guard your plants :) currently experimenting with agricultural silicate, which strengthens the roots against drought and lacerates any larvae in the soil, making it effective prevention against the fungus gnats that generally home in on and chew through seedlings otherwise. i also sprinkle ceylon cinnamon around seedlings to repel gnats. BTI helps, but the silicate is the best solution i have found. the trick is to culture or secure a microclimate. far east speedway is mesquite forest which is more accomodating than areas a mile or two away.

Xuan I love your space!!!! It looks well-protected but also breezy and open. Well done! Josh I grow mine in full sun too and at 6500' thats a lot of sun-- but the plants thrive in it. I don't know what others do or what the books say (Read's book?) but my plants-- especially the pap- get over 12 hours of direct sun at the height of the Summer. The trick is keeping them well watered and fed-- given that they won't hold back. Of course, I have to ease my plants into outdoor growing. The change in sun intensity from inside to outside is exceptional for these plants and then add in the fact that I live in a high-wind area, it takes me a while to slowly move my plants into the full sun areas. Once there, they usually shed many of their winter leaves and replace them with very thick summer ones that with-stand the Spring winds. Of course, if we get a hail storm, they lose all of their leaves, but on advice from mental health professionals, I don't think about that possibility any longer. LOL

Okay, I was up yesterday morning at 4:00 am and puttering around the house. I ordered a set of three EE from Cottage Farms. One is almost black in color, the other varigated, and one just the big heart shaped leaves. I will not know the species until they arrive but they looked so pretty and the only ones I had were from Wally World. I live in the boonies so there are no Asian Markets handy and I really dont want to drive to OKC or Tulsa just for EE's. My DH thinks I am obsessed with gardening anyway. But I did not have to pay an arm and leg for the different EEs and by the time you pay for the gas etc to travel to find the EEs I figured it was cheaper. Susan, I plan on planting them on the south side so I will have them in the sun and should not have to worry about winter rot like I had on the north side. Now that the fence is back up and I have all the junk thrown away I am going to town on that side. I want to walk out my kitchen door and have a good view. Stephanie

OK, After several postings (which I can't delete and replace with this), Here is my final posting of wants and haves - which supercedes prior postings: Specific Wants: Yucca pallida (pale leaf yucca) Mexican Mint Marigold - Charloote to provide Damianita Agave colorata or paryii, or victoria-reginae Fall Aster Hardy sedums - Omar to provide Have: (and plan to bring) Variegated Turks Cap Senecio himilaya glauca Kalanchoe - variegated (bluish with cream margin) Cuphea igneus (David Varity) - the dwarf one Hamelia patens dwarf form (dwarf hummingbird bush) Trichytis formosiana 'Guilt Edge' - yellow variegated margin Prerskia bleo Tricolor Hypericum Pandanus veitchii variegata - Tropical aka Screw Pine Pandanus baptisti aureo variegata - Tropical Colocasia 'black magic' Xanthosoma 'Golden Delicious' - pale yellow tropical foliage Cuttings of Thailand hybrid crown of thorns, var. colors Eleagnus pungens maculata - yellow leaf centered variegation Other last minute plants I might grab. Prearranged trades are welcomed before or after the swap - see my entire plant list at www.houstongardening.info/plantlist.htm I will wear a bright red shirt, be wearing glasses and a Master Gardener name tag on at the swap. Looking forward to meeting everyone. Bob Beyer, NW Austin