Hi and welcome. I just started collecting/trading seeds a few months ago, but I am Hooked! It is a lot of fun, and much cheaper than buying a ton of plants. I have quite a few seeds to share, send me an email with your address and I will get them in the mail asap. No need to send a SASE, I have plenty here, and so many GW people shared with me that I would really like to pass on the favor. You should also check out the winter sowing forum, what great fun that is!! Janna whitelotusyoga@aol.com

Purzo, The Thai Soco's can be very interesting in that they will give you a larger caudex than most Obesum's. Although the obesums definitely have a wider range for flowers. I can only speak of growers that I know and am not sure about the UK for getting them. Rinoa Chen (orient Adeniums), Kukuan (adeniumcenter), Warunee (atgtree.com) are good. Rinoa has very healthy plants and will send a list. Rick

Thanks for clearing that up, Beachplants. I don't know anyone with an Aloe plant, so I went ahead and bought a fairly nice-looking Aloe at Wal-Mart this morning! I went to Lowe's first , but the only Aloe plants there came in more expensive pots full of different kinds of cacti. For some reason, Wal-Mart didn't have any pots smaller than 4" diameter, so I went ahead and bought another 4" and repotted all 3 plants. I mixed a lot of perlite with the soil this time, about 50-60% perlite. It looks darker than that on top because I had to add some extra soil on top there. What happened was after I finished planting them, I went to pour out the extra soil/perlite mix in the garden. When I came back, all three plants had been ripped out of the soil, and the big one was on the ground outside of its pot! Coincidentally, my cat was nowhere to be found... She's now locked in the garage to think about what she's done :P Anyway, I had to a small layer of soil on top when I replanted them so that they would stand up straight. I'm keeping them inside for awhile too because I don't want my cat to get them again! Thanks again for the help, everyone. I know that the small plants should be in small pots, but they have grown well in a large pot so far. I will be sure to keep the soil dry between waterings. By the way, would anyone be able to tell me what type of Aloe the large one is? The stripes are really cool

sorry I didn't mean to make you mad or be a jerk or rain on your parade.... I don't want anyone not to try. But please don't think it's going to be easy.Twelve years ago, I thought I wanted to have my own greenhouse business because I like to grow plants. I thought i wanted to be a market gardener so I'd have work all year long...well it's been a learning curve anyway! so if you like to learn a lot every year, it's a great job for you...and if you think you have it figured out, think again, something will happen for sure...and every time someone comes in the greenhouse or market and says "you have my dream job!" I just groan on the inside. One lady told me she wanted to do this when she retires in a couple of years because it would be easier than her job where she has to stand on her feet for 8 hours. I thought to myself "only 8 hours, where do you work?and "you get to retire? they're actually going to give you money when you do?" She has it made... I never work less than 12 hours all summer from February to November.Broiling in the sun and freezing in the rain because you have to get things picked for market. and the rest of the year I'm cleaning the greenhouses and beds and ordering supplies and going into debt for next year. or cleaning my house that didn't get cleaned all summer or fall or spring especially. And worrying that the wind will take down all your work, or grasshoppers, or thrips, or aphids.I've had the opportunity to learn about bugs and diseases I didn't even know existed when I was just home gardening. A lot of times when you don't see something at the market, it's because it doesn't sell enough to be worth the effort. That's been my experience.I've grown several things I didn't see at the market, it turns out it's because people don't really want it, at least enough to put their cash into action. Purple basil has always been a hard sell for me. I sell plants in the spring, well actually all year long. Purple basil is beautiful, tasty, and you have to beg people to buy it pretty much! heirloom tomatoes is another thing I've had a hard time with. Yes, they taste better and they are probably better in every way. But most customers around here would rather eat a pretty tomato with worse taste than a very tasty one that has a crack or doesn't look quite so appealing.And it's a lot harder to get them to market in good shape. to sell plants in most states, you need to have either a dealers license to resell or a growers license to grow and in our state if you want to grow and sell you need both. I have both. that's extra money and they come and inspect in the spring when you're just so busy you really don't need another hassle! LOL If you don't need to make money at this, then just have fun with it. but please, don't be the person at the market practically giving things away to get people to try it, or if you do have the same things as someone else, don't undercut them much just because you don't have to make a lot of money. value your time and effort. I am just also currently in a bad mood over people who want to do this part time because there are some people who are pretty much ruining our market by having lots and lots of stuff really cheap because they "planted too much" and "we have other jobs anyway". they are selling things so cheap that I wouldn't even haul them to market for that price. It's hard to make money marketing anyway, but especially when you're against that kind of thing!