oops, never noticed that the pic for the cosmos psyche didn't go through correctly. sorry about that but here is the cosmos psyche Northerner, I surprised that your double click are only about 18 inches tall. It's supposed to grow to 4 feet. I had some last year and they did get that tall. I wasn't impressed with them so traded the seeds from that last fall and didn't grow them this year. Finally figured out what the orange and yellow cosmos is. It's cosmos diablo and I forgot that I had WS those seeds this year. Just have no idea what the orange ones are and the red one. I didnt' have those last year and only sowed seeds that I saved of gazebo lavender sonata fushia psyche white candystripe picotee diablo gloria sonata lavender daydream seashells white seashells pink pied piper versailles red sonata white so where it came from, the red is beyond me. I have no idea what that little white and purple petunia is either. I only know that the seeds came from a very dark purple petunia and or a very pale pink petunia that my neighbor purchased just before a local nursery closed for the month of August. She couldn't say no to the price and she planted them all in one pot. So the seeds where a mix. I have a string around the flower so that I can save seeds from it and not mix them up with the other seeds. Highaltransplanter, my plants are huge, but the toms are still small. Last year some of my cherokee purple did crack on the top but they still tasted wonderful, wouldn't be without them. The extremes in weather temps and water can cause toms to crack, but to me that is part of growing your won tomatoes in the garden and enjoying them. Tiny tim has a sweet but a bit tart flavor to it, and I didn't find the toms that small when ripe, about the size of a sweet 100. My 25 year old daughter likes them better than the sweet 100. I never heard of the mini bush yellow cherry and couldn't find much about it when i did a search. sounds interesting though and one I would like to try as well. I should have plenty of saved seeds from the tiny tim and my other toms for trades in the fall. Angie, thanks for the complement, not sure I would say I am an awesome gardener though. Some of my plants are about as sick looking as you can get and not sure why. Some has to do with the craziest weather I have seen in my life. At the moment the news and weather people are telling me that more rain has fallen in the month of July where I live than has fallen since the 1920's. Gee, didn't need to make me feel worse about the weather and all the rain than I already do. And the severe thunderstorms that have moved through on almost a daily basis for almost 2 weeks has been unreal. But that's the life of a gardener. Some years are better than others and it's either feast or famine when it comes to good weather. A pic of one of the storms that went through about 2 weeks ago, taken from the back door. No, I don't live in the tropics or a tropical rain forest. I live in a suburb northwest of Boston MA.

OTG- thank you for your input- I already told the DR that I won't have cortisone shots- but I'm looking into Prolotherapy or sclerotherapy. It is an inflammatory therapy which involves the injection of a known irritant, usually glucose or sodium morrhuate, into a ligament, tendon or joint. This will cause irritation of that joint for the purpose of improving the tensile strength of ligaments. Inflammation is produced in order to stimulate the formation of fibrous connective tissue which will bring about healing of that ligament or deficient structure. Prolotherapy was originally evolved by Dr. George Hackett, M.D., in Kenton, Ohio, back in the 1940s and 50s, although you can trace its origins back to the ancient Greeks. You will find references to it in medical literature under various names including sclerotherapy, prolotherapy, or proliferant therapy. More recently, it has been called non-surgical joint reconstruction, coined by Dr. William Faber, D.O., from the Milwaukee Pain Clinic, Milwaukee, Ohio. These terms are used interchangeably. It has been around for a long time and have tested it, and know the results are reliable. I explained this treatment to my Dr who has never heard of it before!

Hey Guys, Howdy Mike! I've been dealing with health issues the last couple months.. really bad. But I've also been a stay-at-home dad for the last two years (what a change, but I love every minute of it). So those two have been difficult for me to keep up with forums, except when my pain is severe and I'm up all night. My trees even suffered as I lost quite a few blueberries and a couple apples during the past two months. All my citrus have survived, many are doing excellent. But as I said in another thread my attempt at "acclimating" the container citrus to full sun, on the southern side of my house where it gets 130F, getting all day sunlight with extremely bright light, has not been successful -- but not a complete failure. All the container roots were protected by various means (otherwise they were definitely toast). Those under shade cloth still had growth spurts, just not as strong. All the mature in-ground trees on that side thrive just fine -- notwithstanding leaf and fruit burn around the canopy edges of course. Recently planted in-ground struggled and needed shade cloth as well as lots of mulch. The big test: my largest 18g container trees NOT under shade cloth (tho container itself shaded) in such extreme heat and light were clearly stressed. They were in a cyclical growth/death pattern: the excessive light was stimulating growth like CRAZY, everywhere. But the heat was clearly burning off so many leaves and branches, combined with visible branch die back, it became very difficult to nail down nutrients and even watering. The Dynamite 9 month CRF were used up fast -- tons of empty spherical capsules all over the surface after 3.5 months (June-Aug). Sigh.... I think you're right, it's impossible to do TRUE FULL sun (incl. all afternoon) in our hot dry summers for ANY container plant without shade cloth completely protecting foliage when it's 100+. That's in addition to my normal root protection (cache pot or full shade on container itself). My specific conditions on the south side exacerbate the problem. Humidity and shade should improve once more of my in-ground citrus and nectarines establish. You should see my "container media degradation" test case citrus tree. It's a Valencia I've had for 4 years in a half-barrel, hanging on to life in the original horrid media mix of MG soil + compost and fine sand. Every spring it flushes, but then loses leaves in the heat and drops it's fruit. It took a serious beating on the south side when not under shade cloth. It's all spindly now, very little interior foliage, and die-back everywhere. It's time to put it in the gritty mix and see how it grows. Supposedly we've had our last 100s now for the summer. This is the 2nd best time to plant trees in the ground or re-pot, but only if I do it quickly and pray winter doesn't come too quick. I'll try get some pics up soon... including my failures.

amazing how you have kept yours soo nice over the years! i have seen them grow! that date sooo fast! i was going to ask you about the cut leaf philodendron burning down and coming back again because i did this a few times with mine and they came back... U have to protect that canary island and the cuban what are your methods? i think that is sooo cool what you have growing in an 8a? quick 8a winters or something you have very nice palms. The dates love that mild winter weather as you know. nice how you keep yours so nice and all around as you said they burn and some die. looking fordward to more pics! - Justin