hrhcsh.... Thanks for the quick pics...and thanks for giving me some details of your growing conditions. My tree and yours look just about the same. Big, light green leaves that sort of "cup" towards the top surface of the leaves, seem so similar. May I ask where you got your tree? There cannot be too many of these trees around. If it's the original "German Black Giant"/"Grosse Schwartze Feigue" ("Giant Black Fig")it came from Stuttgart, Germany, not too long ago. Some say it's a "Brown Turkey" variant, but some say it is distinctly different, and sweeter. Time will tell. I have a single stem tree that's about 4 ft. tall, and it is a very vigorous grower. It sprouted figs a the end of July...too late in my short-summer climate for them to ripen, so I pulled them off. I've read that as young fig trees put on some age, and settle in, they will start to push figs earlier in the season, and they will ripen earlier. So....there's some hope for me...but, in the future. Next year, I will re-pot my tree into a large, 18 gallon container, and let it do its thing. In the past, I neglected to do this as a routine, but now, I top dress all my trees 3 times/season with a handful of granular limestone. Figs hate acid soils and many fertilizers turn soils too acidic, and the trees and figs suffer. Now with the limestone dressings, my trees have improved greatly, the leaves look a lot healthier, and the quality, and the flavor of my figs has definitely improved. Good luck with the "GBG" fig. Next year you will probably see some big differences. Photos of this variety on the Figs4Fun Forum, show this to be quite a prolific bearer. Thanks again, for the information. Frank

Greg and Joan, I'm looking forward to more pics from you two! Golden Pagoda is intriguing. You don't see that one much, and I bet it gets very prominent points in the Houston heat. Joan, maybe you hire a little crew of teenagers every Spring Break to help you out with those 200 trees! Can't wait to see the blooms that are developing here, and you bet I'll post when I get a chance. Robert, that Lemon Drop is Thornton's and one of only a few big ones I have. It's certainly the "branchiest". That's what you can look forward to in a few more years! Bill, our little guy gets us invited back to a lot of places! We would all love to go back to CA soon. Will definitely let you know if we get a chance. K, glad the seeds are coming up for you; they're the perfect flowers for a Texas drought! Yes, that is TLD on the tree because my memory is just THAT bad, lol. Sometimes I abbreviate and then ask myself, "Now what the heck does that stand for again?" Dave, thanks for the compliments! I'm in Austin. We're 8b but I've seen at least one big plumeria tree kept in the ground all winter in my neighborhood. It can be done in a sheltered spot with frost cloth since our freezes are all short-lived. Mike, I found another possible oh-please-let-it-be inflo today, so I feel like I won the lottery! Hope you also have a great bloom year!

Here is what I found, "Unlike squash plants and other melon plants, cucumber and cantaloupe plants will not cross-pollinate." Leave one cucumber on the vine so it will make mature seeds. I don't know about the Japanese, but with regular cukes the seeds are not mature in the eating size. But don't worry about it I will just buy a pack of seeds.

Lozza just identified a white rose that was originally sold to me as a Seduction for a bed of them along a wall. Turns out that this white rose is an Iceberg. I've just commented on another forum that I can't see why anyone would spend good money on them. As you both say, soulless and very, very ordinary - no pong, no picking, no pleasure. However, it is healthy, good foliage and blooms but just doesn't have character. Like the sound of Mrs H.S, might hunt her out and have a looksee. Barb