I'm in the Bay Area. I have found that growing orange trees in containers does not allow them to grow to their full potential. Lemons do real good in containers though. And if you need more heat, the suggestion to plant your tree so that it is near reflected heat from a house or fence is a good one. This also gives some frost protection. I have a mandarin tucked in under the eaves and boy oh boy does it like that spot. It is loaded with fruit and although the fruit is not ripe yet, I can tell you they are delicious. No seeds either. I'll try to find which variety it is and report back. The selection of citrus at the big box stores is pretty good these days and if you shop carefully, you can find some real nice specimens. I have recently planted a Cara Cara orange (no fruit yet) and I also have a mature navel and a valencia that produce real good. The navel oranges are ripe now. They are very good and I can assure you that none rot under the tree cause we eat them all. The tree is 30 years old. All my trees are dwarf varieties. Despite the occasional nasty frost some years in this area, orange trees in this area do very well once established.

Cactus, Yes, now that I'm becoming more familiar with the myriad array of succulents, I'm seeing them EVERYWHERE! :) It's quite fun. I'm still working on putting Part 2 together - I think I'm going to divide that up further to make a Part 3: Cannery Row (proper), because there's just too many still for one post. And I'm still itching to go back and take more! There were plants outside the hotel we stayed at that I didn't get to shoot because my battery died; and I had wanted to take pics at that State Park halfway between the hotel and Cannery Row. (It's only about 600 miles from where I live... I can make that drive in a few days, camp out in my car, live off of granola bars for a while...) *teehee* Interesting you say Portulaca, because I can totally see the Portulaca in it now. :) I'm jealous - I've always wanted to go to the DLI; my husband was pondering it while we were up there, too. I don't know that I could settle on one single language, though. I've always wanted to learn Russian; but my Mandarin needs a lot of work (hubby's side of the family is Chinese, and I want to be able to converse with his dad & stepmother); Japanese is a beautiful language; but my side of the family is Arabic (at least in part), and I've always wanted to be able to speak with my grandmother in her native tongue. Oh, choices! (All of which are moot, since I'm not attending the school.) Ok, back to work on Part 2! CG

Try a search for California Red Scale. Is that it?

Wow....what an amazing list of people.... too many of them no longer with us or active here. It is nice to remember some of their names and their struggles that we shared. Thanks for the memories.