Yes, we have some bananas today..... The last of the banana plants that I had ordered arrived today. This ups my varieties to Double Mahoi, Super Dwarf Cavendish, Basjoo, regular Cavendish, Zebrinana, Williams, Dwarf Orinoco, and a variety that I haven't heard of before, Namwah. The Cavendish is the banana that one finds common in the grocery store. Wiliiams is another that is a commercial fruit. The others do produce edible fruit. There is an impending crisis in the banana community. There is a blight or something that is killing the cavendishs. Growers in central America are trying to breed a new sweet desert banana that will take the place of the cavendish when it succumbs to the blight. Researchers in the Netherlands are trying to genetically alter the cavendish to make it immune to the blight. I normally am militant about genetic engineering in our food crops, but I do like bananas. So I hope that if the breeders in central america don't succeed, the the European group does. This has happened before. The commercial banana for the first half of this century was the gros Michel. It succumbed to its own blight in the late fifties and early sixties. I still and looking for other species, especially the desert bananas. One that I particulary want goes by the name of "Blue Java" and "Ice cream." There are a lot of bananas that taste good, as desert bananas go, but they don't fit the criteria of being a comerical banana. Well, enough of banana history. I need to clean up a bit after potting up all eight varieties...

Here's a link to their site: Here is a link that might be useful: Rainy Day Brush-Off

So far, along with the the packets the boys took to school, we have planted hostas (about 10 of them) 2 bleeding hearts, 10 dahlia tubers, another 10 Allstar Strawberries, another type of canna tuber, marigolds (12 plants), Salvia (12 plants), Snapdragons (36 plants), Dusty Millers (36 plants), Alyssum (36 plants), wave petunias (24 plants),Lily of the Valley- 20 pink, 20 white. We have also planted marigold seeds - 4 packets (BIG packets), Cannas- two types 4 packages, Brazilian Fireworks 1 packet, Pride of Barbados 1 packet, 10 packets of Morning glories, 10 packets of perennial sweet peas, 5 packets of Forget me Nots, 10 packets of 4 o'clocks, 10 packets of Salvia, 5 packets of Lantana, 5 packets of butterfly weed, 5 packets of Ice plant. That's the count so far today. We're not finished yet, just came in to eat dinner and rest a bit. We'll work inside sowing more flats here in a little while :) Not sure how you're converting plants to packets of seeds, or how many seeds you're considering a packet. I know that a one of those marigold packets filled 2 72 count flats. But, however you're tallying it up, we've done a LOT of planting today! So, any ideas on how many carried through today? Or about how close you got to your goal? Kathy~ heading back to the seed sowing :)

Jeanne, I have very good memories of my teachers from that time... most were new hires that were very young, so it was easy to relate to them -- and aspire to be like them (especially thinking of Miss Baumgartner with her miles and piles of hair. :) And good luck with your corkscrew willow!!! A friend bought one and it was awesome (very pricey!) luvs, I don't have any delusions about my little fruit orchard. lol! I don't have much room at all (25' wide side yard), so they're being planted a little too closely. :O) One of the reasons I ordered more fruit trees was actually precipitated by the Arbor Foundation! I ordered a 'Prairie Fire' flowering crab from them many years ago... it turned out to be some ordinary apple tree, so I decided to get another apple tree, hoping for cross-pollination. :O) I used to grow out their saplings for a year or two and then give them away to friends and relatives... it's really neat when I see how large they all are now. slinkey, your inherited orchard must have been WONDERFUL! I'm planning to just let my trees take care of themselves. ;^) If I don't get fruit for myself, that's alright. I'm hoping to at least have some privacy/interest, nice spring blooms, and food for the birds/wildlife. I share and still get plenty of the elderberries and blackberries that I planted several years ago, so figure I have nothing to lose.