I think most plants these days come from California. Many local nurseries take a Dave Wilson plant, stick it in a pot, take the label off, & stick their own label on. At least at Doans you know where the plants from, & what rootstock its on. Ive had good luck with persimmons, figs, pomegranates, & jujubes bought there; I havent bought pears or apples there, I didnt see the variety I wanted on the rootstock I wanted. Fwiw, I think the Doans grow themselves most of what they what sell, & its worked for them. Btw, Cherries have a hard time here, I think thats why Doans doesnt sell them. Some reading that you might be interested in.: http://www.neilsperry.com/maq/fruit/what-are-the-most-dependable-fruit-varieties-for-north-texas DOT html womacknursery DOT com http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/files/2010/10/pears DOT pdf http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/

Danny, Tuberosa is one of the easiest perennial milkweeds to grow from seed. Put the seeds in a plastic baggy, add a fourth cup of sand and a fourth teaspoon of water. Mix well and put in the fridge for 4 weeks. Remove and put in a warm location. When the seeds sprout, transplant them into pots. Voila! Now you just have to wait for them to get larger. They will develop a tuber. Here, they go dormant in the winter and come up in late April. They should come up sooner in your location. I use the same technique for all my milkweed except curassavica. I only chill those that need cold stratification. I grow LOTS of milkweed. Good luck, Sandy

Kath- I "think" Gonsolves means that this is the first fuchsia that can be grown all over the US and he didn't breed it- bred by the Suntory firm in Japan. I think PW is a subsidiary of Suntory in the US. Sorry hannah I don't think 'Papoose' or 'Winston Churchill' are part of the "Angels Earrings series"- and I think this is what is causing the confusion. The PW/Suntory company's marketing strategy seems to be a "series" of heat tolerant hybrid fuchsias - hence the name "Angels Earrings". The only cultivar names that I've found are: 'Cascading Angels Earrings', 'Dainty' and 'Snowfire'. The link of the PW website that Eclectic_Gardener gave above makes it even more confusing since they mix standard cultivars with the Angels Earrings "series". The three cultivars above seem to be the only real heat tolerant ones so far- hopefully there will be more in the future. As you can tell, PW likes to give their plants rather catchy names. Eclectic_Gardener: You might want to ask your favorite nursery if they can order them for you- if they carry other PW plants surely they can get the fuchsias too. I'm looking for 'Snowfire' myself.-- Frank

I was going to mention the Japanese Garden too! I worked for 10 years for a company that had a large facility in Dallas so I was there a couple times a year. I tried to always make time for the Japanese Garden. Thanks for posting these pictures, Ricky. Very nice! I love the container trail. BTW, I think the movie was Logan's Run. There's another fountain I really like in Dallas (or maybe it's closer to Fort Worth) that depicts horses running through a stream - the water in the fountain splashes up around their feet. It's very dramatic. Kate