We are in the SF Bay Area also. We just plant the seeds directly into the ground. They take off quite fast. I think we usually plant in March but this year we have alot of rain so I think it will happen later. After all these years with this melon it seems that it doesn't really matter if we do a headstart in pots or not. The plant actually seems hardier when it is sown outdoors. HwLee... our very first year we grew these were from 4 seeds that were given to my mom. We harvested well over 200 melons that summer and autumn! I did tend to the vines often with Miracle Grow etal...Since I didn't remember where the root of it was I sprayed the entire plant every 2-3 weeks. As the years past I didn't even bother to fertilize or even water. It grows like a weed! We barely watered them after the vines were about 3 feet long. And my mom has even cut up and dried some of the melons. They actually make a much tastier stock. Though they are darker in color. Wellspring... These melons if they are fully matured can keep for years. The way my mom has taught me to check for fully matured melons is to check the hardness of the skin. It is full ripe if you can't put your thumb nail through the exterior. We just leave them until I can see the stem of the melon starts to turn brownish. And still you can use the seeds from that same melon to dry. I have done this frequently. You can also use these melon like a hairy gourd melon when they are young. I think in a similiar thread somebody told me his Filipino wife harvest shoots and stirfried them. I'm a bit leary since they seem so hairy! Good luck your SFM this year! I was trying to post some pics but the files are too big for GW.

It's not unusual for nurseries to get names wrong, plants sometimes come from their suppliers with a wrong name also. But there are"names" and there are "names". Sometimes plant dealers, to make their plants seem unique, give them a name. They are the only supplier, under that name. So the name means nothing, it's just a marketing ploy (think back to the story of Kiwi Fruit, in actual fact Chinese Gooseberry). Then sometimes some dealers get hold of a plant that looks extra good and they clone it so they have exact genetic copies. They can register that with another name, and get a patent on it. One interesting case is the plant sometimes referred to as Alocasia "Hilo Beauty". An American (professional) plant collector found it in South America. Not being a botanist, not knowing that Alocasia only occured in Asia through to Australia, and not really knowing what an Alocasia looked like, he decided it must be an Alocasia. To make it more marketable it need to come from Hawaii, so he called it Alocasia "Hilo Beauty". There were people who realised it wasn't an Alocasia but thought it must be a Colocasia, you get those in Hawaii (the Polynesians took them there). When the scientific examination was done, turns out it was a Caladium, a South American genus. But there are those who refuse to accept its non-Hawaiian status and say it only botanists trying to change things around again. You need to realise that when you're speaking in scientific terms it's very precise. But when you're dealing with marketing, well ... then it's Raffety's Rules, anything goes. Scientific names are regulated quite strictly. There are set rules for naming as well as for later changing names. The centre point for those records is Kew Gardens. They work in with botanic gardens and institutions from around the world. It keeps a tight lid on things when it's all kept under the one roof, so to speak.

Go for it! I suspect the grafted plant you get, in all those colours you describe will actually be a hybrid between C.ficifolia and Corymbia ptychocarpa or something else - but that's what you want, really. The hybrids have names like "Summertime Red". They vary a bit in size and shape. Check the labels. My "Summertime Red" fills about 4m. It took about ten years to get there, though. You might like to plant a group of 3 in the centre of your space. They will shape themselves around each other and look like a single multi-trunked tree, but fill the space quicker. There's no reason why it should break off at the graft unless you neglect it and let shoots grow from below. Never let anything come from below the graft of anything at all that's grafted! Trish

Wow - this thread has really taken off, hasnt it ? Thanks again to everyone for their suggestions. I am reasonably au fait with most of the suggestions for the feature tree, with the exception of the bottle tree, but plants such as Native Gardenia are something of an unknown. I am also very wary of the impact of the Rocky sun on many rainforest species, even those marked 'full sun' : establishing the microclimate which allows these plants to take full sun is probably better left to species such as acacia and melaleuca. Experience has taught me that there are exceptions, and the Penda in my last garden has gone from strength to strength in the furnace that is our afternoon sun - its currently alive with yellow flowers and is bushy right to its bootstraps. I have recommended the various E. Ficifolia / E. Ptychocarpa hybrids (now Corymbias, I believe) to my friend, but the grafted rootstock seems to constrain them to no more than 5-6 metres, and I believe that I need something more in the 12m plus range to shield the front of the house from the blistering afternoon sun. It also needs to be sufficiently dense at the top to make 'worthwhile' shade, without being a menace to people standing beneath it. Ultimately, it will come down to the stock that Fitzroy Nurseries have in May - most of the other nurseries just dont persist with anything larger than 14" pots. I'll let you know how I get on. Cheers, Artie