Hey Galveston1602, I live in the West U./Med-Center area of Houston, and spend most of my time inside the Loop, west of Main St. and south of Buffalo Bayou. Galveston has always relied more heavily on tropical plants than Houston, especially with the history of "wicked" freezes that plagued the mainland until about 1990. After the winter of 1989/90 even about 90% of the W. robustas were AGAIN wiped out in Houston, but then things changed. Of course you see more tropicals on the island than in Houston. But what did Houston look like in the early 1990's compared to now? Galveston will alwasy have a "leg-up" on Houston for the more tropical of plants because of the warming effect of Galveston Bay and proximity to the Gulf. Most of the Foxtails that I've seen in the central sections of the city got minimally burned on that one cold night back in February... they actually did better than I thought they were going to. This past Saturday I happened to drive by some of the larger Foxtails in the city (that I've aware of) on the SW corner of Stude & White Oak, across from Fitzgerald's. There are 5 or 6 of them there, some of them are about 17 feet, and they looked really good, growing in full sun, planted out by the sidewalk and street. In fact the person with me remarked that they are not even in a protected location. Very heavy trunks, and heavy fronds, they've been there 3+ years. The few big Royals (25') in town have been where they are for probably 4-6 years, they have that "heavy" look to them. One of them is in the back garden of a patio home, in a place where you could not get large equipement in to plant a tree of it's present size. Actually I've seen it for years when driving by, and always though it was a Queen Palm. I never dreamed that I was looking at a Royal until it got so big (and different from a Queen) that it literally hit me in the face one day! The first Royals I saw down at Moody Gardens planted along side one of the buildings as early as about 1999, but I wasn't ready for a big one in Houston. Something I hadn't mentioned so far is A. cunninghamia. For the past two years I'd been watching about 3 different plantings of them around the city. Finally beginning to take off and grow. This past February they had absolute minimal damage (I was surprised), but one day when driving through Bellaire (just inside the Loop) something told me to take a right, I drove one short block, and then I saw them... two A. cunninghamias, each about 20-24' tall. Beautiful! THis was back in April, and they didn't have any damage from cold... I bought a large one from Home Depot the next evening on my way home from work. By the way, I checked out your website, it's great! I was expecially knocked out by the Carpenteria, I love Carpentaria's... I had a number of them when I lived in Miami. Carpentaria's are really tender, so I never even tried to find any to plant here in Houston, that one in Galveston looked great. Did it burn last winter? Also loved the S. amara. I think that the palm that you wanated an I.D. on in the Moody Gardens section is a Livistona decipiens. You've may have noticed that a number of these have been planted along the Gulf Freeway between downtown and approximately Monroe. It's one of my favourite Livistona's and for some reason it's seldom brought in tho Houston. I do know of a nursery that has some nice 10 gallon size. I'm about to buy 4 to plant in my garden. What did you see Bismarkia's do last winter in the cold? The ones that I've see around Houston all came through with no problem, to minimal burn. I'm thinking about planting one of them as well. Take care, Jose

Hi all I am planning on buying an Alphonso Mango tree. I wanted to know if it is better to keep the tree in a pot or plant it in the ground? I live in Katy. I know the trees planted in the ground are going to need winter protection. I know most of you have had past experiences with growing mangoes in Houston so just wanted to get your advice.

Granted I got a late start, but not a good harvest. The carrots are still pencil sized, tomato production was lame and flavorless (probably too much water). So do you pull the determinant tomatoes and start over in Aug? The two season thing is new to me. The infestations seem to be non-stop too. Army cutworms, then tomato hornworms, then spider mites, then leaf miners, then gulf fruitilary cats. Did I mention the coons that ate what few tomatoes I had? The one thing that seems to be fairly immune is the asparagus and peppers (even the peppers were attacked). Luckily the coons gave up on vegetables after a stalk or two.

Thanks Elizablue. I got the palms from Beyond Paradise. They have a location in Cypress and one in Katy. They all are doing great and the triple Pygmy survived the cold winter which we feared it may not (I was in San Antonio when we got freezing rain that wasn't predicted so I didn't get to wrap it in a planket). The service and advice there was great too. Hope you find something you like.