maranta prateada - I had to google it. just gorgeous! is it easy to grow? I think I like marantas...it's an aroid, right? saw tubers. aroids are super showy. I have African mask polly that I adore, but it does not qualify for this thread ... with dormansy and all the mites... I have many fave plants, but they don't grow easy usually. and what grows easy and dependable - still does not grow year round for me (it would if I were to live in florida for example..) with that said, the easiest dependable plants for me in z7b are ficuses of all sorts, sansevieria and 'golden pothos'. oh, and jades. all of them grow slowly and don't grow much in winter. BUT! they are the only plants that survived over the course of 20 years and grew quite BIG. that's smth to think about! what grows fast - needs to be constantly replanted and divided. lots of work! when you are keeping plants for decades, you are really not into monsteras... or scheffleras...unless you have a huge house, that is. I know bedtime is in the apt and so am i.

oh my god.. =: i looked at that HTV thing and skimmed through it.. that's so insane having to use a quilt for your 983791827396lb pumpkin and vacuuming ur cabbage!! pretty much everything i've tried to grow has died. i killed the worm farm i had in the 6th grade, my succulents turned red and fell apart, all my ferns shrivelled up within about a week. i think the only thing that actually grew was a carrot that seeded by accident in the middle of our lawn lol @$%#^?*!! my god.. right now, having a pumpkin grow to 2lb would be a notable achievement. what do you have to do to like first off not kill everything you touch, and then make it grow to a completely insane size? =\!!!!

I got a catalog today from One Green World and I've been drooling over it all afternoon. I have to remind myself that even though all those fruits look good in the catalog, they're not so easy to grow. Still thinking about ordering Goumi 'Sweet Scarlet'. I'll put a link to One Green World's description of it below. Burnt Ridge, Rolling River, and Raintree also carry it. I haven't ordered from any of them in the past. Here is a link that might be useful: One Green World - Goumi

That last one looks much like the umbrella magnolia we saw at Compton Gardens last week. They are native to Arkansas. There are several images at the link below.. Here is a link that might be useful: Magnolia tripetala--Umbrella Magnolia