Looking to expand my modest collection of tropical plants. What I have to offer are... numerous types of Epiphyllum cuttings several types of Rhipsalis cuttings Cavendish Banana (dwarf type) Apple Banana Unknown Heliconia Hedychium (tall yellow fragrant spike) Crinum Asiaticum (dark maroon type) regular white Crinum Unknown Hymenocallis Ficus rubiginosa (Rusty Leaf Fig) Ficus macrophylla Moreton Bay Fig Ficus thonningii. Only interested in local exchanges (Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, Los Angeles, etc). What I'm particularly interested in are... Plumerias Australian tree ferns Ficus benghalensis Orchids I'm willing to give away a few cuttings/plants on the condition being that I can ask you for a cutting/division of the plant I gave you should my plant happen to die down the road. On a side note, one of my hobbies is mounting epiphytic orchids on trees. If you live in the area I'll give you free consultation and instruction on how to select and mount hardy epiphytic orchids on your tree trunks.

another thought... prices for plants can vary GREATLY between different geographical areas of the country. EVen from the same store or supplier. Pricing can be vastly different for the same thing. It shouldn't be a big difference for me and Laura, as we both live in the same area, but things can be pretty wild elsewhere. I bought a bamboo palm (Chamaedorea) 2 years ago at a local sale for $7.99 in the 3 gallon comtainer. These palms are extremely cold hardy (to 20 at least) and I had been wanting one for a bit. Now that they have "caught on" nationally and Home Depot is offering them for the whopping price of $69.99!! That is pretty unbelievable to me. Our same local independents have the same palm for $49.99. Prices for other landscape plants can be off the scale as well. We are very lucky to live close to a local grower who sells all types of different alocasias, colocasias and xanthosomas to our 2 local independent nurseries here. I have purchased things like Alocasia plumbea nigra (aka Metallica) in the past, a big heaping full 3 gallon pot, for about $15. I saw the exact same plant in a nursery in Dallas TX that my sister in law took me to for $39.00. I myself used to raise different gingers for the local nurseries when I was operating my nursery, and I can tell you, anything you buy at a nursery is marked up 100%. If I sold them a plant for $5, they charged $10. Unless you go to Home Depot or another box store here, all the orchids are sold by local and regional growers at the independent nurseries on consignment. SO are the bromeliads. We are lucky here to have some great private growers here who sell their stuff on consignment. There is also a local independent food market that sells their things on consignment.

Jerry, I love Morikami gardens. Whenever I go down to South Florida I try to stop by. One thing I did not see at Morikami though was the use of Native Sand Pines (Pinus clausa) in place of the dwarfed pines normally used in Japanese Gardens. The sand pine takes trimming very well. It was once used for Christmas trees, and kept trimmed into neat cones. You can trim them into big bonzai shapes. I haven't done it myself, but I saw of photograph of a beautiful sand pine trimmed this way. I think you can really get the feel of the Japanese garden using easy-care natives and naturalized plants if you just go for the same style of planting. For example, for those low mounding shrubs, you could use coonties. Lots of the native stoppers can be trimmed into picturesque little trees. There is of course a big selection of tropical bamboo. The one problem is finding a substitute for the Japanese maple, which won't grow down there. At Morikami I noticed they were using Firebushes for this effect, but to be honest I wasn't really crazy about it. Finding a deciduous small tree with "fall color" that will work down there would be difficult, but there must be some kind of tropical shrub or small tree with burgundy/reddish leaves. You wouldn't have the change of seasons, but you could have the look. Down where you are you probablly have access to lots of natural Florida limestone rocks too.

Sounds wonderful! I wish I lived a bit closer so I could attend! I have a friend who is in the Herb Society of America and she told me it is really good to add a little thyme to grocery store tea (when you're making it to drink hot) when you are seeping the teabag in the hot water. Either regular thyme or lemon thyme will work. Also lemon balm or lemon verbena add a nice flavor too. Just strain it before drinking.