Yeah...there's no lack of hype for this variety. If what you bought is truly Alphonso, I can't see how it gets top billing if the fiber is that bad...no matter how great it tastes. If I want fiber, I'll chew on some burlap. But speaking of mangos...I really want to find out which mango we ate at PIN last year that tasted like a hint of coconuts! Completely fiberless, creamy, bright orange flesh. I emailed PIN and Erik replied saying he thought it sounded like Pickering. I've never even heard of this variety and I'm pretty sure Gerry and I would have remembered such a unique name. Can anyone help out with this? If not...then someone needs to go to PIN mid-June and try all the different fresh mango fruit that they have for sale until they find it! Then...obtain me some budwood!! Simple.

Had the pleasure of a guest from this forum to my house today. Lycheeluva and I did an extensive walk thru the yard checking for new developments.....especially on the lychee front. It looks like the rest of the mangoes that have not bloomed, are almost all beginning to push their annual buds. Yes, even the miraculous Chou Anon is going to now bloom. There's no point in deliniating any further between the next to bloom. The late varieties such as Keitt, Neelum, Kent and even Valencia Pride haven't begun pushing bloom as of yet, but they will be shortly. I am also awaiting bloom on a couple of mango seedlings that I have never had fruit from. Mangoes survived the freeze very well here and we should have a very heavy crop (barring any more ridiculous Arctic oscillations). As trees set their crops I'll post pictures.

Like this thread & I can give you all some insight on this. My Grandfather who is no more had a mango bonsai and it was grown from seeds the year I was born. So, practically the bonsai today is 34 years old with a stem of 3.5-4 inch diameter. The tree is maintained and trimmed by my Dad now and it is approximately 3 feet tall. I can give you some tips on how to grow the bonsai from seed stage to full grown stage - After you consume a mango, wash the mango seed and try scraping off the remaining pulp and fiber on top of it. Once done, take a towel and vigorously rub all sides of the seed on it till it is dry and easy to hold. Then pick up a big pair of scissors or a Rose Cutter and try chipping the flat sides of the hard seed coating and make a side cut till the point that two fingers can go through to tear it apart. Do it very carefully without damaging the inner soft seed. Once you take it out, give it a wash to ensure it is clean. No need to tear the dark colored skin or anything - just use it as it is. Get a Paper tissue and spray water on top of it to wet it completely. Crumble the tissue paper and squeeze out the water till it just remains moist and not dripping wet. Keep the seed inside the tissue paper and then keep it in a zip-lock bag. Before you zip it tight, blow in some air with your mouth to ensure it is not in a vacuum environment. After that, you can place the packet on top of your refrigerator or television set-top box as both of these keep maintaining a warm temperature. Please note that a germination heating pad is also used and available for your purchase but I am a home gardener and won't like to spend money on buying something that expensive. 3) Don't touch the packet or open it for exactly 7 days even if you are curious. Once you complete 7 days, open it up and you will see a germinated seed with two parts to it - (i) Root: This is a strong tip coming straight out of the seed which is either completely white in color or white at the opening to brown at the tip of it. (ii) Shoot: This is the stem which would either be too small for you to notice or green/white in color but tender. You will be able to identify both quite easily. Now, when you separate the seed from the tissue paper, you might notice that there is a bit of mold formation or it has darkened. Don't get scared of it. Mango seedlings are quite strong by nature - so give it a tender wash under the tap and remove the molds with your thumb or finger. 5) Once the seed is clean (it won't be white clean - as it tends to turn darker in shade during the germination process due to the moisture), plant it with the roots inside the soil and the shoot in upward direction. You need to plant it in a medium sized pot (not a bonsai pot), and cover the top part with a transparent polythene and rubber band to create a green house effect. This helps to grow the shoot and root grow a bit quicker in a moist environment. 6) Let the plant grow over the next 6-7 months and you will see a fairly tall mango plant of 2-3 feet height. Don't think of the bonsai yet as your plant needs to be strong and healthy first with a lot of leaves to absorb as much sunlight as possible. You can even let it grow for an year first. 7) Buy a nice medium sized bonsai planter with good bonsai soil to ensure that water retention is less. The root system of bonsai requires it to be evenly moist and it is only possible when the soil doesn't retain too much water. 8) Take the mango plant out of the earlier planter and try to slowly remove as much soil possible from the root system. You need to do it very carefully so that you don't damage any of the primary roots. Tampering with the tertiary roots (finer ones) wont make a difference. Then try to trip some of the long roots and chop the tap root (main root going straight downwards and thickest at the center) half way to ensure that it doesn't grow vertically any more. You want the lateral roots to take good shape and thicken instead. 9) After that, you should place the plant in the bonsai planter with bonsai soil and cover the roots with more soil. Place a few small stones to hold the plant upright. Now, you need to work on the upper part of the mango plant. Chop off the straight up stem till it is 3 feet tall. Trim the branches from wherever it has grown abnormally. Try to chop of stems which you feel are not making it look neat as shaping the bonsai is what will define the future look. 10) After every six months, you need to continue to keep trimming the plant and gradually you will notice that the trunk will keep thickening as you are not allowing lateral growth. 11) It takes a minimum of 5-6 years for the size of the leaves to gradually shrink in size and it producing more mangoes of smaller size even in ripe stage. In the beginning from 3-7 years, whenever you will have mangoes, it would be bigger in size and less in quantity as it takes time to adapt to the plant-to-tree journey. I just wanted to share this with you as I thought that you must know that growing a bonsai mango requires a lot of patience unlike many other fruit bonsais. I have started to make my own from the seed. All the best!

Karen, love, love, love the black and white decor on the mantel. I would hope the birds fly, far, far, far away and forget to come back. They are scarrry and evil looking. I must be use to my Witch collection because I will take them any day over real looking evil birds. Maybe this is why silhouettes are so appealing to me.haha We have an owl mount at our cabin that looks evil too and scares all the little kids.(That's why that mount is there instead of in our home) Punk