I am refering to Belize which is quite far south of Bermuda, the Bahamas, and FL. While Belize does have a spectacular tropical jungle interior, we are on a sandy peninsula. The rainy season starts in June and ends mid February. It can get quite dry throughout the spring months. We have friends there who are very enthusiastic gardeners, so hope some watering will be done while we are away. Thanks for the great tip about 'Perle d'Or' as I have one languishing here in zone 6.

I've never had any luck planting lavender straight in the ground. My "soil" is pure red clay no matter how many amendments I've added over the years. They all seem to get eaten up never to be seen again. LOL! A few years back, I got a variety of lavender called "Dilly Dilly" from Park Seed. I planted it in a sort of raised bed with mushroom compost, bagged garden soil (Miracle Gro or Scott's), and a bag of sand. (I couldn't remember which kind I used, hence my question. :) ) It's thrived and survived for 3-4 years now when all the other lavenders I've gotten from Lowe's/Home Depot didn't make it a season in pots. One even died planted in the same bed right next to the "Dilly Dilly"! I got some Lavender Lady from the Bluestone Perennials 1/2 price sale earlier this summer and I'm hoping to duplicate my luck I had with the "Dilly Dilly". Might not succeed though since "Dilly Dilly" is an intermedia and "Lady" is an angustifolia. We'll see, I guess. :D

Depends on how sunny it is, how fast the underlying material drains and how frequently you need/wish to water. Both Irish and Scotch mosses like rich soil and plenty of water. Thyme likes it hot, lean and on the dry side. I am not very familiar with sun tolerant mosses although I'd suspect they'd be both hard to find and moisture lovers. Weeds will grow up through anything - you just need to be prepared to weed from time to time to keep things tidy. If using only the permeable sand then much easier to use some sort of herbicide to keep weeds in check.

So I've finished my comparison between the following "sweet" cherries: 1. Sunsugar (hybrid; SS) 2. Sungold (hybrid; SG) 3. Ambrosia Gold (OP; AG) 4. Big SunGold Select (OP; BSS) All were grown from seed and then transplanted in ground with similar soil conditions, sun/shade, watering. Ranking data is below with the best listed first. A. Germination success: SS, SG, BSS, AG B. Productivity: SS, AG, BSS, SG C. Growth: BSS, SS, AG, SG D. Flavor: AG, SS, SG, BSS E. Brix: SS, SG, AG, BSS General observations: GERMINATION: As expected, hybrid varieties tended to show a lot higher germination rate than the OP varieties. That being said, germination is also a factor of seed harvesting techniques, storage and age. I don't have any information on these characteristics, but it would be interesting to note if my germination for the OPs goes up for seeds that I saved and grew out next year (I'm betting it would be a lot better). Take home message, when growing the OPs from seed, make sure that you plant more than you need due to germination success. GROWTH: All varieties grew at a similar pace indoors as seedlings all showing good strong seedling health. As I recall, none stood out as particularly better or worse than others during the seedling stage. Once transplanted BSS definitely observed the tallest plant with thick strong limbs. There was not that much difference between SS and AG. For some reason I always see SG as being more wisphy and frail and this occurred again this year. PRODUCTIVITY: SS was the best with productivity generally showing good strong trusses and generally observing good success from flower to fruit. AG was a very close second. BBS came third and SS was a distant fourth. As noted in the pics below, BBS is indeed a large cherry (1-2oz) and is easily double the size of the hybrid varieties. AG came in second. SS tended to be a bit larger than SG, but they were relatively close in size. As noted by others, SG tends to having more cracking/splitting issues vs SS. AG and SS tended to hang on the vine the longest. BSS showed some cracking, but not as much as SS. In terms of coloring when ripe, SS tended to have the strong golden orange color. SS was more yellowish orange while both AG and BSS were a deeper red when ripe. FLAVOR: Flavor is of course very subjective. My personal favorite was AG, not b/c it was the sweetest, but b/c it has a noteworthy complex flavor. It definitely has sweetness to it, but it mixed it with a tang/acidity which I quite liked. SS was also very good, but it had more of a linear sweet taste which I like (as well as my kids) but it didn't have the complexity of AG. SG came in third. SG tends to be a little more variant in it's taste. Sometimes sweet, sometimes slightly sweet like it was not completely ripe even though it appeared to be the case. BSS was by far the least flavorful. BSS had a somewhat bland tomato taste, which was not awful, but was definitely not sweet. BSS would be fine in a garden salad and is obviously the largest of all cherry tomatoes evaluated, but if you want to get a nice large cherry with good taste there are others that are better (like Gardeners Delight which I also grew). BRIX/SWEETNESS: I thought I should mention this since after all these varieties are supposed to be "sweet" cherries. SS was by far the sweetest. Although I didn't actually do a brix test, I'm certain the sugar content would be the highest. Next up was SG, but as I mentioned above, it's sweetness tended to be hit or miss. AG came in third with a pleasant sweetness but not overly sweet. BSS was not sweet at all. CONCLUSION: I have grown SG for many years and for many years it has always done well. SG always germinates well and is a solid producer as cherries go in my garden. That being said, SS was hands down a better hybrid. It produced more and the flavor was more consistent. It was definitely the sweetest of all cherries that I grew and stayed longer on the vine and split less. As mentioned above, I also really liked AG and was pleasantly surprised by its flavor and productivity. It was my personal favorite of all four. It observed many of the same characteristic as SS, but was larger and had a more complex flavor. I was very happy to note these attributes especially since AG is an OP and the seed can be saved and regrown year after year. BSS was a dud. But only b/c of its flavor. I suppose if BSS were marketed as a large cherry with traditional tomato taste, I would grade it much higher, but as a "sweet" OP that was supposed to compete with SG/SS, it wasn't even in the same ballpark. That being said, you definitely get your biggest bang for the buck due to its size and growth. .