I BOUGHT one [3'tall] from Lowes 3 years ago..I planted in the ground "I live in auburndale just about 40 mins out side of Tampa on the way to Orlando> It froze and turned to mush all the way to ground level. I was bummed but come spring a few leaves apeared and within 3 months it was pushing 5 feet tall. It produced 3 blooms and one papaya about the size of a pickling cucumber. I thought that was so kewl. Last winter it got hit by a cold night where the temps went to about 28degrees and again it froze to ground level. I am saying there was NOTHING left. Again in spring there came the leaves. It shot to about 7 or 8' tall. I couldnt even count the blooms [maybe 100] but as of yesterday there are a minimum of 45 papaya, all at least 8"-10" long and ..well they are the size and shape of a very large eggplant. It is still in full bloom so I am expecting a second round of fruit. Most of them are still green ripening one at a time. The first one ripened too fast for me to notice it, [ totally yellow]and the weight of it caused it to drop to the ground in mush. The second was almost all yellow so we picked it but it was full of ants. The third one was about 50/50 yellow when we picked and It dissapeared with in a day...right into our stomachs OH man was it good. I am a novice to Florida fruits as I lived in Washington State for 60 years. Oh and I love my dwarf pomegranit [also from Lowes now 3 years old] is in its second year of producing fruit..yummy

Dirtyoldman - I totally agree. People buy Hydrangeas for flowers, not foliage. And I would say that's especially true in the warmer climate areas like the Southeast, where there are lots of evergreen foliage plants available. It's hard to imagine someone other than crazed plant collectors (like some or many of us??) being taken in by this plant. Having said all of that, I did plant one this weekend (one gallon), and it has looked really nice for the past two days! LOL!! Now on the other hand - I think the new 'Endless Summer Blushing Bride" will be a major winner. I just planted one of these as well. The foliage is very dark green, and the big white mophead flowers look great with it. I'm looking forward to seeing how they look when they blush light blue. I'm betting on this one being a big time keeper! Beautiful plant. I also planted a couple of 'Big Daddy' Hydrangeas because I liked the dark green, large foliage and the promise of obnoxiously huge flowers reeled me in. The more shocking a plant is, the better!! LOL.

ray and gwen - finally I am understanding. So, if my single plant is female - and the flowers are dropping - it is because i need a hermaphrodite plant nearby. But I can't tell if i am getting one till it flowers. Since I purchased my plant - should I not go back to the same place since all of their plants are probably female? Sorry this is just so confusing. I have a 5" tall plant now, should I be starting a second from seed or what? Thanks!!!!

@gnappi to prevent cross pollination, they just pollinate by hand, using pollen from hermaphrodite flowers, then bag the flowers, to prevent contamination. you can do the same, when flowers start to mature, ( on non hybrid, herm. tree ) just bag up the flowers, then save the seed from the fruit that grows there. as for the shipping cost, yeah i guess on a small order its kind of steep, my last order, I purchased a small pack of 10, and another of 100 seeds, shipping was 6.50. so not too bad. I placed 2 seeds per poly bag, and around 40 bags. I planted around 35 plants on a small lot ( Red Maradol ) and around 8 Sun Gold Hybrid, I regret not getting more Sun Gold. Production wise, they both put out about the same amount, but the Sun Gold is PRSV tolerant, and can have 1-2% higher brix on average on the fruit. You can often find people selling seeds on ebay. so that's another option. but for hybrid varieties, I stick with professional seed supplier though. am not sure exactly how they create hybrid seeds, I believe they cross two different varieties, to get the Red lady F1 and other hybrids, like Sun Gold. I noticed the Sun Gold plants sprouted faster, and grew faster than the Maradol. and had slightly thicker stems, not sure if there will be any difference, once they are mature, I am keeping notes.