Like the other Texas members, I do NOT feel your pain. Large areas of Texas have been declared eligible for disaster relief because the extended heat and drought have wiped out farm crops and cattle forage. Those big round bales of hay sell for around $80 dollars apiece, and they feed about ten cows for about two days. I feel a little guilty about the water usage (from our well) that it takes to keep our large yard alive...there is a vivid line around the yard that shows where the sprinklers stop---green on one side, brown and crunchy on the other. We have a large pond, and I often think it would be very interesting to have a motion-activated camera out there at night, to see the parade of desperate wildlife. There is a deer that brings her twin fawns out to drink and search for a little grass on the far side of the pond from the house, in broad daylight now. Guess she can't wait for dark in these temperatures. I don't much like hummingbirds (I know, you bird-huggers are horrified) but I finally put out feeders for them after I saw a hummer trying frantically to get his beak into a collapsed morning glory bloom. Nothing is blooming outside the yard. It'll be interesting to see whether the winter brings opposite extremes. Laura

Where abouts are you, Wayne? Do you come to Saskatoon ever?(Watrous is even better!) I have four suckered plants that I want to get rid of..but they have already leafed out, so I'm sure they would die if I tried to ship them. If you will be in S'toon in the next little bit, let me know; I'm very willing to dig them out for you and we could meet somewhere. Free of charge! Just in case this happens to work: I'll be in S'toon this Friday. Another option, is if you ever drive on highway 16 up towards S'toon, I live about 15 minutes south on highway 2; I could meet you at the junction(there is a gas station there).

I tried that route years ago. Did not work well for me. Maybe if you rigged up a strap to keep it on or got one with a large bottom plate. My problem was the container barely fits on the truck. Three of my plants are in 20 gallon containers. I'm in construction and am pretty good at moving heavy things but its still tough. 2 of my plants I can not even lift and the other one is probably about 90 lbs. Plus I have two or three steps to deal with. Appliance dolly will not even do because the straps are not low down enough, need one with a strap way low. I'm sure I could fabricate up something but I just deal with it and drap the plants but getting up and down steps I have to tilt the plant more than I would like to plus they dont make these pots very easy to get a handle on. Cant lift from the top because the plant is taller than me and the smaller ones are still about 4 feet from the ground. Lucky its only twice a year although with all the rain I have been getting with lower temps (50's and 60's) I wanted to bring them back in but now they are soaked and probably weigh 20 pounds more. Thats why I think I'm going to set up a patio umbrella for them. Too much rain up here in MI this year.

OK, thanks all. I'm in the process of finding a new home for it. Question: once this plant is in the ground, is it a pretty self-sufficient plant? In other words, should it do ok even for a non-gardener...and so long as the person waters the plant, along with the rest of their yard, on a daily basis in the summer? Or could mildew etc and lack of attention to it, kill the plant? I'm trying to find a 'gardener' type person to take it but not sure I'll be able to find such a person. I may have to give it to a person with little to no gardening experience....