I was born and raised in Melbourne -- a great place to live, and a great place to grow fruit. As Larry says, most people on this forum are in the US, as I now am. I believe a very well regarded nursery in Australia is Daley's. You can find them on line. I know that here in the US serious fruit tree growers order their trees on line from nurseries that specialize in fruit trees, rather than from local nurseries whose employees tend not to be very knowledgeable about growing fruit trees. And if you want to grow fruit trees, get yourself a copy of the great book by a fellow Melbournian, Louis Glowinski, "The Complete Book of Fruit Growing in Australia." He used to grow an enormous number of kinds of fruit trees on his quarter acre block in Caulfield -- maybe he still does.

OK ... bit of a story here. I recently bought 100 flasks from a guy up north who had bought them in from Taiwan. He was quite young and had had enough so to help him out, I took them. I've since negotiated a much better price from various nurseries in Taiwan. Most of them are gone now via ebay and I can see there's a nice income to be made from becoming the importer and still passing the savings on to other growers/small nurseries who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford the flasks that are available commercially. However, I am yet to find a Customs Agent to handle the paperwork or how to go about the importing process at this end. Maybe the costs of the agent, quarantine inspection, etc. may make the exercise too expensive. I don't know until I find out. Cheers,

Bolivian Rainbow Bulgarian Carrot * Charleston Hot Garden Salsa Hybrid * Golden Habanero Habanero Brown * Hotazel Mariarchi Hybrid NuMex Big Jim NuMex Sunset * Purple Jalapeno * Red Savina Habanero Riot Tabasco Trinidad Perfume Tuxtlas Chilli White Habanero * Zimbabwe Birds Eye * 1-2 only, otherwise 3-6 spare. Would also be interested in a trade if you have something interesting. Rob

I'm no expert on companion planting, and there are whole volumes written on the subject. But in brief (and I don't pretend to be scientific about it!) there is a belief that certain plants do better when grown together. Sometimes one plant will keep harmful insects away from the other, sometimes one will bring useful insects to help pollinate the flowers of the other. Basil, for instance, attracts bees, which are needed to pollinate tomatoes, and so they make good companions. Sometimes you will have one plant some distance from another to act as a decoy. Garlic chives will attract aphids away from roses. Often you'll find that companion plants are members of the same family, and like the same conditions. Other times you'll find plants growing together that balance each other in their uses of nutrients - one may use a lot of nitrogen, the other might provide it. Some act in other ways to be good companions. For instance, Anise deters pests from Brassicas by camouflaging their odour and improves the vigour of plants grown nearby. It deters aphids, fleas, reduces cabbage worms.Coriander and anise seeds sown together will germinate more quickly. Borage accumulates silica and potassium, of great use when growing flowering and fruiting plants such as Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Cucumbers, Pumpkin, Tansy, Tomatoes, Rose, Squash, Strawberries. Chillies help plants which are affected by root rot and other Fusarium diseases. French marigold kills harmful nematodes. Horehound improves the fruiting of tomatoes. Yarrow is a good companion plant for most plants because it provides a lot of nutrients for them, especially those will need to produce their essential oils (the highly perfumed plants like lavender and basil, for instance). Yarrow is one of the so-called Physician Plants. Grown near a sick plant, it helps it to recover. Thyme is also a Physician Plant. So is marjoram/oregano. Some plants will help prevent grass and weeds from growing nearby. One such is Arrowroot, another is comfrey. Comfrey also is an excellent companion palnt because it keeps soil rich and moist, accumulates calcium, phosphorus, silica, nitrogen, magnesium, potassium, and iron, acts as a trap for slugs and because the rotting leaves make good fertiliser. I need to check this, but I think it's coriander which helps prevent fennel from seeding too much and becoming a weed, which it's otherwise likely to do. Fennel has the reputation for being the overall worst companion plant of all - it should be grown well away from other plants. It seems to inhibit the growth of many plants. Coriander (if such it be) is about the only plant which helps to control fennel. There are definitely some scientific reasons for all these things - some answers are already provided. I have heard that elder is a bad companion plant because the roots produce some substance or other which kills off competition plants - and I have found it true that nothing much...