There are many, many possibilities for both deciduous fall foliage color as well as fall into winter flowering shrubs, perennials, trees and vines for sunset zone 18 locations. Get yourself a copy of the Sunset Western Garden Book which has excellent lists of plants for fall color, fall or winter bloom, shrubs, vines, flowering trees, etc. Depending on what some of your other criteria are; such as natives versus exotics, drought tolerance, fast versus slow growth, sun versus shade, etc, you can cross reference between the various lists to come up with plants that fit all parameters. In your zone, there is no reason a fall/winter garden can't be full of color. If you have reasonably good water quality(ie, not Colorado. River water), the South African Leucadendrons and Leucospermums can give great color fall through winter. If your water quality is poor, the South African Aloes are a good alternative. Tons of great succulents are drought tolerant with vividly colorful foliage and/or flowers. I'd suggest that visits to the LA Arboretum and the Huntington Botanic Garden in fall and winter would also be great places to visit to get ideas as well as see mature sized plants.

I know the original message was posted almost to years ago... But I cross all my vegetables. Just to see what I get mostly. I have many squash crosses. And many, many brassica crosses. I've also crossed peppers. Bell peppers X jalapeno. Jalapeno X ornamental Thia Hot. If interested in the results, let me know. As for brassicas. One intersting cross I made was a red indian mustard (Brassica juncea) and Chinese Cabbage (B. rapa). I mostly got empty pods with vestigial seeds. But I did get one viable seed. This bolted immediately and grew into a tall (about 4 1/2 feet) weedy looking plant. Leaves were very small and narrow and only slightly reddened. It branched heavily and flowered profusely. I only allowed other chinese cabbages and bok chois to flower at the same time and cut back any mustards that bolted. I let the bees do the work. At the end of the season, I had 13 seeds from this plant. I planted all of them the next year and they all grew. They all basically looked like mustard plants, some very red, some slightly red, and some green. I allowed them to be pollinated by other indian red mustards and and southern giant curled mustard (also B. juncea). I now have a very mixed mustard that I grow every year. They range from red through green. Some leaves have jagged edges, some have curly edges, while most are more rounded. Their seeds are bigger than typical mustard, more like B. rapa. They also cross more easily with othe B. rapas as well as B. juncea. Aproximately 25% of the seedlings have 3 or 4 seed leaves instead of 2! These for some reason are usually red. I once pollinated a brussel sprout from a wild winter cress just to test viability. The brussel sprout produced well developed fat seed pods but they were totally empty. I have many crosses including kale, kholrabi, broccoli, and/or cauliflower. I now have a strain of broccoli with white cauliflower heads that produces as early as broccoli. An annual kale X broccoli derivative was still growing and flowering in a pot in my yard here in N.H. until two weeks ago when I brought it into the heated greenhouse. It has been unuasually cold and into the 'teens many nights!! Two others potted next to it froze weeks before. Any more interest, contact andyspigeons@yahoo.com

I have never heard of a common name for Colquhounia. I suppose "Himalayan Mint Shrub" is as good as any, though really it tells you nothing more than it's a shrub, it's in the mint family, and it comes from the Himalayas. Boring! If Dee or plantsplus don't manage to post a mystery flower in the next few days, I suggest someone else should have a go. It's an activity that seems to revive interest in this forum. I remember 2-3 years ago we had the same sort of thing quite regularly.

The berry is the plantlet's initial food source. Just leave it be, it will eventually fall away or rot off. Just make sure (at this stage) that the roots are not exposed so sprinkle a little extra seed-raising mix on themif they are. Yes seedlings ARE slow. If you are concerned about frosts, by all means bring them in at night and put them outside again when its warmed up. They won't need light at night so basically anywhere they are not subject to extremes of temperature - somewhere warmer than outdoors but not near a window and not in direct line of your air-con or heating appliances.