Hah, yes the Stapelia stinks, LOL. From three feet you smell nothing, from 3 inches you smell rotten fried chicken, sweaty adolescent gym socks, and maybe a bit of cat poop, hah! The agave pics are just wonderful, GermanStar and DLG that barrel cactus is wonderful. The blooms are gorgeous! This has been one of the best monsoons ever for my little garden, with over 7 full, real inches of rain since June 1st (I have several rain gauges and compare with friends in the neighborhood too (N. Scottsdale)). Sorry others haven't had as much good, soaking rain. My 75 gallon rain barrel is absolutely full and it only catches rain from 20% of the roofline. Anyway, great fun pics everyone, keep them coming! Here's nothing fancy, but still pretty, a flower on my 'Golden' variety of pomegranate. I've gone overboard with pomegranates in this garden (thank you AZ Rare Fruit Grower's club, hah!) and really glad I have. My friends are calling my house Casa Granada now (pomegranate house in Spanish). I think I have seven different varieties now, oink oink oink. Happy gardening all! Here is a link that might be useful: Pics from my garden August 2013

This year I found a 'maurelii' banana at the local nursery so have a couple along with my musa basjoos in pots and flower beds. I also found a musa zebrina (blood banana) but I really don't think it's liking full sun. Interesting though, there's an impatien plant in the same pot that's doing well in full sun. My cavendish banana from last year is indoors as a houseplant and seems to be doing much better, I guess it didn't really like full sun when it was outside. I bought an 'improved meyer' lemon and so far so good (nice growth). My spindle palm is about to open it's only new leaf of the summer. My bismarck and fan palm from last year are only former versions of themselves (from growing indoors in poor light for the winter) but are back outdoors and doing good. My latest thinking, with this cool summer, is to analyze tropical plants that seem to do good no matter what the summer. The moonflower, morning glory, persian shield, begonias, nicotiana, petunias and even easy-to-grow marigolds seem to be doing fine. I am coming to the conclusion that my mandevilla is growing so slowly that it's not really worth the effort especially in a cool summer. It's only two feet high and not really filling out a trellis. Every gardener can probably relate to planting something, giving it a prime location and hoping it makes a big impact, and then have it just sit there and do nothing. I also have my rubber plant growing outside for the summer and am trying a Wollemi pine - I just had to have it. Part of my thinking for this year was that summer, even when we have nice summers, are so short. Therefore for alot of my plants I started with ones growing in a pot (example morning glory) rather than start from seed. Happy tropical gardening, Glen

Hello Ladies, I just wanted to stop by and see if this forum was still around. I am so happy all of you kept it going. Looks like you are all having a great time. I also wanted to apologize for disappearing off the face of the earth. Medical issues had to take the front seat and at the same time my poor OLD computer died. Have a borrowed one for now. I have really missed all of you, Sorry I did not know how to get in touch with one of you to let you know what happened. I will be getting rid of most of my plants and daylilies over the next year as I can no longer take care of the huge gardens I have. I am going to be drastically downsizing. If anyone is interested just email me and I will give you further details. I sure have missed all of you. I already said that didn't I? For those of you that are also on the Traveling Daylilies please pass the message on my downsizing on to them and let them know I have really missed them as well. God Bless you all and hope you all had a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving. Deni X's and O's to you all.

g'day paradisi, for me i can't understand why we should expect the authority to solve our gardening problems. water is getting to be a scarce if not a very expensive commodity and from what i see and read behind the picture portrayed by the administration on tv it is going to get a whole lot worse and there is no qick fix, may never be a fix at all? the way i see it if we want gardens then we have to do gardens that need little or no water (basically survive on rain water alone), to get the best result then you will need to have some understanding of your micro climate as that will play a major part in what you can successfully grow in a near waterless garden. eg.,. if you have a western aspect then your micro climate will be far more extreme than someone with a northern aspect. some steps to get real serious about are: 1.. install at least 1, 3,000 gallon tank 5,000 gallons is even better and 2 will be even more so. you don't have to pay to have pumps or gutter pipes fitted that is DIY stuff so very easy, just have the tanks delivered and sited where you want it/them. 2.. i've said this before and i guess i'll keep saying it because it works! your gardens will have to be very heavily mulched with spoilt hay type mulches and as the mulch breaks down redo it, on vege gardens keep it around 10"s thick around trees and shrubs around 20"s 3.. in hind site you may find your cottage type annual gardens are going to be very resource wasteful (just like lawns) or high in use at least so minimise them and keep those plants in one spot of your landscape. we all love ferns and stag's and tropicals of any sort but they are becomming impracticle as they often consume large amounts of water. 4.. get real about capturing and using all your waste water, the system doesn't need to be expensive, yes it may take some effort on the gardeners behalf but it is going to get valuable water to your plants, mostly for your vegetables as it is very difficult to make vege gardens that waterless as most veges need good moisture levels to produce. guess a lot of bad habits from affluent times are going to have to be changed, but good habits can become part and parcel just as much as bad habits are. there are businesse around that will supply recycled water and water your gardens for you so if you realy want to continue with your gardening style maybe that is a way for you, that way you alone pay for the excesses not others in the community. from all media i have seen from the administrators they are clearly saying grow indemic native plants in your landscape, they are not promoting anything else. all i have written above i have already done so i know it works and i will continue to do so even back here in the burb's, water restrictions aren't concerning me in the least. maybe it's bit the bullet time?? maybe go from pretty to practical?? if you need some help or advice or some analising of your situation or some lateral...