Your sunroom and climate sound perfect for growing Catts. What a glorious sight when your orchids bloom and fill the room with their perfume. I'm jealous because you will have an easier time growing them than I do. If you can find a local society you will have the opportunity to buy or trade plants. You will get divisions of plants growers are giving away and will be closer to blooming size than a seedling. Generally bloom size depends on the number of bulbs the plant has. More pseudobulbs, quicker blooms. I've had Catts bloom on their third growth but some didn't bloom with six. You must realize that most Catts make one growth per season. If something went wrong during that year, that bulb won't flower. Now you have lost a year and hope the next growth will flower. Very slow, very frustrating. One difference between growing dirt plants and orchids - orchid growing requires great patience! I don't have your conditions. With good sunlight and warm temps you can choose Cattleyas which tend to throw multiple leads, or growths. Those will bloom earlier. If you can join a society (or just visit) look at what people bring in and ask questions...how easy to flower, how often does the plant flower, etc. Most societies have auctions and you can get great plants at low prices. They invite growers from all over who display their orchids. I rarely buy plants anymore. I wait for the auctions because I can get unusual plants at great prices. Most are already blooming. You are not looking for challenges. You want flowers. You want orchids which can manage mistakes without croaking. You have great conditions to be successful and I if you can meet with people in your area you will find Cattleyas which will do well in your home. Jane

I have been growing and grafting fruit trees since I was in my early teens and workin after school and in the summers at Green Brothers Nurseries.Know many of the folks around the south such as Lee Calhoun and Jim Lawson who are experts in the field. Have met with the USDA Fruit and Nut tree folks down in Byron, traveled to Long Ashton in England to see the research center there, and regularly obtained scion wood from Cornell. Even this year grafted many a fine pears onto flowering pear seedlings that were plentiful around the yard. Used to be a NAFEX member. Would love to start some figs, but with my various health issues, cannot really justify a new ten year venture. Most of my work is now tending to my large mixed fruit orchard and developing the life in the soil of my garden as I slowly convert to raised beds. What started the tomato exploration was my interest in growing two each of the best 100 to see what will thrive, produce, and deliver plenty of quality tomatoes. After growing them, I will have good idea of what does best in GA. Towards this end, I have included Creole, Goose Creek and Tropic.Before beginning I took recommendations for seed from around the U.S. and the world back in January from the "experts" in the field. These I began in my Florida room and have been tending and repotting ever since. With my own theory of developing life in the soil, evene my seedlings were started with the best organic seed starting soil to which I added soil micro-organism to enhance root production and disease resistance early own. This assures that a very broad range of organisms go into the soil along with the plants. Meanwhile, I have been consistently adding large amounts of humus, home produced manure compost, and far more to the soil. Now, I would just love to have these 100 varieties get out into the region to educate and provide new taste experiences..as well as a broadly available base of Georgia seed stocks as most who visit are fascinated with saving their own. Each visit takes an hour or two as we just talk tomatoes to match their interests and uses. We should be developing a base of info as to who has what seed. I now have a rather huge collection, but will be growing far fewer next year. Thats why I only planted two of each variety...to add their new seed to my selection, though I will only grow 20 next year. My seed comes from growers across the U.S. and Canada, Russia, Mexico, Europe and the Slavic nations. With many later arrivals, I still have many flats yet to be potted of varieties that will be perfect for later planting as well as the original 100 varieties. Most HAVE to have Green Zebra, SunGold, and the Cherokee strains as those are what they seem to have seen and experienced the most, but there are over 5000 varieties and I was seeking those recomeended by the experts as the best in FLAVOR and had to stop somewhere. Few have any concept of how much work is involved inacquring the rare seeds, much less the starting of seed, mutilple transplants, and moving them in and out for proper hardening, display, daily watering and protection from sun and storms...and I still have at least five hundred new seedlings to pot. Expensive, quality potting soil with large cups to provide adequate root mass adds up quickly.

Ok I am going to post on this one now that I have some keyboard time. First is I am not a master gardener, or expert. I am no guru either. I am 37 year old guy that grew up with family that gardened. I was hoeing fields when I was big enough to hold the hoe, and know the difference between, and crop, and a weed. My grandpa was the best I have ever seen. The mention of his name to the older master gardeners at the plant sale this year brought smiles to their faces. I am going to start with the where first. Black Land Prairie region of Central Texas. USDA zone 8. Heat zone 10 (The devil tends to leave by early July to go home, and cool off.) Weather here is bi polar in the non summer months. It can be extremely nice, or extremely horrid. Sometimes in a stretch of less than an hour apart. High humidity is a constant here. 40% is considered dry. Gulf stream moisture is a mainstay. It gives us those nice days in the colder months, and is only trumped when a northern front blows in. Those tend to last only a few days most times. Summer months from late June, until mid to late September highs below 95 are rare. Most of the time they are in the triple digits with heat index values of well over 108. First frost can happen anytime from early October until November. Soil is black clay, with heavy lime stone deposits. Every time one tills, digs, or plows there will be limestone rocks that surface. In summer it bakes hard, and cracks. Digging into it is like trying to dig into cement. When it gets wet it makes sticky mud. When moist it is like play dough. Ok now that the general conditions have been mentioned. The what I do make things as plant friendly as I can. Soil prep: I do raised beds. I have 2 of them. One is 6 foot by 12 foot. It is six inches tall. It is framed with 2"x6" standard untreated pine lumber. It was the most cost effective seeing as how the wood was free from leftover wood from a contractor friend of mine. To start I watered the heck out of the area before removing the sod. (Remember the part I said about baked black cement.) I saturated the area for two heavy watering cycles in two days. I waited one day after. The sod came out without so much effort after that. I then dug out a foot deep of soil. I got rid of about 80% of the clay. I then filled the bed with bagged manure, humus, coarse sand, bagged top soil, and bagged garden soil. I did not till it then. I had no access to a tiller at the time. This year I tilled deep to two feet deep, and further amended the soil to a nicer tilth than last year. The draining is more even this year. That was last year. Due to multiple hail storms in a few weeks the tomatoes I planted did poorly for production. The heat wave hit before plants were mature after the third replant. I did get a good green tomato fry after the first frost hit though. It was a first year thing, and I did not have high hopes at the start anyway. I was aware it would be a tough year anyhow. I built a 4'x4' by 20' high bed in October for my birthday. For that one I dug close to 2 feet below. I placed a layer of river rocks, and coarse sand as a barrier to the clay below. I filled the bed with bagged soil mix. I added lots of compost, and pine bark fines. I planted three times this year. Once a month before LFD using covers. It worked till the ground froze. I replanted two weeks later. Same thing. Final plant out was two days before LFD. I still had to cover for freezes 5 times in a 5 week span. The main thing for this area is being just plain stubborn. If you can give a stalwart jack ass a few lessons in being stubborn you are ready to grow tomatoes here. Other than that I use a mix of stakes, and cages. I have a few I am letting just sprawl for the heck of it. I have tomatoes coming out the who-who right now. I also have a lot in containers of various sizes ranging from 3 gallon. Up to a 6 foot long, 3 foot wide, 18 inch tall pine box container. My lessons learned so far this year: 1 No matter what have multiple back ups. 2 Have planters ready 3 My wife eats all cherry tomatoes before they make to the house. So more of those will need to planted next year. 4. I will be using fungicide from the get go. I am having some blight issues now, though I have more tomatoes than we can eat on the vine, and we have given two literal bushels away so far. I have on my first harvest gotten more this year than I got all of last year combined. 5. Have lots of fun. Wear a hat, and sunscreen. 6, Cats do not like to dig to poop though thick cypress mulch.

In the East and South, dogs are now the chief predator of native deer. Whether animal weeds or plant weeds, invasive species are a number one cause of the extinction of native animal and plant species or biological diversity. "The extinction of biological diversity is a threat to civilization second only to global, thermonuclear war." THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. Why? Biological diversity or all native species, create, sustain, support and maintain Earth's ecosystems, are an ecosystem altogether with soil and water. Ecosystems are the physical body of Earth and all biological diversity is the living components of its ecosystem, much like the human body is one organism given life by all its living body parts. An ecosystem, functioning synergistically, altogether, is one, living organism/unit. Any agent that kills biological diversity, kills Earth's ecosystems, and any agent that kills ecosystems, kills Earth. Humankind is alive because of ecosystems and biological diversity. If it is a native animal or plant, it is a strand in the web of all life; a rivet in spaceship Earth; the bricks and mortar of man's house, Earth. Humans have life because of Earth's oxygen and fresh water factories, i.e., ecosystems. Past living species created Earth's atmosphere and maintain it today. Before the advent of plants/trees/ecosystems, there was no oxygen on Earth. What is the most deadly, Earth-killing invasive specie in history: The domestic cat. Most recorded extinctions occurred on Earth's islands, and the majority of these extinctions, 78% were caused when European explorers, fishermen and settlers introduced the domestic cat and European rat to these island ecosystems. The domestic cat caused over double the number of these extinctions. Only native plants and animals altogether with soil and water, are an ecosystem, the physical, living body of EArth and man's only home. There is a vast and deadly difference between native and introduced, unnatural, alien, transported plants and animals and biological diversity, man's life-support team and Earth's workforce. tessyt