Mojove. The only fruit trees I grow indoors that fruit are citrus (lemon/lime/orange) and one Olive Tree, 'Olea' I also have 3 Vanilla Orchids, 1 Coffee, 1 variegated, 1 green Gingers, but so far, none produced. Too bad, huh? Citrus and Olive are really difficult, if one has a bright room that cools a little in the evening, humidifer, proper soil, fertilizer, daily misting, inspecting and love. Talking/singing to these guys doesn't hurt either..lol. Are you thinking about getting a fruit tree? I've never tried a cherry trees indoors. Fruit trees, grown inside are usually grown as bonsais, but I don't know the first thing about caring for a true bonsai. The few Bonsais I have are Ficus and succulents. True fruit trees, cherry, peach, pears need a cold period. And a lot of sun. Some probably need two trees, male and female, (to produce) but this is speculation. I have Kiwi outside; to get fruit you need a male and at the minimum, two females. Figures, MEN! lol j/k. sort of..lol Plantmedic..Welcome. I don't recall seeing you around House Plants before..You grow Pothos in direct sun or am I misreading your comment? Mocco...my email should show, but I think GW is having problems. I even tried editing, but it doesn't go through. My email addy is hopefulauthor@sbcglobal.net Actually, I think moving around would be interesting. The only problem I'd have is if I had an outdoor garden, and had to leave favorite perrenials behind. Or, if moving to a state like Fl, where I couldn't bring my citrus would be very difficult decision. Plus, hauling indoor plants around would be a LOT of work. Otherwise, moving to a new home, different area/state, would be nice. BTW, Congrats on your marriage. I'm terribly sorry about Katrina destroying your new home. That'd had to be a true horror! Besides that disaster, you've lived through some lovely places. Alabama is a beautiful state. We don't travel much, 'pets' but visited once. If it was up to me, I'd move there..Perfect climate, very nice people.. An Andy Griffith scene. :) Southern GA and AL are gorgeous. I'm green w/envy. lol. Here in IL, the last time we've seen real sun was Wed. As I type, we're having more snow-blizzardy weather, and temps are very very cold. No desire to even step out the door. Welcome again. BTW, I've never been up east, but every picture I've seen, everything heard, was pleasant. So, you're back in Al, is that correct? Brookfield is okay..as for transportation, you MUST have a car.. When we moved here, it was like moving to the country. I was used to honking horns, public transportation. You don't see taxi's here, and in order to ride on a bus, it's done on schedule..No buses at night. lol. I've been to Kankakee many times..Very pretty town..Kank has bird shows I enjoy going to, but haven't attended in a couple years. Ha, Chims are expensive everywhere. lol. Have you ever shopped at Violet Barn/Rob's Violets..there's a couple other AV nurseries I browse through and bought from..but it's been a while. Ted's addy is 16930 S 84th St. Tinley Pk. I can give you the phone number if you're interested. They're closed Sun, that is, until March..The original owner is still around..he loves talking plants, and quite proud of all he's accomplished. The greenhouses are wonderful. They always have something rare, and all their plants are healthy. Every last plant I bought at Ted's is doing well..We found Ted's in the late 80's, early 90's. Oh I just love it. Check out the website.... tedsgreenhouse.com The website doesn't discuss indoor plants, but believe me, that's the main reason I go there..lol..Although they have lovely annuals/perrenials in spring through fall. Which Arboretum do you mean? Lincoln Park? There's a few locations. I'd love to go to a Gesneriad show. Whoppee!! lol Have you ever been to this show? Toni

Well, since I just finished scraping the last two gourds, I thought I'd give you an update to my efforts. So out of the 70, 11 (6 big ones) dried. I'm happy with that - I certainly didn't want 70, LOL. These are still in the natural state (no paint/varnish etc) A few I brought inside from the greenhouse when it started to get consistently cold. I scraped the green off and stabbed the bottom with a sharp knife to allow some drainage (I read this will hasten the drying process). The scraped ones still molded some, but I kept them near the kitchen sink and washed them every other day. I left the rest in the greenhouse to freeze and just about 10 days ago went and brought the last two in the house. I had to let them thaw for a day - frozen solid they were. Although the green had begun to dry off, I still scraped them to clean them up. By the way, after the green was scraped off, those pitted marks just turn out to be dark spots on the hard shell. So, if they're mature enough to dry, they will, regardless of where they're kept. The biggest ones dried more than the small ones. If I were to do it again, I'd pinch off all the smaller gourds once the biggest ones set and are growing well. I don't know what I'll do with the small ones, but will be making birdhouses out of the larger ones.

I've read these forums off and on for several years now. It's amazing how many searches for gardening info bring up Garden Web forums! I bought my first house last fall and decided this week it was time to register and join in here. So many wonderfully talented and knowledgeable gardeners here! And, then, I find a forum specifically for Okies! One of the things I liked best about the house when I first looked at it was the backyard. There are just all kinds of plants. I have to wait to see what many of them are, although my neighbor next door has clued me in on some. The neighbors have a landscape pond in their backyard. One of the things I expected to miss about my last apartment (lived there for over 10 years) was the landscaping, complete with ponds, a stream and lots of wildlife including frogs and toads. I was thrilled to find out that the neighbors pond has frogs in it as I love listening to them. They were worried that the new owner (me) might object to having to hear frogs croak. I think we both got lucky! The backyard slopes severely and has some sort of evergreen planted all around it. Over the years many of lower branches have been trimmed off due to disease, according to the neighbor. Now they are very tall with foliage only at the top. Quite a few of them suffered a good deal during last winter's ice storm. There's still at least one sizeable branch that is broken and needs to be cut off. A couple in the back aren't broken but are badly bent over. I'm sort of hoping that the bent ones somehow magically recover as the birds and squirrels seem quite fond of them. I have already counted at least 15 different species of birds in my new backyard, and that doesn't include mockingbirds which I have seen in the front yard. I also saw a tiny mouse near the back fence a couple of weeks ago when I watering a spot that has some irises and a crepe myrtle. Last Monday evening I saw a baby rabbit in the neighbor's yard by my garage. Some of the plants (many of these I can't verify yet, just going by what the neighbor tells me) include crepe myrtle (3 in the back), a Rose of Sharon, irises, hardy hibiscus (looks like 4 of those), daylilies and some other lily the neighbor wasn't sure of the type, clematis out front, what appears to be a lilac someone tried to chop down that is coming back but is probably too close to the house for good air flow, and some boxwoods up next to the front of the house. The boxwoods look nice but stink so I am going to try to relocate them farther from the house in the front yard and create a flower bed with them as a back drop. To replace the stinky bushes up close to the house I have already acquired two blue hollies, four mini roses, a peony, azalea, hydrangea, blue lilac, and a romantica rose. I'm probably going overboard, but my gardening for the past 20 years has been limited to pots and whisky barrels on an apartment patio, and I'm just so excited to have a house with lots of room for gardens now! My biggest problem is that a large part of the backyard is heavily shaded due to the evergreens, and, especially around the perimeter, there isn't even much in the way of grass. Lots of weeds in the areas where there is grass. I'm looking forward to finding out all the creative gardening things I can do with my new house! I've probably rambled on long enough now. Going to leave work early today to have lunch at the Arts Festival then home to plant and transplant! Debra

mjlb- the artwork is 49" x 25" and it will be on that wall behind the loveseat. I was planning some simple roman shades for the windows in a solid color (color to be determined-probably in another post!). I'm not super enthusiastic about the rug. My other concern is that it had a lot of orange in it and our adjacent eat in area(which is behind that half wall in the pic) has orange upholstered contemporary dining chairs and the rugs in the kitchen are orangey and the pendants over the island are amber/orange. So i'm thinking it'll be orange overload. Parma- I'm in total agreement with you. DH tends to favor the really traditional persian rugs, which may or may not work in this space. Below are few of the rugs DH or myself are considering(I found these on the website recommended by elizabeth10029) These are customizable, so I would be able to change the colors(for $$$ I bet!) DH really liked this one. I like the colors, but worry it may be "too formal" for the space, especially with the contemporary couches. I likes this one because it was a sort of a hybrid of a contemporary and more traditional rug. DH suggested we get it made in Blue with orange accents. I'm leaning towards maybe a beige with blue and orange accents or accenting the existing orange with more blue. This is another one. It doesn't really grab me, but it may work: Any thoughts or opinions? thanks!