Nope, never had orange juice pancakes. I usually make them from a delicious buttermilk pancake recipe I found online and add a generous handful of blueberries. I keep some mix here, too, for those mornings when I just don't have time or inclination to cook from scratch, or when I don't have real buttermilk for them. It's acceptable but nowhere near as good as the scratch ones. The Black From Tula tomatoes were decent but I won't grow them again. They're not good enough to justify the space and energy. I grow Better Boy and Big Boy, too. They're almost always dependable producers of good tomatoes. I like trying new varieties every year and keeping some of the old standbys for the majority of the production. This year I also grew Mortgage Lifters. They were okay but I don't think they lived up to their reputation. I've grown Brandywines, too. It was a year that I had trouble in the garden with disease and drought and they didn't produce much at all. I might try them again another time. We do a taste testing day at the Heirloom Tomato Demo Garden every year and this year my favorite was Todd County Amish. It had more true tomato taste than the others. I hope to grow some next year in my garden. If the Demo Garden folks have seedlings I'll probably get some from them rather than buy seeds. I usually order from just one or two catalogs (Totally Tomatoes is a great one!) to save on shipping. If I can get the majority at one place, I'll order a special or two from some other company. Otherwise, I rely on local seeds or transplants. I can't see adding several dollars to the cost just to get a couple of packets of seeds. One of my favorite books is Dr. Carolyn Male's 100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden. I've learned a lot about growing tomatoes in general and often try a couple of new varieties based on her recommendations. Okra is delicious in soups and stews! My sister and her husband used to grow a lot of it but I only want enough to freeze some for winter use along with a little in summer. I grow it about every 2 to 3 years. I've been a Master Gardener since 2000 and love every minute of it. Our record keeping is very simplified and done online now. The only difficulty is sometimes recording the demographics at these seminars or at clinics but I usually have a helper at the seminars (a new MG in their first year) to do that. I also work the new to us Ask an Expert email system and answer a wide variety of questions through it. I mainly teach the veggie classes but have done a number of different ones, too. For example, last year I taught a group at an assisted living facility how to do a cut flower garden. I work full time in my husband's business and volunteer in two other organizations (both work related) so I really do burn the candle at both ends! I'd like to have more time to devote to the Extension programs, but can't do it right now. Love blackberry cobbler! I don't make jelly or jam much anymore but remember the year we picked 125 quarts of blackberries! That was a great year and we lived where there were tons of vines. Not so many where we are now but enough for a few good pickings. I've thought about growing some in the end of the garden but never bought any. Do the cultivated thornless varieties have the deep blackberry taste like the wild ones? Maybe I could get the grandkids interested in picking thornless ones. They seem to be "alergic" to the scratchy wild ones here! Sandy

No matter how hard I try to save them they just don’t survive for me. I try almost every year but they always get so scraggly for me as well. I have to say that the planter always ends up with something else in it before fall. I have a small planter full now on my porch and so far the snow we had twice since I bought them hasn’t killed them. They are one of the first flowers to purchase in Chicago in spring. They always remind me that warm weather will be here. They are so sweet. I like them better than mums in fall but they are so costly to really get an impact alone so I mix them in fall planters with other flowers. Good luck if you try. July and August will be hard to keep hem going.

Hi getgoing100_7b_nj! I haven't had much luck with gardenias either, and I'm supposed live in a zone where they thrive outdoors. Two gardenias I planted in a spot with lots of sun and gave them good soil and fertilizer, and they never bloomed. One I planted in soil that is hard like a rock, in full shade, and although the plant is a little spindly, it gives me blooms every year. Gardenias just died if I kept them indoors. I would recommend that you get a cold hardy gardenia since you live in zone 7, to have on your balcony. They will do much better outside than inside. There are a few cold tolerant varieties so here is an example: Kleim's Hardy Gardenia. I hope this helps! Have a nice weekend, damask_rose_5 : )

Christmas cactus will drop their buds if they are moved when developing buds/flowers. I’ve had other epiphytic cactus do this. So it really wasn’t your fault, they are known to to drop buds easy if moved. They also need shorter days to trigger flower development. I‘m not a long time grower of this plant, but I did get some cuttings last year, and they are still alive. I would also say they’re lookin pretty darn good imo. This plant has definitely been one of the easiest plants to grow, but what’s easy for me may not be easy for others, and visa versa. Once they rooted I potted up in 70% cactus mix 30%pumice/perlite. It sits in an open area on a table about about 6’ from a south facing window. The summer it produced tons of new pads, and now it’s starting up again. It’s growing buds also. I’m finding it’s important that these guys have a mix that drains well and gets nice air circulation. I really don’t water it all that much because it’s inside. Along with being in a pot that‘s double glazed, but still has drainage holes at the bottom. I couldn’t tell you the exact amount of times I water because I wait till the leaves don’t look as turgid or the plant will look just a little droopy, then I give it a good drink. I water maybe once or twice a month. What type of mix was yours in? How much did you water?