Apparently cardoon has a bad reputation as an invasive non-native plant in this state. After I posted that picture, I remembered three of them growing on a vacant hillside lot near my house. Amazing thing is, by midsummer when every other weed on that hill is dried out and dead or dormant, the cardoons will still be going strong.

Thank you everybody for the replies! I dug out some other plants around my yard and so far no other signs of nematodes. I am guessing they were brought in with the fig. Can anyone tell me how far away from the infected soil to plant any other figs? We are in very heavy clay so the nematodes probably wont like it here :) Fignut: I am very interested in the LSU purple and a a few others that would be suitable for my south-central Texas climate. I am thinking the alma and texas everbearing or celeste? I plan to plant one in the ground and keep the rest in pots just in case the nematodes show up again. Thank you so much for the help! I will be contacting you shortly about the figs. Jill

Lynn, go to youtube.com and type drop spindle in the search box those gals are way better at it than I am - I'm just learning to do it ;0) but it's totally fun and since I don't have anybody close who can show me how it's done properly I'm kind of makin' it up as I go lol. Moni, I'm game and since I heard through the grapevine that you are moving to OKC, then you are on the expert knitter/teacher list and will be lots and lots closer to me (Yippee!!) A knitting camp sounds like a great idea. I hope your move goes smoothly and you find just the perfect place to live. Joan, I've been kind of pacing myself for a while lol, I've had little kidletts hanging around and playing with grandma and grandpa so it's been kind of hectic but I am trying to find my slot for sittin' and visitin' at the table ;0) - I don't know what I'll knit with it since it's kind of slubby in places and thin in others lol I'm going to have to think on it a bit. SheilaJoyce I hope you will post a picture of your thrummed bed socks when you get them made I would love to see those. I bought my roving & spindle from the White Rock Weaving Center in the middle of Dallas and I don't live close enough to her shop to have lessons but I'd love to learn to use a spinning wheel - I think lol. In any case your son is one lucky guy ;0) Trin, I don't have much of a green thumb but sometimes I get lucky lol. I got these hens from DH's aunt who lived in Oklahoma and she just grabbed some out of the ground and threw them in a plastic walmart bag for me lol. I brought them home and planted them in some really holey and rusty enamelware, the bottoms have huge rusted out holes. I bet I didn't even plant them at the right time of year but they are up under the roof of the house and face the south, I used regular old potting soil (not the expensive stuff either) from Home Depot and stuck them in, I was that shocked to see they had chicks lol. They are pretty easy to grow if I don't go out there and fuss with them. About the only thing I can tell you for sure about my hens and chicks they aren't planted deep so they have to spread out looking for their own piece of ground lol. They don't like a lot of water either which is a good thing because I'm not one to remember to go out there and give them a drink *hangs head in shame lol*.

Well, as no one seems to know what this is and there have been some pretty wild suggestions, I'll go out on a limb with a wild suggestion of my own and say that I get a bit of a clematis hunch when I see this. And before you say 'But that looks othing like clematis!' I mean a seedling of a wild species. Over here we have Clematis vitalba as our self seeding native clematis. And the seedlings can look a bit like this. So how about the N American equivalent C virginiana? Anyone like to comment?