I haven't posted a whole lot here in the past few years. Mainly because I just don't post that much anymore, period. I only have 5 palms left now, including a 5 & 1/2 foot windmill, which I have had for about 5 years. I also moved to a zone 6B/7A in the mountains of far Western Loudoun County, VA. This winter has been harsh. 63.5" of snow on the year here, and many nights at zero F or below, and many days with highs of 5-12 above. The lowest we saw this winter was -9F with 10 nights below zero period, and many many more at 0-5 above. Today even, 3/26/14, after 3 more inches of snow yesterday, our high has been 27F. It should be about 55 by now! Suffice it to say even in its protected location on the south side of the house up against it in full sun, my windmill is FRIED, completely. However, the spear is still as snug as ever. If it has made it through this winter, it will be making a trip to Smithfield, VA to my partners mothers house and being planted there in her front yard. I suppose the next couple months will tell if it has in deed weathered what has been the harshest winter in 20+ years here.

Okievegan, lol Who else would know where Moni's house is, if not you? (grinning here) I see she has generously offered to share her black ornamental pepper plants with you. Mine grow in full sun the whole day so I am sure the ones she has to share should do just fine in 9 hours of full sun. Well, unless it hits 120 degrees every day in July and August. If that happens, I take back what I said about them being fine in 9 hours of full sun daily. They'd wilt like mad in temps like that, but you could shade them with shadecloth. I shaded mine with shadecloth last year when the temperatures were routinely going up to about 105-110 degrees, and sometimes higher than that. Dawn

I think there's some confusion here... If a washer has dumbed-down temps, a heater won't make those temperatures any higher. What a heater may do, is offer the option of a sanitary or extra-hot temperature, great for cleaning but not safe for all items. And it may help by heating the water if the machine wants to do a hot wash, but fills with cool water because of a long hot water lag (long pipe run between domestic water heater and washing machine). Another thing: In most cases, dumbed-down temperatures are not forced on the manufacturers. They choose them in order to qualify for direct-to-manufacturer tax credits, as much as $250/unit. You could say that the manufacturers are selling out their customers to get the tax credits. The exception is traditional deep-fill agitator top-loaders. They use so much water that they may actually bump up against the mandatory Federal regulations. Even there, it's interesting to realize that, prior to 2011, there were no mandatory restrictions on water usage. There were energy restrictions, which may have mandated cooler wash temperatures on deep-fill machines (because all that water takes a lot of energy to heat). But there were no restrictions on unheated water, therefore no limits on how much rinse water could be used.

Just like last year my NZL is putting out a ton of flowers while some leaves drop and grown pre-ripe fruit drops to feed flower that turn to fruits that were then sacrificed to produce more flowers. Was growing daily and stopped when tree started flowering then dropped as new fruits started. Flavorless. The new set of fruit-lets will grow and the tree will flower again and drop the growing fruits to feed the flowers. My tree is under good light. I am questioning whether the US897 rootstock is worth using. Steve