I get Annie's catalog every year. Seems like everything is $5 bucks for any amount of seed, one seed or 10 seeds. You never get a lot of seeds, and everything in there looks surreal. Most of it only grows in zones 9-11, but there are a few in zone 6. Her stuff is expensive, and beautiful. It's her trip, I'm not judging, it just seems out of touch with reality. I can get thousands of seeds way cheaper. She just seems to find really hard to find plants and sell them at a high price. We grow hard to find plants and sell them at a cheap price. Not knocking it, she just has a better selection. Her prices are high bc of her overhead. We don't use expensive heaters and grow what we can by natural selection and for zone 6 and up. I just don't really want to pay the electric company to grow what Mother Nature can grow if you just pay some attention to it, so somebody's gotta pay for that electric bill, and the hoop houses. I still can't understand why they need to be so high when most people who shop are women and under 5'7". They don't need to be 20' high. Hot air rises, seems silly. Check out Elliot Coleman who grows in Vermont with no lights, no heat, and sells to high-end restaurants in the middle of winter. It's more impressive.

Hi, I live in Coastal Maine and I am new to this forum. I am also confused by the advice and websites that offer peonies. I assumed that many sites wouldn't ship peonies in spring because it was difficult to send the plants, but here many people are saying the won't bloom in the same year as planted in the spring. Is this just for bare root? I have always bought peonies at local nurseries in the spring and they have always bloomed the first year and come back the next year faithfully. The only time I had any problem with peonies, was when I got some from a local nursery that were dug in the fall. I planted them the same day I got them and in the same site as the rest of our peonies, and they didn't come back the next year or subsequent years. I too would love to find a place that will sell and ship peonies in the early spring.

Roper, I saw a setup for a cheap smoker (haven't tried it yet). You take an opened tin can (with the lid still attached)and punch a hole in the side near the bottom. Slide in a cheap soldering iron, cover with wood chips and close the lid to (to stop air getting in?). This goes in a big clay planter pot (with the cord for the iron coming through the bottom hole. A rack goes on the pot for your peppers and another clay pot upside down on top. Brien

All chile peppers get there flavor from a special blend of capsaicinoids particular to each type of chile, and each person experiences that mix just a little differently, when Josh says that orange habs have a trashy flavor, to him that blend of capsaicinoids is not pleasant, one mans earthy, is another mans trashy, ya know, another example u say that red savinas do not have any flavor just heat, it may be that u can not taste the flavor through the heat which is the case w/ a lot of people and chiles of all sorts, I on the other hand quite enjoy the taste of red savina, of course the carribean red is one of my favorites,because it has a very decent amount of heat, but it also has a wonderful fruity aroma and a taste that combines fruity, citrusy, and that unmistakable pepper flavor with a decent amount of heat and are fantastic, fresh,roasted, sauteed, grilled, smoked, turned into hot sauce, or salsa, I fact the only way I dont like carribean reds is in my eyes ;) but no matter what any of us say, if orange habs taste good to you grow 50 of them, the sky is the limit, as for me I am growing several of them myself, cuz even though I dont enjoy them as well as the reds fresh they still work fine in cooking and are delightful smoked in a hot sauce w/ garlic, cider vinegar and brown sugar!However, I am waiting for the 3 chocolate habs they were one of the few seeds that I,ve planted this year(and believe me that is quite a few) that had a 100% germination and survival rate, thats gotta be some kind of sign right;) oh and P.S. the green savina will probably work work the same way as the other green habs I use to make a delicious hot sauce, just dont try to cover the bitterness and acidity of the unripe pepper, embrace and accentuate it, make a sauce w/ kiwi or green cactus pear and lime juice and cilantro and garlic, really bring out the flavor of the green chile, good luck and good growing paul