I too have grown them and really liked the thickness of them for canning salsa, and good thick juice. For years all I planted was romas and a couple box store varieties, and now I will never grow another Roma...just too little and too much like work to pick, wash, and process for whatever I wanted. There are just too many other wonderful varieties to grow/try to ever grow another Roma ever again. I haven't grown Big mama in a few years now. The cost of seed went up after the first few years...Burpee cut the number of seeds per pack substantially in their rack packs by about half or more. Sue

Hi ostrich! My 2 Korean maples are doing well. Here's pictures of them middle of June. They will get leaf windburn on the leaves later in the summer season and I had one branch die back on the second tree pictured below, but it sent a new branch out in same spot as the dead one and you can hardly tell anymore where I clipped the dead branch off. I have not had any good color to date, so I look forward to that. eta: I bought these as seedlings from Reeseville ridge plant nursery in Wisconsin and from what I gathered while talking to him, he ships overseas so call him, he might be able to send you some. https://www.reesevilleridgenursery.com/

Hey guys so here’s my question: I’m wondering if anyone has tried grafting the Little Fiddle (the new variety with the smaller leaves) onto the larger trunks of the regular fiddle leaf fig. I’ve been growing mine for several years now and I think that the combination of the leaf size and the height overall just doesn’t provide the optics that I am after ie: A standard shape - lollipop. The ones people post on social and in magazines must be really large taken in rooms with a very high ceilings. Either that or mine just has giant leaves. I do bring it outside during the summer so I can cut and prune to get more branching; but last year I didn’t because I don’t want to get much bigger anyway.... I think the smaller leaves of the little fiddle variety would look nice atop a 4 foot trunk. If I’m correct that look can’t be achieved with the little fiddle variety since they only get about 4’ tall overall.

Good lord, another week on gardenweb, another series of arguments about plant hardiness. Some things never change. Agree with Arbordave that the very hardiest cultivars of Deodar like 'Eisregen' should be ok for OP. Best to not plant outside until it has a bit of size, like a caliper over 3/4". A. angustifolia, aka 'parana pine', is proving to be more like 8a, perhaps just barely into the mildest parts of 7b hardy, but really 8a for safe measure. That being said, the one at the SFASU Arboretum in east Texas survived -4F in the recent Texas mega freeze. I have that direct from David Creech, the director, who I correspond with. However, that is NOT the same as it surviving that low in zones 7 or 6!. (the Arboretum is in zone 8) First of all that was a once every 20 years or less freeze for that area. The tree might not have survived it if those temps or temps anywhere near them occurred more frequently. Also, it warmed up very quickly after the freeze allowing the plant to start metabolizing again and recover from the injuries. The same would not be true further north. Trust me many have been tried along the east coast. I myself sold some seedlings to some crazy New Yorkers who gardened in the Bronx. They died. They won't survive long term north of about Virginia Beach or environs, which is 8a. The ones at the NCSU arboretum were damaged in recent winters but survived. They are right on the 8a/7b border in my opinion. It's kind of like how some Phoenix palms in El Paso survived 2F in the previous big Texas freeze in 2011. They would NEVER have survived that in overall colder climates whose recent record lows have been similar, like say, Raleigh, North Carolina. I happened to drive through El Paso a couple days after that freeze. Temps were already in the 60s and stayed that way for the rest of the winter, with dry, sunny conditions. The winter sun is very strong there because of the altitude and latitude. In a cooler, wetter place the damaged date palms would have rotted.