This will be my final posting for this year on this thread. I sold well this past weekend and since it is getting so hot and the market is slowing down I have decided to quit selling and focus on setting up better propagation areas and growing areas at home (and work in the home gardens!) This past weekend was a three day holiday weekend which normally is not a good selling weekend around here. Most people are off to the beach but with gas prices so high it appears many people stayed home. So I sold better than this time last year. I moved a lot of brugmansias (one guy bought 4!), a few castor beans and whole lot of zinnias (mostly those two tone ones - whirlygig or whatever it is called). I think that with better planning I could continue to sell through June but because I was out of town for most of April I got behind in my planting and sowing. Next year I am going to focus on herbs and unusual patio plants and possibly buy some ads in the smaller local papers to let people know that I am there and selling stuff the local garden centers don't carry. I am also toying with the idea of setting up small herb displays at some of the ethnic markets in this area. Another idea I have is to grow seasonal crops directly in plastic bulb crates and haul the whole thing to the market and let people pick their own. Kind of a garden on wheels. The novelty of letting them build their own salad mix or herbal medley might improve sales - plus you can't dispute the freshness when you're picking it yourself. This also saves me the time and hassle of picking/washing/packaging. Now if I can train the customers to pay more for pick your own (with them doing all the work) I will have hit the jackpot. I'm looking at salad blends for the winter/early spring, strawberries for spring and basil/herbs for summer. Things I have observed this spring: I really made the bulk of my money from regular customers. Regulars spent on average $20 per visit to my booth. I just didn't have enough regulars but I had more this year than I had last year. Customers requesting something unusuall really did show up at future dates when I told them I would have it ("I'll have some ready in 2 weeks" kinda thing), and they often spent more money when I finally had that special plant they were looking for. They often would buy all of it when I finally got it there. Some people are determined to get a better deal and will ask for a price break no matter what. I only consider discounts if the customer is spending more than $10 and even then it is rare. Even when I explain my policy, they will ask and ask again and again. Even when they are shopping with their elderly mother who just bought a lot of my stuff without asking for a price break, they will ask for a discount on their one item and they'll ask again after I tell them no. Some people..... It really doesn't matter what the other guys are selling their plants for. If you have what they are looking for and it looks healthy and worth the amount you're asking they will buy it. Price things the amount you think they will move and make sure you're making money. In other words, if your product looks like a $10 product you'll probably be able to sell it from $8 to $12. But if your product looks like a 50 cent product you will have trouble moving it even for a dollar. People don't go to open air markets to find a car load of cheap plants. Most often they are just there to look at everything. They are seeking inspiration. Inspire them with a good display of healthy or interesting plants and in the future when they really need a plant they will remember you and seek you out. I still have no clue over what will sell and what won't. Just when I think that "no one will buy THAT!" it sells. There are as many reasons that someone will want something as there cultivars of plants worth growing. Good luck

@ Sari Swede I guess it's good as is where You live. You can make a little shelter for the plant for the unusual cold winter days, but maybe it's not necessary. The roots are at least 10-12 inches (or more) below the ground and they will never be under 45F. Even if the leaves frost, the roots will be fine. Anyway it's not a bad idea to pour some wood chips around the trunk as a thermal insulation. Jacarandas drop almost 90-95% of their leaves in the winter. Just a few remain. As for the pruning: the best time to prune the Jacaranda is late winter. I usually prune mine in January. Make sure that the tool is clean you prune the Jacaranda with! Jacarandas are sensible to infections. Wherever you cut, it will branch out 2, sometimes 3 ways! Jacarandas usually bloom first when they reach 3-4 or so years of age. The tiny buds will appear in september-october and they will "sleep" during the winter. In spring the Jacaranda blooms even it has no leaves! Beautiful sight and very good smell! So You have to be careful with the pruning, because you can cut the tiny buds off when prune your plant and it will not bloom in the spring. But it's a bit far away now, you have to wait for the first buds 2-3 more years. Good luck!

I live just inland from Cairns. We had major frosts a couple of weeks ago. My thermometer is situated 2m off the ground and under an overhang of the house, so it didnt record the coldest temperatures that others did. All the grass and many garden plants and trees have died from the frost. Some of the tropical plants have succumbed incredibly from the sudden cold weather we had. As you may have heard, places received down to -10 degrees on the Atherton Tablelands. We, where I'm living recorded closer to 1 degree on a couple of mornings with other mornings also recording 2-5 a few times. It is still mild with only last Tuesday morning we recorded 6 and two nights ago 5.4. As mentioned my thermometer is situated 2m above the ground and within a sheltered site, none of my plants located near the thermometer were at all affected by the cold however outside without the roof/awning of the house to protect them, they were scorched. Many Spathodea's 20m tall had their crowns burnt, Large mature Schefflera actinophylla's lost all their leaves, a Schefflera bractescens up the road seems to have died all together. Many restoration plantings in the area have been dealt a serious blow (frost). I have seen mature Elaeocarpus grandis, 20m tall killed by the frost. There is a planting of over 2000 Blue Quandongs, for timber, just up the road from here. They all were standing proud at about 3-5 m tall and at least 75% of them have been totally killed by the frost. There is a frost band where all of the plants died and then another band on the highest side of the planting where they have mostly survived. There are mature Wodyetia which have all their leaves burnt to black however seem green in the centre's. Mature Coconuts in Malanda seem to be fine- surprisingly. Mature Cyathea cooperi's growing along the creeks on the tablelands - have no leaves left...this is predictable though. I was in Cairns a couple of weeks ago, doing some work on a hillside and looked at the ground to notice the Praxelis clematidea had brown leaves as a result of the cold...I was standing at 60m asl at the most. I was staying at the Daintree village the night of the worst frost and a local told us that it had got down to 6 degrees that morning. A friend at Whyanbeel, just north of Mossman recorded cold (not frost) damage there. Trees which are very susceptible to frost: at least up here. Elaeocarpus grandis, Ficus septica, Ficus hispida, Delonix regia, Cassia javanica, Acmenosperma claviflorum, Homalanthus novo-guineensis, Alphitonia petrei, Cyathea cooperi, Schinus molle, Syzygium malaccense, Alocasia macrorhiza (exotic one), Pandanus species- especially oceanic species, Spathodea campanulata, Scindapsus, Pawpaw, Banana's, Dracaena fragrans, Allamanda cathartica, Euphorbia pulcherimma........Duranta had burnt tips and the ground covering Lantana totally died (possibly a good thing). There are lots of species I have seen with burnt leaves.and also alot...

It's good that your plant didn't die--most established brugs won't die from the occasional frost, but will look as if they've been freeze-dried. Plus, the frost kills all the buds and delays next season's flowering. Give it any form of protection you can manage--grow it up against a wall or under the canopy of a tree or shrub (this is my long-term solution and has worked well for me). Sometimes even the flimsiest of canopies (eg the branches of a deciduous tree) will be enough to keep the frost off. Note that some brugs seem more cold-sensitive than others, and can look pretty scrappy in winter even if they don't actually get frosted. So it's a matter of finding the right position/microclimate in your garden. Perhaps you could even erect one of those 6-foot plastic mini-greenhouses (Aldi had them over winter at half the price Bunnings was charging) over it next winter, which would work even if it was growing in the ground. As insurance, you could also take a cutting in summer and keep that in a pot in a warm, sheltered spot over winter so that you have it as backup if something happens to the parent plant.