Hi txbelle. Not a definitive answer to your question -- Just wanted to share my experience with Iwanagara Apple Blossom, and a possibility about the Oncid. I loved Apple Blossom and tried for three years to grow and bloom it, two different varieties. In my best (and final year) I got a lot of growth and about 4 flowers on a big plant overflowing an 8" pot. I had bought these two ABs in bloom with dozens of flowers on them, so the sparcity of flowers wasn't immaturity. I gave them high outdoor light all summer, and 400 Watt HID in winter. Just couldn't get lavish blooming out of them. I finally decided that they probably needed a *cooler* and *brighter* winter than I could provide indoors and gave up on them. Cant say definitively that that's your problem. But try leaving the AB out in fall til the temperature drops a little below 40, see if that helps. It should be able to handle that temperature, with the Dialaelia parent. Oncididum also bloom better when left outside in the fall. Mine always set spikes in fall once the days got shorter, and the nights cooler. This was true even for the ones that bloomed a spike or two at other times. The year I left them out to 39F or so, I got the very best blooms. These definitely bloom better when left outdoors from about July and August on thru til nearly frost.

Hey Greg, Looking good! Mine came in well also, except in some spots along the drip lines of two trees that got hammered by my oscillating sprinkler. But even those spots will fill in the spring, I think, so I am feeling pretty good about this year's efforts. I'll take a photo or two as soon as I can, but I am busy with last minute exterior painting projects right now, and am running out of time, like real fast... Paul

Thanks Lucy~I hope 2009 is a good year for all of us.We have each other our jobs,health,families and our plants with a little help from our guardian angel 2009 will be good to us all. As for things we do for the New Year are:Eating 12 grapes before midnight, as you eat each grape you make a wish.My DW grandmother would take any quarters, nickels or dimes and wrap them in foil then put them outside on New Years Eve and then the next day you give them to your family or friends to carry for good luck, of course keep one for yourself LOL.And last who your with or what your doing on New Years Eve is what you will be doing for the rest of the year or spending the rest of the year with(loved one or family,friends) :0) Happy New Year to all my GW buddies!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rigo

I wasn't totally nuts about the Mother Earth News list because they placed a heavy emphasis on early tomatoes, and I am not a huge fan of the typical early tomato. Partly, though, that is because mid-season tomatoes actually produce pretty early here, and they taste better, to me, than the early tomatoes that are only a couple of weeks earlier in ripening. So, I thought about it all day long, and came up with my list of my favorite tomatoes for our climate. Here they are: FOR THE EARLY ONES: SunGold (57 days) Early Girl (52 days) New Big Dwarf (60-65 day)* Eva Purple Ball (70 days) Neves Azorean Red (75 days) PASTE TYPES FOR SAUCES AND SALSAS: Principe Borghese' (for sun-dried tomatoes) Martino's Roma Opalka San Marzano Redorta FOR SANDWICHES AND SALADS: Brandywine (Sudduth's) Mortgage Lifter Brandy Boy Cherokee Purple Black Krim FOR GREAT GREENS & ZEBRAS: Aunt Ruby's German Green OR Green Zebra Cherokee Green FOR ORANGES, STRAWBERRIES AND LEMONS: Nebraska Wedding Aunt Gertie's Gold Kosovo or the oxheart of your choice. I don't grow oxhearts because they don't produce many tomatoes per plant in our heat. Instead of an oxheart, I'd grow Black Cherry which is absolutely delicious. As for Fifteen Favorite hybrids, I am choosing these as much for their reliability and disease resistance as anything. They all have good flavor in most years that have good weather (with good weather being ANYTHING that is not excessively wet). FIFTEEN FAVORITE HYBRIDS: Better Bush Better Boy VFN Big Beef VFFNTA (1994 AAS winner) Beefmaster VFN Brandy Boy Bucks County Celebrity VFFNTA (1984 AAS winner) Fourth of July Lemon Boy VFN Momotaro Porterhouse Roma VF Viva Italia VFFNA Sweet Million FNT SunSugar FT or Sungold (virtually identical)