I generally do not like using chemicals on my plants, but the people who make the best aspirin that starts with a B has the most wionderful systemic pest control product I have ever seen It is applied to the soil after planting seeds or young transplants and I do not have problens with any insects on any of my plants including tomatoes. My housemate promised to take a picture of my pepper plant later today. I have a chili that never dies it just keeps producing and you can barely see the leaves for the peppers and the poblano is full of peppers. I spray them weekly with miracle grow and they keep on growing and peoducing in the direct Florida hot sun. I love your pictures and am envious of your moon flower and peppers. Everyone enjoy your gardens and keep on planting Thank goodness my father taught me how to grow certain veggies iin the summer heat. I am stiill eating greens since I pull them young and wilt them in olive oil and garlic..

HI Gardengal48 - thank you so much for the info on Big Smile. I'll wait and see if I can find it cheap, maybe in August when the places try to clear out their inventory. And I never see them cheap where I live. Even my HD doesn't mark down or do clearance plants. Not fair! :) Creech444 - I went through homedepot stock with a fine tooth comb. Not a one. But I'm going to be on the look out for it. thanks for the info. Stonybrook - I've heard that a local nursery carries Hines plants - but I've also heard that this nursery is charging 39.00 for the hydrangeas!! I don't care how big they are, I would rather pay much less, get a small plant and watch it grow. That way I get to see them mature, and I get more plants for my money. Gardengal - your not alone, I'm on the east coast, Long Island NY and the prices here are v. high. I guess it depends on the specific area where someone lives. Thanks, you guys/gals have been really helpful. Razorback33 - thank you. With your info I was able to find a local nursery who does carry Hines. I will take a look later in the summer (they are a pricey nursery).

This is to RB, since you seem to know Big Smile - I recently purchased 3 of them as a support for Children's Cancer Cure fund raiser. I have one in a shaded corner with only a short AM sun - she's doing great after a month there. 2 of them are planted in a W facing front strip that used to be shaded by a beautiful Ornamental Plum that just very recently had to be taken down (reoccurence of borer problem - controlled for a few years). I have been studying the sun exposure for a few days and have been, like a plant-nut that I am, shielding the Hostas and the 2 Big Smiles with umbrellas and lawn chairs when old mighty Sun hits the strip. I had purchased a Royal Raindrops Crab to replace the demised Orn. Plum but have to wait for it to provide the very much missed shade, do I have to move my 2 Big Smiles or will they toughen up some and with much TLC and H2O, to be able to handle a few hours of aft. sun? I love where they are now and can only imagine them when they grow up to be the handsome pretty Smiles that they are. Greatly appreciate your thoughts!!! Ditas

I recently FINALLY got a "rogues gallery" of old family pictures hung at the bottom of my basement steps (semi-finished basement). One family portrait caught the eye of my almost 18 yr old grandson who was hanging them for me. It was a portrait of my late father's entire family, including HIS grandmother, taken on the porch of the old family home in SW Missouri. Now, my father was the youngest of 10 children and he was born in 1901. He appears to be 2-3 in this picture. I have no idea who took this portrait in this dirt-poor tiny little town. But oh my, what a dour lot they appear to be! Not only are there no smiles, but actual frowns! I do remember my aunts and uncles and some were actually quite jolly types. But apparently smiling for photos was not appropriate. BTW, my father's grandmother was born in 1817. My father married later in life, and was almost 42 when I was born, so between being the youngest by 21 years, and having me late, we skipped at least two generations. When I was in school and had to do a family tree project, my teachers would always "correct" my paper and say I had mistaken my grandmother for my great-grandmother, as it was simply not possible that my grandmother was born in 1855. Well, she was. And no, I'm not 110 - I'm just 74.