I'll start from the bottom. I use metal tags that I emboss with a ball point pen. They are about #3 for a box of 50 and come with a wire to attached it to the pot, basket or stem. I always keep a record of where the plant was collected in nature, the scientific name, any data that may be important to causing the plant to reproduce and who gave me the specimen. There are three to four accepted forms of Latin and that is always a problem for collectors. If you are using Church Latin the pronunciations will be different than he other forms. Different sciences also prefer different Latin forms although medicine and botany are closely related. There is a basic set of recommended rules for common Latin and I will soon be posting an article on my website that includes those rules. I recently completed an article for the International Aroid Society journal Aroideana that will include a bit of this information along with many definitions for scientific terms that may be useful to growers. Some Syngonium species are certainly called Arrowhead vine but once it begins to morph into the next stage it looses that appearance and becomes multi-lobed. I have it climbing a tall post in my atrium and it looks nothing like the juvenile stage. That is known as ontogeny (the natural growth of any living organism. Just like a child changes from a baby into a 2 year old and continues to progressively change as he/she becomes an adult and then on into old age the body changes. Plants do the same thing and the majority of plants we grow as "house plants" change quickly as they grow. We often don't see it because we don't allow them to climb. All aroids and many other plants constantly morph and change as they climb. I can show you many plants in my own collection that now look nothing like the juvenile form most of us grow. Additionally, there is the factor of natural variation which causes leaves to take on many different shapes, often on the same vine. Again, we don't often see it since we don't allow our plants to climb. I can think of at least 7 genera that use the common name "Elephant Ear". Philodendron (about 1000 species), Anthurium (another 1000 species), Monstera (35 species), Caladium ( I have no idea how many), Colocasia (I never counted), Alocasia (about 100 species), some Epipremnum, some Rhaphidophora, Xanthosoma and I'm sure there are more. Not every species is called an "Elephant ear" but there are far too many for one single common name. I get email all the time asking what some "Elephant ear" may be, often only with a vague description and not photo such as..."It has big leaves and is green". I'm not kidding! Scientific names are not difficult to learn but you do have to want to do it and I can easily understand why many collectors don't want to fool with it. Still, if you are serious about your plants it is worth the effort. Steve

and placed them outside in full sun. I have yet to see any type of physical changes, but will keep you updated. I gather, they may need a few days to acclimate to their new surroundings. While we have no idea how big these plants are now, placing inside grown transplants such as yours "outside in the full sun" without first gradually harding them off is a great way to kill them and kill them fast. No seedlings, regardless of age, should be exposed to direct sun immediately after transplanting. Learn about the requirement called hardening-off plants. Please, if it isn't already too late, remove them from the direct sun and place them in shade and protected from the wind. The normal routine for hardening off, which is discussed in great detail in this forum, is 1 hour the first day and increased exposure by an hour or two daily. Only then can they safely go into the direct sun. Dave

I just wanted to update this thread for my own reference next year. The Fall peas I planted are doing great! In the same spot I planted the Spring ones. Nice nodules on the Spring ones. They are flowering and 4 feet tall, growing no slower than in the Spring. The Fall beets had poor survival. It looks like I will get at least a few smaller beets, in the sunny spot I planted them. The lettuce planted in the shady bed stopped growing about 3 weeks ago. It is baby greens. I will try some MG to give them a boost. The carrots planted in the shady bed are growing well, but probably not well enough, I will be surprised if I get any decent roots. The brussels sprouts are looking pretty nice despite all the mistreatment and I hope for some sprouts in November. The direct sow cabbage and broccoli was a total fail. The seedlings just wouldn't grow in the summer heat. They are growing now but too late. And for the summer stuff... The beans are pretty much done. A little bit of poor quality dribs and drabs left. The earlier planted beans did much better than the summer planted ones. The Alexandria zucchini is still hanging in there, all other squash is long dead from PM and pests. The Ace and Biscayne are rocking. I LOVE my peppers! They did just as well in the late september cold as the summer heat and sun. The eggplant is doing well. The Hansel has lost quality pretty bad now, but the Galine is still doing great and is plenty of eggplant. The later planted ones are doing better, but they are also getting much more sun. And, the tomatoes. The smaller plants, the Jet Star and Sweet Tangerine, are about 75% toasted from septoria. The Golden Rave are still producing but also looking really bad, and unsplit Sungolds are difficult to come by. All of the fruit is poor quality and honestly I wish they would just hurry up and die at this point, so I can clean up the mess. I have harvested enough tomatoes for the winter for sure. This is going to be a hard year to top!

Wow, Cathy. That sounds like quite a tomato year. I thought I was doing great with over 25 on my Pineapaple plant. Your Big Rainbows look gorgeous. Thanks for the tip about drying them - I will definitely try that. I count 8 right now on my Big Rainbow. One is large, 4 are medium and 3 are small. Strangely enough, although growth started out slow with this plant, it's now my tallest. Here's what it looks like today. I guess the tomato got heavier, because now I see the top instead of the bottom. It seems like the Pineapples are smaller than the largest Big Rainbow. But they are plentiful. A bug obviously liked them too. (Anyone know what kind of bug that would be?)