Explosive Ember is one of a series of "Explosive" peppers introduced in 2000 by Novartis seed. Explosive Blast and Explosive Ignite are the other two. A quick search showed Vesey's seed carried it also at $4.95 for 20 seeds, Park's at 2.95 for 10 seeds. I'm growing Numex Twilight and Pretty in Purple seeds that I got from Johnny's at about a third that price. They're also very nice ornamental hot peppers.

Too right you are; there should be an option for "somewhat important"! I thought about using a 5 point Likert scale, (which has somewhat important and somewhat unimportant) and then opted (stupidly) to keep things more simple. Personally my opinion tends to be that I very very much desire the correct identification of my plants. I care about it because I care about being accurate. I also find plant identification very interesting, as it is a good way to learn more about plants, their anatomy and vocabulary, and to notice subtle interesting things I might otherwise have overlooked. That said, I like my plants for themselves, not because I desire a comprehensive collection of every species. So, if I discovered I was wrong about an identification, it wouldn't affect my fondness of the plant or my perception of whoever sent it my way. (He who has never misidentified a plant cast the first stone, right?) I think there are exceptions to this rule, of course, and they come about when several Hoyas have similar foliage but vastly different flowers, and one purchased the plant specifically for the flower. However, even in such cases, such a discovery inevitably lead to new knowledge and understanding of a plant's tells and that's pretty cool too. Luckily, in most cases, I purchase Hoyas for their foliage, so that cuts down on the possibility of too many surprises. That makes it feel more like a fun game of detective, versus the dread that my heirloom necklace might be costume jewelry. I think you're right, PG, and it's unfortunate when names create bad blood. I certainly don't want this conversation to veer into that dark territory. I feel like collecting plants, particularly plants like Hoyas, where there are a lot more unknowns than knowns, is a venture with a lot of built in risk. If you want to play the game, you have to be prepared to lose sometimes. You don't have to like it, but your life will be better if you can make your peace with it. It's a bit like love, right? You have to risk getting your heart broken to have a shot at winning the big soulmate prize. You can't always see what you're getting into and usually the other players can't completely predict what they are going to be handing you either. I guess my point is: that's life. Although we'd like to be able to rely upon other traders and vendors to give it to us straight AND know what they are talking about, neither one of those assumptions is a given. Thus, we need to arm ourselves with realism, self-education, and a heaping dose of stay-positive. That's the great thing about these forums is you get [1] a network of people you can trust not to intentionally screw you and [2] a vehicle for educating each other. Because, really, the more you know, the less likely you are to be surprised when your Hoya publicalyx 'Seymour Butz' turns out to be ...'Pink Silver.'

I have no idea where to plant that rose where it'll look even half as good as it does against that elm tree. Sometime over the next few years, the elm tree is going away. It's growing right in the midde of a pathway we've already partially installed. Plus, it's way too close to the foundation of the house. We plan to put in a shade garden next to the house on that side, but that isn't on the schedule for another year or two. So, that part looks kinda funky, right now. The cedar tree next to the chairs is also going away sometime over the next few years. Hopefully, we'll replace it with a pergola(sp).

Thanks, but I don't think it's a "carpet." It is climbing over my eight-foot fence into the neighbors yard. It's got a lot of thorns, the leaves aren't really dark, just normal green. It has many, many flowers that repeat. It has a subtle fragrance, nothing to write home about.