ItÂs time to announce the second annual South East Texas Tomato Fest (SETTFest) 2008. What is it? A gathering of tomato growers and their friends who want to share and taste different varieties of homegrown tomatoes. When is it? June 21, 2008 Setup is at 11am Tasting begins at Noon Where is it? Washington on the Brazos park 20 minutes from Brenham, TX Who will be there? Tomato gardeners, farmers, and their friends from Texas and surrounding areas. We are currently working on updating the SETTFest website to include maps and information about this year's event. If you are planning to attend, it would be helpful to us if you could fill out the Survey, including listing any food items you plan to bring. Iced Tea, Diet Sodas, and Water will be provided, as well as Greek Pasta Salad (we'll pick the best tomatoes and cucumbers and make it right there!). The survey helped us with planning last year. Last year we had 25 attendees and nearly 90 tomato varieties available to taste. You can view photos of last year's event in our Photo Album. What better place to hold this event than historic Washington on the Brazos -- the Birthplace of Texas, and home to the Barrington Living History Farm, a working farm that we might all want to visit once we're all tomatoed out. We hope to see plenty of fellow tomato lovers at the 2008 South East Texas Tomato Fest!

I lived in SoFla for 30 years and while well grown Queens are gorgeous trees they are messy and dirty plus need yearly frond removal. Most residential lots can't handle Royals. Over the years I had all of my Queens removed and replaced with self pruning varieties like Solitaires and Christmas Palms and Foxtails and Sargeants. I had many Licuala varieties and they all did well as long as you choose the spot carefully. Even had a nice Lipstick, although I had to create a micro-climate for that one. Bottles and Spindles and Bismarkias and all the Latanias were staples as well along with Teddy Bears and Princess and Carpenters. Lots more- the frequent Palm shows and sales serve to keep palm addicts enabled, LOL. Soil was mostly coral rock mixed with construction rubble but it was very easy to grow things as long as you feed on schedule. Just remember that after you get your dream garden done all it takes is one storm to wipe you out. Ask me how I know. It broke my heart so bad I left (thankfully at the top of the real estate bubble) and never looked back. Nice dream but unless you have the funds to start over after a catastrophe the dream is not always the reality.

I think the best place for a tomato festival announcement would be right here in the tomato section. I went to the first one last year and it was great. Looking forward to this year.

I have Twilight Zone, but own root from Chamblees. It is normally purple. Mine doesn't seem to look hot pink. Anyway Kublan- you must have missed one :) because I just picked up my order from Pop's and I found my Distant Drums. Ooooh and I'm glad you did cause its a beauty. My car smelled so good by the time I got him home. I picked up my friend's order as well. I thought all of our bushes looked really nice and healthy. Thanks so much for letting us know about the nursery. For those of you interested in Secret - or anything that was missing from this shippment, the girl told me that they are going to get another shipment probably Late Nov. or early December. You may want to call and see if she thought they would get it in by then. Again, Thanks. I love my new roses.