VALENTINE'S PLANT LIST GAME CONTEST WINNERS!!! well guys, we had three entries, from Jess, Vina, and Sue. Sue wins by sheer volume and patience with 624 names!!!!! Jess won most creative-- i loved your explanations. Vina came in with 215 names, still quite respectable, so you're getting a prize too LOL. those of you who are getting to know me know that i am scatterbrained, so please send me your address even if i already should have it. the lists are both really long, so here's some highlights. if anyone wants the epic plants o' love lists, let me know and i'll email them to you! these are the first 50 from Sue's list: African Daisy �" Change of Heart 2 African Daisy �" Change of Heart 3 African Violet �" Country Romance 4 African Violet �" Emerald Love 5 African Violet �" High School Sweetheart 6 African Violet �" Love in Bloom 7 African Violet �" Makin Romance 8 African Violet �" Sheer Romance 9 African Violet �" Yesterday's Love 10 African Violet �" Yesterday's Valentine 11 Amaryllis �" First Love 12 Amaryllis �" Romance 13 Angel's Trumpet �" Sweetheart 14 Asiatic Lily �" Endless Love 15 Asiatic Lily �" Forever Susan 16 Beet �" Red Heart 17 Bell Pepper �" Bell Chocolate 18 Bell Pepper �" Chocolate Beauty 19 Bell Pepper �" Miniature Chocolate Pepper 20 Bell Pepper �" Sweet Chocolate 21 Bishop's Mitre �" Sweetheart 22 Bleeding Heart �" Buring Hearts 23 Bleeding Heart �" Candy Hearts 24 Bleeding Heart �" Gold Heart 25 Bleeding Heart �" King Of Hearts 26 Border Bearded Iris �" Romantic Interlude 27 Broccoli �" Heart 28 Calla Lily �" Captain Romance 29 Canna Lily �" Beloved 30 Canna Lily �" Cupid 31 Canna Lily �" Romance 32 Canna Lily �" Valentine 33 Cantaloupe �" Spring Love 34 Cantaloupe �" Summer Love 35 Cape Primrose �" Victorian Valentine 36 Carnation �" True Love 37 Chinese Radish �" Rose Heart 38 Chocolate Lily 39 Chocolate Mint �" Peppermint Chocolate 40 Chocolate Vine 41 Christmas Rose �" Valentine Green 42 Climbing Rose �" Chocolate Sundae 43 Climbing Rose �" Valentine's Day 44 Coleus �" Chocolate Drop 45 Coleus Painted Nettle �" Dark Heart 46 Columbine �" Chocolate Soldier 47 Common Sugarbush �" Valentine 48 Coneflower �" Secret Romance 49 Coral Bells �" Chocolate Ruffles 50 Crepe Myrtle �" White Chocolate these are from Vina's: 51.Iris: Candy Dancer 52.Iris: Chocolate Swirl 53.Iris: Little Dream 54.Iris: Aphrodisiac 55.Iris: Black Diamond 56.Iris: Butterscotch Bronze 57.Iris: Chain O' Gold 58.Iris: Chocoleto' 59.Iris: Dream Time 60.Iris: Fairy Rose 61.Iris: Jewel Tone 62.Iris: Love Story 63.Iris: My Girl 64.Iris: Pink Plume 65.Iris: Play With Fire 66.Iris: Rose Caprice 67.Iris: Silk Romance 68.Iris: Sweet Musette 69.Iris: Thai Silk 70.Iris: Tuxedo 71.Iris: Wish Upon A Star 72.Iris: Ever So Lovely 73.Iris: Passion and Purity 74.Iris: Crinkled Gem 75.Iris: Cutie 76.Iris: Bye Bye Love 77.Iris: Orange Passion 78.Iris: Windsor Rose 79.Iris: Cherub's Smile 80.Iris: No Other Love 81.Iris: Blushing Kiss 82.Iris: Goodnight Kiss 83.Iris: Sambuca Rose 84.Iris: Cocoa Pink 85.Iris: Kissed By The Sun 86.Iris: Young Heart 87.Daylily: A Kiss For Kathy 88.Daylily: A La Mode 89.Daylily: A Midsummer Night's Dream 90.Daylily: Abigale My Love 91.Daylily: All Of My Love To You 92.Daylily: Always My Love 93.Daylily: Angel Kissed 94.Daylily: Be My Love 95.Daylily: Candy From Heaven 96.Daylily: Candy Heart 97.Daylily: Candy Kisses 98.Daylily: Candy Gram 99.Daylily: Candy Lovers 100.Daylily: Your Embrace and here's jess' list in it's entirety 'cause it's cute :) Cupid- Cupid's dart Cute pet names for your Valentine: teddy bear sunflower Honeycrisp apple Tenderette snap bean Don Juan climbing rose- I think he was a romancer. sugar baby watermelon honeysuckle sugarpearls apricot Sweet Stuff sweet pepper Big boy tomato Better Boy tomato Beefsteak Tomato- I could go on... candy: strawberry candy daylily Chocolate: Chocolate bell pepper Chocolate striped tomato Chocolate cosmos Hearts: Hearts of gold Hosta bleeding hearts (poor lonely people!) chocolate mint chocolate scented geranium Love: Love in a puff lovage- an herb Star struck dahlia Kiss: Kiss me over the garden gate baby kisses rose tulips- you need two lips to kiss! Sensual/sexy named plants: sensual sundance daylily Lakeside black satin hosta Betty Boop rose- a sex symbol of sorts... peter pepper (not a pepper to show your mother in law!) Lion's tail flower ( from a distance look like a spikey ball of tubular orange flowers, up close it resembles something else more closely than a lion's tail...) While we're on the subject; Canna, if you don't get this reference look up the painting Red Canna by Georgia O'Keefe. Early and Often sweet corn- I am not kidding, that is a real name of a real variety of sweet corn After Valentine's day: Fenugreek (an herb to increase new mother's milk supply) baby's breath baby's toes bleeding hearts (not all love was meant to be...) fern leaf bleading hearts (not all love was meant to be even in the shade) Misc. related to valentine's forget me not- message of many roses carnations baby's breath gardenias Calirohoe- little wine cups- I can't imagine Valentine's day without a little cup of wine Stilleto hosta- Valentine's attire Black pearl ornamental pepper- gems are always a welcome Valentine's gift Fairy tale eggplant- at least that is what my marriage seems like :) Black magic rose Double Delight rose Fantasy perila Pandora's box hosta or daylily (love can sometimes be one of these!) All things we grow in Love- consider it the Valentine's Day everyday list- Blondkompchen tomato- translates little blonde girl- This is where my husband says he gets all my presents "It wasn't me, it was the little blonde girl!" Arbicola (sp) house plant- this is the plant I was buying when I first saw and fell in love with my husband (All at a greenhouse where he would get me a job after never knowing my name, speaking to me, or even checking my application. He would be my boss in less than two weeks, and my life long soul mate in less than that.) The Joker Sunflower- The flower I planted 5 days after I gave birth to our first child, a vibrant boy who at 4 loves to make people laugh and loves to laugh Giant Marconi peppers- where we found our 6 month old when he slid out of his stroller parked in the garden while we picked. He had crawled under the massive plants and picked himself the biggest reddest pepper on the vine. Having no teeth, he was content gumming the pepper into a red ooze that ran all down his chin. At three he still loves these peppers and I will plant them forever just for him. 4 o'clocks- my tribute and memorial to my mother Scarlet Christmas Cactus- the last standing of dozens of my mother's personal collection of houseplants. In the first 6 months after her passing I killed (me, with the greenest of thumbs usually)every single one but it. Three years now it has held on and just finished blooming this year. "Goldie" the golden pothos- This was the first plant my husband ever owned. He lived in NV, and has reverently cared for it and carried it everywhere he has lived since. It is over 15 years old now.

Mango kush... I was reading some things on the internet about breadfruit, and with protection, they can grow to a pretty nice size in southern florida (as long as something like this past winter doesnt happen again for a long time). Some looked like they were almost fruiting size, but Ive never heard of one actually fruiting. If I lived in Southern Florida, breadfruits would definitely be on my list of tender plants to try. Good luck, hope it works out well! I found a really hot sunny spot to put mine that is also very humid, so it should grow really well (at least until it goes inside for the winter). I figure I have from may until about early (maybe mid) october for my breadfruit to go outside because temps rarely go in the 40s at night in that time period. Then while indoors Im going to mist it often and keep it by my sunniest window away from the heat Thanks for your comments and help, I cant wait until it comes in the mail!

Hi Ami, Assume you're still in Germany. My brother did get his assignment to Ramstein so he's there with wife and daughter. They have done a lot of traveling and they just love it though they say the winters are cold/rainy and can be quite depressing. He said spring has been beautiful. That's "Little Man", the Dad, with his ears laid back...ready for a fight!! "Puddin" is his daughter. Hope all is well with you and growing season is coming on over there. Dave, I tried all kinds of heirlooms the second year and was not impressed at all with production on any of my plants. I'm just not a purist, I guess, and find the hybrids give me better looking fruit and much better production. And, they taste great to me. I give most of mine away so look for volume and I don't have any complaints with taste either. Of course, any home grown tomato tastes great compared to store bought. I grew Celebrity the first year and if I remember correctly gots lots of tomatoes off those plants. I only planted 8 of them so I'll see how they do and then reconsider their place in the garden. Hope you and Max are both well and also hope he is much better behaved than my two buttheads!! Always look for your posts...most enlightening! "Digdirt" asked me to talk a little about my set-up. I found out about these containers by googling "josho" on the web. He had built his own containers so credit is due to him. I use 18 gallon containers and I haven't changed what he did appreciably although I just use black plastic 55 gallon bags to cover the soil. I have always used MG potting mix in the 2 cubic foot bags and I am very pleased with the results. I don't make my own mix but do add some dolomitic lime for BER, a fertilizer with micronutrients (I use Fertilome but haven't experimented with any others), and add a little epsom salt to the mix. Two plants per container and prune to a single stem due to the support system I built. I am working away from home during the week so put in an automatic watering system last year. A hose-bib timer, long length of 1/2" poly pipe, and plugs and plastic spaghetti hose down each fill pipe. It works well. Plants are 4 foot high at this point and water early morning each day for 5 minutes before the black polypipe heats up. That keeps the containers filled so far but will probably have to increase the duration pretty soon. Hi Raybo, See all is well out there in CA and your stuff looks great as always. Nice to know a tomato "celebrity"! I put in all new mix this year ($277 worth for 25 bags...OUCH!). Presently I just don't have the time to make my own mix but need to think about a cheaper alternative as this is getting too expensive. Plants are looking great so far and have lots of blossoms and a good tomato set so far. Expect my production will be good this year just as it was in 2008 when I had new mix. I'll keep you posted. Timmy1, As you can see your plants are doing fantastic. All recovered nicely within a week or so with heavy bloosoms and fruit set so far. In the pics, yours are the tallest and most robust plants even though they weren't the biggest transplants I planted. Hope all is well in RI and life is good. Thanks again for all your help!! cheers all "Bing"

I'm cold. That wind seems to be finding its way into every hole and crack in my old house this morning. I just turned the thermostat up again. brrrr. Need to go out and fill the bird feeders as soon as I do the dishes. I have yesterday's, last night's, and this morning's dishes to do. Thankfully, there's only me here so that doesn't make too many, mostly cereal and soup bowls, and silverware.