guavalane Thank You. I want all the info I can get. Does your friend buy seeds and if so what varieties and where does he buy the seeds. etc. why higher ? How big are these. You are in a great warm long grow region. I am zone 5 and must plan carefully. So I am interested in what comes quickly and what takes a long time. I can probably do with plants to about 105 days as some pumpkins are 105. not sure on the maximum but it probably depends on the temperature. Right now it is cold here. high of the day below or near 50. just to give an idea. But of course all information is eagerly sought. how is the eating quality difference between winter melon and fuzzy gourd. I had a oriental melon gourd that I liked. It was pretty good. it grew sort of like a square long melon. the melon had 4 creases running the length that caused it to have a sort of square cross section. the crease was indented along the length. the melon was nice in soup. It might have been a winter melon but no white on the melon skin and it was ready very early. The skin was tough so it was easy to cook. I could put it into a microwave and after it was cooked the skin would come off in one piece instead of falling apart. I just grab the skin and pull it off. well more or less. worked great. the "melon" was nice and firm. light color. sort of clear when cooked. moisture came out of it. the moisture with the seeds was a little more sweet. but this was for cooking not for raw eating. Does anyone have any idea what it might have been. what kind of oriental melon or gourd. I saved some seed but then the seeds might be crossed with all the other stuff grown there. Mostly I want to know what it is so I can buy some good seed that is properly correct and not some half wild cross.

Hi Eahamel, Although I've killed off my share of Cyclamen (and probably someone else's share as well), I keep ending up with them. My partner gave me one this last spring & now it is re-blooming, a first for me! After it was done the first time, it mostly died back for the summer, sending out just a few little leaves & no flowers. I repotted the corm in a very fast potting mix: if they stay wet, they rot, but they're THIRSTY little buggers & get all wilty in a trice! Once it started getting cooler & the days shorter, new leaves started coming on & now it's got half a dozen lovely flowers & several more buds. I keep it next to an unheated window, with southern exposure now, but I'll move it to a dimmer window once it tires itself out again. It looks like, if you keep them happy you'll get blooms twice a year, with some unattractive rest periods in between... maybe in TX, pop them somewhere cool & dim, like the basement for the summer while they're dormant? Good luck & I think the key is getting them enough water without getting the corm soggy... a fast mix may be the way to do that. GB

You can always find a reason to not use something...but seeing as how the experts recommend it and use it, RoundUp is the most effective way of dealing with crop-ups. Burying them in soil will do nothing except encourage root development to proceed further. Smothering roots can cause problems with trees, but doesn't kill advancing roots. You don't say Toronto what the saplings are from...you evidently have a tree--possibly one that's been chopped down....maybe dug up...and it is sending out roots where saplings keep popping up. The constant mowing, removing and spraying RoundUp will do the job.....eventually. You might trace back to where the tree was, dig there and spray RoundUp there also. Now in the Toronto area, you may not find such herbicide on the store shelves....you might have to go wider afield...out into the suburbs. Any Canadian Tire store has it. If you plan on maybe using a weed killer ....such as Killex...it would prove time saving to buy it IN BULK...at the same time...you cant find it on shelves in Toronto proper.

Thanks Annie. It is so hot. I am beginning to wish for fall. It is forecast that we will stay near, at, or a little over 100 for the next few days with heat index up to 110. The greenhouse is very hot now even with the fan and the shadecloth. It's,106 a lot of the time. I have to water also. I think I will put in some type of system to irrigate part of the yard before next year. Even my butterfly bushes got into some trouble with the heat and the shortage of rain. I am enjoying the new garden and the butterfly visitors. I am planning to put a little rose garden in, but, as I said earlier in this thread, I had to bring the first little roses indoors. They are doing quite well for now, and putting out new growth. When it gets under 90 for a few days, I will start trying to harden them off to the outside, but not until then. Boy, I can imagine you don't want to burn out your pump or run out of water. It is really hard when you need to water (have to in this heat) and the water isn't plentiful. Isn't there always something to worry about? I guess it keeps our brains nimble. kay