Marcella, I have lots of Spider Lillys. Would love to trade some for some of your daisies, and cuttings from your Ghost Weigela. I also have a dark wine dahlia. Thanks, djune/Donna

Now I am very glad to be wrong on this topic - it's very good news to hear that breeders are actually focusing on taste. Jonagold is quite delicious. I read "The Fruit Hunters" and the author interviewed the Zeigers of Zeiger genetics. They admitted that most of the focus of their stone fruits has been on shippability, but they claim to now have changed their focus, and they are trying to improve on taste - the goal is to have a peach that tastes as good as the old heirlooms, but also ships well and stays good for weeks at a time. Yes, I am not sure I would even know how to grow apples on the East coast. I feel very fortunate to live in the Santa Cruz mountains, we have about the best climate one could ever ask for when it comes to apples. They are so tasty in my orchard, that is what got me so enthusiastic about apples. I spent years trying to grow all sorts of things from subtropicals like macademias to citrus and stone fruits. None rival the perfection of the apples in my orchard. We even get outstanding Summer apples because our Summers here (upper 60's to mid 70's daytime, mid 40's to low 50's night time in the middle of July and August) are equivalent to East Coast Fall weather. Our first apple to ripen is Anna around late May, and the last apple to ripen is Williams Pride in late January. Feb through April is covered primarily by storage apples. But we do get seasonal fluctuations here too that shift which apples end up tasting good. We get a period of hot Fall weather that - if it shows up too early tends to ruin the early Fall apples which seem not to like much heat. If the heat doesn't show up until October, then we get nearly perfect apples on all the varieties. Last Fall the Cox orange pippin harvest was ruined because the hot weather showed up at the end of August. They went mealy very quickly.

50 is a lot! I have no idea what I will find locally. As of right now, none of the stores are offering amaryllis bulbs or kits. As soon as they do, I'll be choosing a few to bring home. There is a very nice garden center in the area, and even they haven't displayed any amaryllis yet. I would think it will be soon, though... especially since it seems like every year the Christmas decorations and gifts get put on the shelves earlier and earlier. I just don't know which ones to order from the catalogs... I can't make up my mind... since my collection is very small, pretty much every catalog has lots of varieties that I don't have. But I don't want to just buy up everything at once. I want to pick and choose carefully. I really like San Remo, Faro, Fairy Tale, Amputo, La Paz, Nymph, Calimero, Supreme Garden, Bogota, Lady Jane, Orange Sovereign... just to name a few. They're all really nice, and I don't think there's a variety out there that I wouldn't grow, but those are my favorites so far. I doubt that any of the local stores will have a great selection. Their selection of tulips, daffodils and other fall bulbs wasn't really very wide, if that's any indication. Perhaps the garden center will have a greater selection. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

My neighbor died a couple of months ago and I went over and dug up a bunch of crinums (with permission). I have potted about 6 small ones up for the Tampa Swap coming up. Others, at least 10, I stuck in the ground just about everywhere. Problem is, I don't know what color they are. I personally have a large white one that's over 20 years old. I have three seed heads on it now. If you're coming to the Tampa swap, I can give you some unknowns, or the seeds for the white one. Or we can try mailing, but it's getting so hot here now that I'm starting to worry. I sent a priority mail package from Tampa to Orlando and counting the day I packed it and sent it, and the day they got it, was four days! (PO says 2-3 days). Pictures at my link. Lori