Those are pics of 'Vigna Caracalla' Izhar! They never seed for me - so I have to dig the both of them up & take them inside for the winter! But they're worth the time & effort! :) Thank you Elizabeth! And I know your yard is just as beautiful! ;) If you're talking about the red flowering plant Karen, that's the long sought after 'Pagoda Flower' that I looked everywhere to obtain! Yep, finally found one person who shared cuttings with me last fall. Of the three cuttings - one made it! I've enjoyed this plant as much as the hummers & butterflies! lol! Thank you Ruth Ann! That 'short time' feels like a very long time! lol! Always something to do around here! But I love doing it! I'd have to check the tag tomorrow for you Karyn! It came to me from the same lady I got the 'Pagoda Flower' cuttings from. She said it was the 'Giant Potato Vine!' lol! But the name is on the tag - I'll check for you tomorrow! Thank you Eloise! 'Tarzan?' lol! Thanks Marcie & Caren! I hope you all have a great week! It's going to be busy around here! Brugs & 'stuff' are just about done & ready to be moved inside if there's the slightest hint of a cold snap or frost! lol! Did we really have a Summer?? Hard to believe it's almost over! Mike

Thanks for the informative post mountainman. I knew that some open eye figs needed to be pollinated and other do not. I did not know that pollinating them could cause the pulp to change color. As for the poetry, I have written lots of poetry some better and some worse than the one above. Though I have never written a poem about figs before today. I just wanted express my love for figs and my unknown Keepers. I would not trade them for any other named fig. For now they are but a sweet mystery to be savored again and again. Till the Fall season over takes them and they sleep as though dead till Spring returns them to me once again. Enough now of poetry as this is not a poetry forum.lol

I swear I saw a picture from you Stephen with snow on your conifers. Wasn't it last year? If not, do you *never* get snow accumulations? I always figured your weather nearly mirrored that of the Pacific Northwest, in general, and thus would occasionally get snow storms dropping 20-30 cm's of snow. I have three 'Teddy' specimens, and the two oldest are certainly trying to 'open up' from heavy rains and probably last years monster snow storm. The two largest are in pots and I have been thinking about planting them in the ground - perhaps surrounded by heather - with hopes they would stay tighter in their older age. -Will

Wetsuitor: The only ones I dug up this year were 4 washies and a sago palm, each of which would take considerable protection here including heat. I will be leaving those in when they get 2 big to handle, but the washies seem to take root distubance very well and overwinter well indoors. There is of course some set back and it is slow to get growing in the spring, however I'm not ready to get into an elaborate heating system yet. I'm trying to work out my kinks this year on a trachy. Plus my wife would kill me if I had Jim's setup! I live in maybe the coldest winter 6a in America. This will be my 3rd winter here, the lowest low each of the past 2 years is -2, and -8F, HOWEVER, it is the norm to go 3 weeks at a time never getting above freezing. Last December and January, we had 9 days that got above freezing during the day, and most of those were in the 33-38F range for highs. We also had 2 3-weeks seesions of consecutive below freezing weather. The other problem is that I generally don't see grass from Dec.1 to mid-March, it never gets warm enough to ever melt the snow. Last year I lost 2 decent sized trachies and a sabal palmetto, and my minors and needle that survived received considerable damage, the minors burned 98%, the only things left were the emerging spears. Needle had spear pull with surving pups. That was with frost cloth wrapped unheated leaf cages, which provided 0-30% damage and no losses the year before.