger without having an approved kitchen. I've candied a lot of ginger and started making ginger chews and hard candy. Both of these freeze well, make nice gifts and are good for cold and flu season. I get about a cup of juice from a pound of ginger. I puree it in a food processor and strain with a sieve. I use 1.5 cups white sugar, 3/4 cup corn syrup and 1 cup of ginger juice. I use a candy thermometer and heat it to 250 degrees for the chews, 300 degrees for hard candy. Makes a very spicy candy. I managed to find a grocery store to sell some of my ginger to. I got $10/lb, and they sold it at $15/lb in the store. The could only sell around 10 lbs a week tho. I can easily sell that much at even a moderately busy farmers' market, and was surprised they couldn't move it more quickly. The "baby" part of it doesn't seem to be as important as local and organic. I cut back on the amount of ginger I'm growing next year, but am growing more turmeric. I've talked to a few produce buyers who are very interested in turmeric, even if they don't want ginger. I think I'm going to lower my prices next year, maybe $8/lb wholesale for ginger and $10-$12/lb at the farmers' market. Maybe higher for turmeric, depending on my yields. I made a mistake in not covering my ginger inside my high tunnel when it got into the 20's. The stems and leaves froze, but it took a few weeks for them to completely die off. It's been about a month now and the ginger that's still in the ground looks great. Some of my ginger had developed a skin, but I think those plants had dried out; it doesn't seem to be from freezing.