Carla, my sweet Splash is an Aussie, and I would not own another breed. The key to owning any puppy is investing the time and energy into training them. Any pet is worthless unless you survive the puppy months and train them properly. I agree about Caeser Milan, the Dog Whisperer. Second, Aussies are very devoted herding (working) dogs. To be happy, contented pets they MUST have a job to do. My Splash keeps a vigilant eye on the back yard for critters and comes to get us when she sees one. She is equally capable of cuddling up with us on the couch in the evening while we watch TV. Aussies can be sturborn, willfull, bossy animals. I see that streak in Splash ever so often. The only thing that keeps her in line is the occasional reminder from us AND her extreme desire to make us happy. We only need to express our displeasure and she is right back in line again. I like the suggestion that you check out the Aussie rescue pages. I have looked at these animals many times dreaming that we could afford another pet. As with any breed, there are as many temperments as there are dogs. I'm sure you could find the one for you. Love my Aussie! Barbara aka Hawkeye Belle

Sir Hans - I don't know what that breeder was feeling when he first saw his babies open, but I do know that every time a bloom opens for me, I am awed by it... Mother Nature performs such wonderful miracles, and when I think about the miracle of a bloom opening and its abject beauty, it makes me feel kind of small and insignificant... Soultan - it's kind of strange to think that opposite seasons are happening... Aussie flowers are blooming outdoors, and ours are resting... mine are just roots and bulbs and corms under a layer of frosted earth...

I have no point. Do I have to have a point? Of course not although most forum posts do - a point or a question - and sometimes it is difficult to sort out what that point or question is. But that wasn't MY point. As I said "what am I missing?" so I was clearly assuming that I was misunderstanding or missing what you were seeking with the post and was not criticizing you in any way. And no one said that YOU said "they were developed in Australia" so no need to get bent out of shape about that part either. This is just a list of tomatoes commonly available in Australia. I thought it would be of interest. Great. All you had to do was add that to the original post and everything would have been clear to all. Misunderstandings are apart of this medium so it helps avoid them when both parties make the effort to be clear and give each other benefit of the doubt rather than taking it as some sort of personal attack. Dave

When used responsibly any control method, chemical or natural will result in minimal and acceptable ecological damage and maximum return on the investment. Simply because a control is naturally derived from plants or insects does not automatically confer better and safer than a non naturally derived one. There are far too many examples of the introduction of beneficials that after being introduced wrecked havoc with the ecological system. The potential for increased honey production by selective breeding our European bee with African honey bees is a prime example. Nicotinic acid derived from tobacco is very effective but very deadly to everything, more so or equivalent to some of the worst organo-phosphate pesticides on the market. The track record for introducing non-native beneficials into an ecosystem has less than a stellar track record. More often than not the introduced beneficials become a worse pest problem than the original problem once they(benfecials) run out of target hosts and turn to other food sources. Environmental scientists can not even begin to scratch the surface of the potential entire disruption to a ecosystem when non-native insects/animals are introduced. What outright scares me the most is that Scotts was/is working on a naturally short growing turf grass that would not need to be mowed. The entire world's ecosystem is dependent on the storage of the suns energy in grass crops - hay. If the pollen from this grass would be viable and x-pollinate to forage crops, every organism on this planet immediately becomes endandgered - well maybe not the cockroaches, but everything else.