No need to apologize. Things can be confusing when merchants supply information that isn't accurate. Fuchsias are shrubby and they live from year to year. However, plant merchants sometimes refer to fast-growing plants that bloom on new wood as "annuals" because people in climates too cold to overwinter them can treat them as such. They freeze to death and that's the end of that. I would also suspect that your Fuchsia is probably relatively short, to be used in annual bedding. Now, this is confusing too: Fuchsias are naturally upright, but some have been bred to have weak stems so that they cascade out of a basket. The type that would work best for a basket would be referred to as a "trailing" Fuchsia. Yours might work fine but don't be surprised if it doesn't cascade down the sides of the basket. Palo Alto is very mild and with irrigation your "annual" Fuchsia will live from year to year indefinitely. Now, as for what to do with it; what little frost you ever have, you probably don't even get every year, and when you do get it, it's probably not enough to kill a Fuchsia even exposed in a hanging basket. If you are in a hard frost area (for example, in a cold air drainage pocket, or at some elevation), you could still overwinter it by just planting it in the ground and mulching it a bit. Don't be surprised if it looks a little tired in the winter. It is fine, and will perk up quickly in mild weather. Fuchsias respond quickly to fertilizer, being especially fond of liquid types, and will usually reward you with a flush of growth and blooms. They bloom on new wood. You can clip to train them. If they get senescent (the wood starts looking like it is dying of old age), you can start them from cuttings and start over again. Fuchsias are extremely easy to root from cuttings--as easy as old-fashioned Coleus were. Fuchsias like mild weather. Not too hot, not too cold. They like bright open shade. They can stand a few hours of sun as long as it's not too hot (morning sun better than afternoon in that regard). Dry heat is very hard on them--possibly fatal. In dry weather you will probably have to irrigate your basket daily. If you like Fuchsias, keep your eyes open for Fuchsias that your friends have that you like--they can probably be talked into a cutting. Also consider contacting a local Fuchsia society--they will have hundreds of varieties, probably with bigger flowers, in more variety of colors, than Lowes. Mine are all uprights that I plant in the ground. Easier to take care of than in a hanging basket, which in my climate, that is colder than yours, I would have to protect for the winter, not to mention water it daily in the summer. I grow them along the north side of a fence, open to the sky but shaded from direct sun. They sit on a bank, and so their flowers are close to eye level. It is a very popular feature for my neighbors to look at. Some of mine are wild species--not hybrids. They have some variety of form--for instance one of them in habitat would clamber up a tree almost like a climber. Another one has dainy fern-like foliage and tiny but brilliantly colored flowers, and one has berries that are considered tolerably palatable (usually Fuchsia berries are bland). Another one gets big as Fuchsias go--it can hit about 7 feet tall (and perhaps even wider) or so before its weak wood bends under its own weight. You can grow some I can't--like the beautiful Triphylla types, such as the popular "Gartenmeister Bonstedt". Much too tender for me.

From the Original Neem Company Neem Oil The neem seed kernel is very rich in fatty acids, (Shelton, 1962) often up to 50 percent of the kernel's weight. Neem seed oil is very bitter with a garlic/sulfur smell and contains vitamin E and other essential amino acids. Studies of the various components of the oil have found the percentages of the following fatty acids: oleic acid - 52.8% stearic acid - 21.4% palmitic acid - 12.6% linoleic acid - 2.1% various lower fatty acids - 2.3% The percentages vary from sample to sample depending on place and time of collection of the seeds. (Bhandari, 1959) Neem oil is an excellent moisturizing oil that contains compounds with historical and scientific validity as medicinals. Use of the oil for cosmetics and medicines has been limited by its strongly bitter taste and sulfur/garlic smell. Only when it was made into soaps was it acceptable use by most people. It is no wonder the leaves have been substituted for the oil to get the benefits of neem. Obtaining Quality Neem Oil To bring the many therapeutic effects of neem oil to all the people that could benefit from them requires a major change in neem oil's quality. From the picking of the fruit to filling the oil into drums, careful attention to quality is the only way to get the best oil possible. It is now known that if the neem seed is not dried and stored properly and the oil is not expressed in a hygienic way the oil will be very dark, have a foul odor and may contain dangerous contaminants. Methods for obtaining neem oil: The first thing to consider is the collection of the seeds. Neem is not considered a plantation tree in India so the seeds must be gathered from wild trees growing on the fringes of farms, along hillsides and from roadsides and shade trees around homes in the rural villages. Collection of the seeds is a seasonal affair that has historically been organized by cooperatives that press the oil from the seeds for soap manufacture. As the ripe fruit falls to the ground, it is gathered from around the trees. Some of the fruit will have been eaten by birds and the seeds excreted. Other fruit may have been on the ground for weeks, covered with mold or simply rotten. The collected fruit is then carried to a water supply to wash away the fruit covering the seed. After washing, the seeds are set out to dry in the sun. The dry seeds are bagged and sold to village merchants who later sell them to an oil processing facility. There are three main processes for extracting the oil from the seed kernels with some companies using combinations. The one used since antiquity is the mechanical press method. Neem seed kernels are place into a tub and either a screw or some form of press is used to squeeze the kernels under pressure until the oil is pressed out and collected. The second method uses steam and high pressures to extract the oil. The kernels are heated with steam to increase the oil flow then squeezed under high pressure. Most of the oil is extracted from the kernels but it is dark and smelly with many of the active compounds destroyed by the high temperatures. The third and newest method is solvent extraction. This method is used by most seed oil processors since almost all of the oil is removed from the kernels. The neem seed kernels are finely ground and placed into a container along with a petroleum solvent, usually hexane (white gasoline). The neem oil is captured by the solvent and is pulled out of the kernels. The solvent/neem oil mixture is then put into a vat where most of the solvent is recovered leaving the neem oil and minute traces of the solvent behind. Sometimes seed cake obtained after mechanical pressing is further extracted using this method. Many of neem oil's active compounds are not soluble in hexane and are left behind in the solvent extraction process. Once the oil has been extracted, it is usually put into metal drums for storage and shipment. Since neem oil is used primarily for soap manufacture by small manufacturers, there has been no demand for pure or clean neem oil. Therefore, inexpensive second-hand drums are used to store the oil. With used drums, there is the possibility of contaminating the neem oil with dangerous chemicals that could have been previously stored in the drums. Purchasing neem oil in the open marketplace will usually provide the purchaser with a very low quality oil that is potentially contaminated. The best method for obtaining quality neem oil with a majority of the active compounds intact is cold pressed. In cold pressing the oil is lighter in color with milder odor (Ramakrishna, et al, 1993). There is also the elimination of any potential residual solvents in the oil that could pose health hazards to the consumer. The downside is that high quality cold pressed neem oil is more expensive to produce than solvent extracted oil and is much harder to obtain. Few processors are willing to forego the loss of any of the oil that could have been extracted by solvent and have quit using cold presses. Improved method for obtaining neem oil: Experiments with the collection, storage and extraction procedures have disclosed that the main reason the oil was typically bad was the very procedures traditionally used. The seeds were often old and rancid before they were even collected. Storing the seeds in the hot, humid Indian summer made them even worse. By the time they were processed, the kernels were black and smelly which resulted in black, smelly oil. A better method requires the collection of seeds specifically for the manufacture of quality health and beauty aid products. Light green kernels from fresh seeds yield a light oil with only a slight odor and a tolerable bitter taste. To get this high-quality oil, neem fruit has to be picked from the trees rather than gathered off the ground. The fresh fruit then has to be taken to a facility where it is washed to remove the fruit from the seeds and the clean seeds quickly air dried. Dried seeds are then de-husked and the kernels cold pressed. The kernels should only be pressed once to obtain "virgin" oil, guaranteeing only the oil is removed leaving the waxy and tar-like substances behind. The light neem oil must then be stored in new drums for shipment to the manufacturing facility. This method produces high-quality neem oil suitable for use in any health and beauty aid product. Humminon

Trudi, I had a few minutes & wanted to come check it all out. I love your ideas. Within the next few days, I will try to find some of my old lesson plans & experiments regarding seed growth, so if you're interested, you may be able to adapt them to what you want for this forum. I had an idea while reading your avacado tree instructions (which I desperately want to grow, now). What do you think about putting a "supplies list" at the top of all your FAQ sheets regarding specific experiments (like winter sowing seeds or avacado tree)? Ask any teacher or cook, & they will tell you it's very helpful to have a supply list before beginning. Just a thought.

Most self-rising flours sold in the south have the salt. I find some our here in the west don't. Personally, I prefer it with the salt, but that's probably because it's what I grew up on. And that was not a dumb question at all! (Actually, the only two dumb questions I've ever heard were my sister asking me once "Where do you keep your ice?" and once at the restaurant when a cook had stuck a knife all the way into his hand, one of the managers asked, "Are you hurt?" THOSE were dumb questions. LOL!)