@JMJ 4Life Really sorry to learn about your tree. I assume some part of the root mass is fused, so the soil/root mass remains intact like so: If the answer is yes, unpot the plant and set the root/soil mass on a stack of newspapers, rags, old towels, dry sponges - something that will PULL excess water from the soil. Allow it to rest on the wicking material for an hour or two before returning it to the pot it fits. Use a wooden "tell" to "tell" you when it's time to water, because with no water loss from foliage, the plant will require very little water. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips in order to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions - which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma and creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell' (more reliable than a 'moisture meter'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) works better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half or in several pieces, depending on how deep your pots are. Sharpen both ends of each tell in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell's tip comes out nearly dry. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al

Yes theoretically they could be importing their seeds - but this is a traditional dish, which means it's probably really old, and back then, farmers didn't buy seeds, especially not across oceans, and especially not poor countries (remember, Haiti started off as a bunch of slaves who just finally managed to free themselves). Even nowadays I'm pretty sure subsistence farmers in poor countries propagate their own vegetables in their vegetable gardens the old fashioned way - they don't HAVE any money to buy seeds. For example, you don't see any traditional American or European dishes that involve cassava or winged beans or papaya or breadfruit or durian or passionfruit. I mean sure, there's pineapple upside-down cake, but that only came after canned goods and trains for shipping items became widely available, and back in the early 20th century America was one of the few countries that had these economic/technological resources. Oh and you're right that daylength changes are important, but just plain old weather gradually getting colder until there are frosts will induce dormancy followed by flowering in temperate plants. Remember, even in tropical countries it can get cold up in the mountains (like the Andes - where the potato comes from originally) I'm guessing that maybe if you just leave the beets in the ground long enough they'll flower. They may not have that winter to induce them, but nature isn't stupid - EVENTUALLY you've GOT to reproduce. Maybe in like 10 months to a year or more they'll just eventually finally flower, winter or no winter.

First of all, I rarely post on this forum and have NEVER to my knowledge posted about Terra Nova before. Let alone ganged up with Gardengal to "rattle" about them. I run into Gardengal on many forums because we seem to have similar interests but I've never met her nor emailed with her though I'd like to. I usually post on Clematis and Northwestern Gardening though I visit many other forums occasionally. I was stunned to see someone criticizing Terra Nova which was done in the first post. To me Dan Heims is a local garden celebrity and hero to plant collectors everywhere. I have no knowledge of how long they trial their plants and no knowledge of their plants not doing well in other zones. I certainly am not admitting anything or modifying my defense rattle in any way because I haven't participated in any discussions about Terra Nova in the past. I have dozens of Terra Nova cultivars in my garden and don't have any problems with them other than Autumn Blush corepsis which I've killed twice. I do have an online friend who is in the garden design business in NY and she loves Terra Nova plants too. I do not work for Terra Nova, I was a florist for twenty three years and now sell gifts and home decor wholesale to stores. I have talked to Dan Heims once on the phone because I was interested in hiring one of his former employees. That is the extent of my personal contact with him. He gave her an excellent reference and I did hire her and she was an excellent employee but Terra Nova wasn't a big part of our conversations. I have toured their display garden twice as part of an open garden tour here called Le Tour des Plants in the fall. It is an amazing garden.

About 20 years ago, I put a pineapple top in a planter and had it on the front porch. About 2 years later, I noticed a little one growing in the top. It only got to about the size of a baseball, but it was so sweet. Pineapples don't travel well when ripe so all the ones in the stores are picked green and ripen on the way. Eating a ripe one right off the plant is incredible. Was reading up on pineapples and that "flower" is actually many little flowers, officially called an infloresence. They are unfertilized and according to what I was reading, hummingbirds aren't allowed in Hawaii because they would pollinate the pineapples, which would somehow mess them up as a fruit. Mike, that side growth is called a ratoon, and if left on the parent plant, should produce a pineapple in about a year. I also decided to grow some pineapples this year and have 5 growing. I'll transplant them to bigger pots when they get a bit larger, may even try to put one in the ground to see how it does. Here's a pic of the brood: