Hi Brug_Lover! Welcome to the nuthouse LOL ;). You're in good company here. Great pictures > your Brugs are stunning! Kindest Regards, Angharand

I had incredible yields of Khing Yai - there's still some in the ground so I haven't counted it all yet, but looks like at least 10:1. Yellow Hawaiian was only 3:1, Bubba Blue was 4:1. Big Kahuna was a flop, 1:1. It rotted in the trays and didn't sprout. I can't sell frozen ginger without having an approved kitchen. I've candied a lot of ginger and started making ginger chews and hard candy. Both of these freeze well, make nice gifts and are good for cold and flu season. I get about a cup of juice from a pound of ginger. I puree it in a food processor and strain with a sieve. I use 1.5 cups white sugar, 3/4 cup corn syrup and 1 cup of ginger juice. I use a candy thermometer and heat it to 250 degrees for the chews, 300 degrees for hard candy. Makes a very spicy candy. I managed to find a grocery store to sell some of my ginger to. I got $10/lb, and they sold it at $15/lb in the store. The could only sell around 10 lbs a week tho. I can easily sell that much at even a moderately busy farmers' market, and was surprised they couldn't move it more quickly. The "baby" part of it doesn't seem to be as important as local and organic. I cut back on the amount of ginger I'm growing next year, but am growing more turmeric. I've talked to a few produce buyers who are very interested in turmeric, even if they don't want ginger. I think I'm going to lower my prices next year, maybe $8/lb wholesale for ginger and $10-$12/lb at the farmers' market. Maybe higher for turmeric, depending on my yields. I made a mistake in not covering my ginger inside my high tunnel when it got into the 20's. The stems and leaves froze, but it took a few weeks for them to completely die off. It's been about a month now and the ginger that's still in the ground looks great. Some of my ginger had developed a skin, but I think those plants had dried out; it doesn't seem to be from freezing.

I grow gingers-curcuma, hedychium, alpinia, peacock, costus, globba, etc. Bananas-pink, chinese, blood, musa sp., dwarf cavendish, etc. Palms, bird of paradise, orchids, bromeliads, brugmansia, papaya, alstromeria, thevetia peruviana, pineapple lilies, cacti, succulents, banana shrub, bay tree, tacca, nepenthes, gloriosa lilies, crinum, hymenocallis, hemerocallis, salvia, mandevilla, allamanda, avocado, peaches, pecans, figs, amorphophallus, turks cap, persian shield, megaskampsea (Brazilian flag), aralia, false aralia, hibiscus, passionflower, ipomea, cross vine, coral vine, althea, rangoon creeper, water plants-frogbit, lilies, etc., clerodendrums, ferns, hippeastrum, amaryllis, lycoris, rain lilies, scadoxus..... Mostly tropical/sub-tropical here on the island. Mangoes do very well here but I'm very allergic so I don't grow them. I have a jackfruit growing in a big tub on the upper deck. The avocado did produce fruit till heavily damaged by Rita. Have small papayas now. Dwarf citrus trees. Just put in the fall veggie garden last weekend. Several of the bananas have bunches, if we don't get any more storms they will be ripe soon. Root beer plant is a member of the same family as black pepper & is used in soups/stews. Hot peppers of course! OK, that's a partial list of the tropicals I grow here on the island. Tally Ho!

I moved this year also. We inherited a Japanese garden with maple and mondo. However, it has snowdrop bulbs planted in it that is driving my husband crazy. Are they definitely not suitable? We have an azalea, small amount of white ivy, bush ferns, sacred bamboo, rocks and pebbles, smaller maples, the odd violet and seaside daisy, advice about which to remove would be appreciated. A fairly recent Home Beautiful pictured a Japanese garden and it included a sasanqua and we planted that nearby. Thanks for the info about Iris Japonica as I moved a piece from my old house. I have seen in the magazine Juniper, I know nothing about this plant except it is grey and low growing.