pics at end of report.

have come back from a 6 day visit to florida. took the kids to isit their cousins so couldnt really do any fruit stuff- but did manage to get a 3 hour visit to harry's place. incredible garden and harry is the nicest guy. had a surinam cherry at his placed that blew me away. also had great cannistel and page orange. also had some gacinia and bell carambola. amazing time. thanks harry.

when i left for florida, one of my 3 fairchild terminal buds had clearly shown itself to be a bloom. harry predicted that the other two emerging buds would also be flower buds. he was right! on arrival home, i found 3 honking flower buds.

i also managed to squeeze in a 10 min visit to excalibur on my way to lion country safari (great park for kids) and as they had no unusual lychees, grabbed the smallest 3 gal mango i could find. a julie. wasnt in great condition but it was short and narrow which i needed it to be to get onto the plane, and had a couple of flower buds. i packed the tree into a fedex tube, which fit nicely and brought it onto the plane without a word said to me by any officials. so that worked out.

lychees blooms r opening nicely. my hak ip and sweetheart have began with females but my mauritius (which is blooming from every possible bud), has started with males. so that should work out nicely. moed the blooming lychee trees out of my garage to inside my house so i can spend the time needed to manually pollinate the blooms for a few mins a day for the next few weeks.

will call bill mee of lychees online to see what he recommends as the best method if pollination.

the julie tree i purchased

{{gwi:1304258}}

my fairchild mango flower bud progressing nicely

my 3 lychees in my kitchen- halfway house

{{gwi:1304260}}

my 3 lychees in front of my window (only gets 2 hours of afternoon sun but hopefully this will be enough for the next couple of weeks)

{{gwi:1304261}}