Nopeeking, I haven't grown it here, but I grew it in Texas about 80 miles south of where I now live in southern OK. I grew it about 20 years ago in a very hot, dry summer and it was only okay as far as performance goes. I thought it would thrive in the heat, but it didn't, although it did well until we got really hot. Probably it would have been happier in a wetter year, or with more irrigation than I gave it, or in better soil (I had black gumbo clay). The flowers were really pretty but their color seemed to wash out in strong sunlight and heat. That's not unusual in extreme heat though. I'm surprised you had to go to E-bay to find seeds. I still see it on some seed racks here, especially early in spring. I love vines and have them everywhere, but aggressive perennial vines do require aggressive maintenance to keep them under control. In the 4 fenced veggie garden plots I grow mostly annual vines (and a handful of perennial ones) on all my 8' tall anti-deer fences, . The annual vines get tall pretty quickly and serve as both a windbreak and a shade screen for plants inside the garden by the time the summer heat really cranks up in late June or early July. In our heat, and with our southernly summer winds, the vines are a big help. Lisa, If there is anything worse than bind weed, I cannot imagine it. I was pulling up lots of little bindweed seedlings yesterday on the north end of my garden. I like morning glories, but they can be invasive as well. I have a new favorite one---Chocolate Rose Silk. It has variegated foliage, so that when it reseeds, I can tell its seedlings from the common morning glories whose seeds infest my soil. If I pull out all the non-variegated seedlings growing at the base of that part of the fence, I end up with only the chocolate silk ones. I still find Heavenly Blue morning glories growing en masse on a garden fence completely enchanting. They stop traffic and draw more comments than anything else I've ever grown except perhaps purple hyacinth bean vine. I do hate having to yank out 400 million morning glory seedlings every year. I hope you have success with canary creeper here and let us know how it does here for you. Dawn

Canary Island is one of the few roses that is still here after the chilli thrips invasion a few years back. It's growing in a seven gallon pot sunk into the limestone rock. Almost in complete shade now it never has even a hint of black spot or mildew, and is hardly ever watered or fertilized. I don't understand how it 'makes it', and yet it blooms the wonderfully fragrant, double, dark lavender flowers faithfully every spring. Even a once a year bloomer deserves a better place in the garden. Hmmm, time to think about moving such a faithful, healthy rose. Here it is this morning ... It's thought to be a Gallica/China cross which is why it does well in the south. I cut it to the ground every spring. It blooms on new wood.

We did go with the canary oak, we have two pallets sitting our garage right now. We're taking down a wall next week so it won't be in until after that but I can follow-up with photos later. I did lay out a half dozen planks when we got it delivered and I'm happy with it. It's worth mentioning that I ordered from riverwoodsflooring.com and got a price $2/sq ft less than I could get from any local dealer. No problems on shipping.

It was growing in a pot and there were many (50 or more) leaf spirals like the one I photographed, all growing together like a shrub. They didn't seem to be parasitic on any other plants but I could be wrong. I cut one off but I'm not sure if it will grow on it's own.