Congratulations on your herb garden. I've been growing several varieties of basil in a bay window in my kitchen for a little over a year now. It actually does well for me in terra cotta pots though they need daily watering in the summer heat. I now have some chives growing there as well but most of the window is taken over by plastic pots with various seedlings since things sprout good for me there. The basil has been manageable for me there cause I use a lot of it so am always pinching to keep the plant short and the variety of basils in terra cotta pots make the window look very nice. I found that plastic pots stay wet too long there and some plants don't like that. I do tend to overwater though and have to watch myself. Herbs are really fun to grow and your cooking will taste so much better than using dried herbs from the store. I'm still pretty new at this myself but growing herbs has been very rewarding for me. Ania

Hi alexcortez, If I ever get any of those seeds I will let you know (it's likely next year I will have some of them). Have you thought about selling seeds both onsite and online? That would give extra income and also help people who wants to grow some of the rare species. Tomas

Outdoors will be problematic. If you were in Durban it'd be much better. However, there are agricultural frost cloths you can use to protect plants. These may not prevent leaves being burned by the cold. If the plant gets set back/dies back but survives it will sucker prolifically. You'll end up with a not so tall thicket. This can also happen if they dry out too much or get damage on the trunk. If you could grow it against a north facing wall (masonary or concrete) that retains heat and put a cover over it during cold nights that might work. But I still think you'd get a lot of leaf damage that would look unattractive for long periods. In a pot you could always cut the top off when it gets too tall and then just grow the suckers on until they get too big. Plants don't really adapt, not like people. And people really only adapted by wearing animal furs, lighting fires and living in caves when the weather was bad. Plants aren't at that stage and need us to that sort of thing for them.

Ronald: Yes, I have two seedling abiu trees. One has fruited one time, but I never got to tatse the fruit as we went away on vacation just before they were ready to be picked and they were gone when we returned. Here are some pictures I posted previously in another thread on this forum. Unforunately this bloom pictured, was only on one of the trees, and no fruit set. Actually, this particular tree has bloomed several times over the past few years (and multiple times per year) and has never set a fruit. I may have to take the chain saw out and let it rest by the trunk of the tree for a few days to see if that gets any rise out of the darn thing. There is a wide range of quality of fruit on Abiu, just like in Star Apple. How did your's compare?