Hello to everyone looking for why their moonflowers don't scent the yard with intoxicating perfume like other people describe... My moonflowers have finally bloomed in Zone 9b (seeds started March 20, 2023 - first bloom September 12, 2023) and I cannot really smell any of them. I can smell a faint plastic smell like lafleuriste described 14 years ago but was anticipating heady garden filling perfume! Other flowers smell strong to me - certain roses, osmanthus in bloom, olive blossoms, plum blossoms, bearded irises, freesias and daffodils, jasmine etc. I love passing by an unseen garden and getting walloped by a big cloud of flower perfume. Alas it seems that this might be like cilantro - some people experience one thing and others will have a completely different experience!

I have had problems with cheese that I have shredded myself going moldy. I don't like pre-shredded cheese because of whatever they toss in there with it. I read somewhere that if you never touch the cheese with your bare hands, and use disposable latex gloves when you shred it, it will take longer to go moldy. I tried it and it seems to work. Walmart sells a two pound brick of sharp cheddar cheese from Vermont that we really like. I usually shred it and divide it amongst several ziplock sandwich bags. I keep one in the refrigerator and the rest in my freezer. It doesn't take long for shredded cheese to thaw.

Try the parsnip, Pastinaca sativa, or one of its close kin. FataMorgana

I've heard of people growing star fruit in micro-climates around the Tampa area. I would think that you'd have no problems with Tropic Beauty and UFO peaches there, as they seem to bloom with very few chill hours. Any pomegranate that can handle humidity well. Loquats are another one, and a few mail order nurseries down south Florida do sell grafted cultivars. You could also look into figs, red and yellow strawberry guavas, olives, carob, avocados, and passiflora. I grow about three different varieties of passiflora here, mostly non-edible ones, but since you're nearly a full zone warmer than me, you could grow even more varieties than I do. Some of the subtropicals to consider are: green and white sapote, lychee, longans, Jaboticaba. There is a somewhat cold hardy variety of jackfruit called Black Gold that you may be able to grow too. Some people here have said that their trees have handled 28 degrees or below with no damage at all, but you can always keep them pruned at about 8-12' and cover them if it gets any cooler. I am definitely not an expert in subtropicals. So, do your research before going out and buying anything based on what I've said. Looking up a USDA zone, like from Dave's Garden, only tells you part of the story. There are 10 degree (in Fahrenheit) with every full USDA zone, or 5 in every half (A or B) zone. Just because a tree is listed as zone 9b, for example, which means it can get anywhere between 25 and 30 degrees in the winter or early spring, it doesn't mean that that specific tree will survive at 25 degrees. It just means it should be hardier than the next half zone. A mature tree of a specific type, for example, may only survive to 28 degrees. Also, information out there varies widely, which means there is a lot of misinformation. For example, some websites are stating that longan is more cold hardy than Lychee, which probably survive somewhere between 25 and 28 degrees, whereas other sites are stating that longan gets damaged at 40 degrees. Similarly, Biriba supposedly gets damaged at 55 degrees, according to one site, and 26 degrees on another. On yet another site, biriba is killed at 28 degrees and damaged at 32. Some on this forum have also had Atemoya survive at 25 degrees unprotected. Atemoya would be a good choice if you lived too far north to do sugar apples, custard apples, and biriba yet too far south to grow paw paws. I have no doubts that, with experimentation, certain cultivars of paw paws (asimina triloba) could be fruited in 9b or 10, but to create something commercially available, people have to push the southern limits of known cultivars and possibly bring in new planting materials from various parts of the US, like Eric Duckworth did when he brought in seedlings from Louisiana. After finding suitable candidates for breeding stock, they would then have to be bred by the thousands, to select the best cultivars, for vigor, fruit size, productivity, flavor, higher flesh to seed ratios, and of course, to minimize the bad aftertaste that many people complain about. Since the UF or any other larger organizations are not doing any experiments, to create paw paw cultivars that would do well in central Florida, or between zones 9b and 10a, it's all up to hobbyists, to push those growing limits. Hopefully, with some successes, those hobbyists would be willing to share their seeds and scion wood, to further advance the cause. How long it takes, I do not know. I've seen paw paws from certain areas actually go into bloom by 3-4 years of age, and I've seen some only bloom at upwards of 15 years. If every paw paw seedling produced viable seeds within 5 years, we probably would see major progress within the next 10 to 15 years. One of the breeders that is pushing the northern limits of the paw paw range actually mentioned that his seedlings take about 11 years to mature. So, there are too many variables to even attempt to predict these things. I can almost guarantee that there will be new, commercial cultivars in your zone, ones that are grown and bred in Florida, but just don't know when. Probably more than you wanted to know, but it's interesting stuff.