Bob, Larry Gene tells us that readership on this forum is MUCH lower in the winter than in the summer. Don't be discouraged if you get relatively few replies during this time period. I hope that you will take advantage of Larry Gene's offer to add this to our FAQs. Even if you have to sacrifice an illustration or two, the basic information will help those of us who want to improve our butterfly photography. BTW, I'm passing on this series to Jon Beard who posted several great pictures on the Monarchs on Tithonia on this page or page 2. I think the 2 of you might want to collaborate on a book on butterfly (micro) photography. mike

Hi Terrence! I hope that you and Mrs. Plantermunn are doing well. And thanks for the "good reading" comment. I LIKE Bloody Butcher. It produces lots and lots of tomatoes per plant and they are pretty early. They have good tomato flavor. Someone told me once that they thought Bloody Butcher and Fourth of July were essentially the same, but I don't think that is true. I think Bloody Butcher tastes a LOT better. The fruit are small (ping pong to a little less than tennis ball size) but you get lots of them! Cherokee Purple. I had trouble the first two years I tried to grow this one, but from the third year on, it has been great. WONDERFUL flavor. If I could only grow 5 varieties every year, one of them would be Cherokee Purple. By the way, I also grow Cherokee Green and Cherokee Chocolate. They all taste the same--the difference in them, I guess, is just the color of the skin. Christmas Grape is just an typical red grape-type tomato. I don't mean that in a negative way either--it is very productive and has the usual grape tomato taste. Yellow Pear is a very pretty tomato. It looks great in a salad, especially when mixed in with cherry or grape tomatoes in other colors. Its flavor is mild and sweet and it produces nonstop in my garden. Sometimes it has so many fruit that I get tired of picking them. It is not my favorite small yellow tomato, but it is worth growing. People seem very divided on it--either they love it or they hate it. My DH's boss loves it, so I grew it just for him for years and years. Now, I'd rather grow Ildi. For what it is worth, some years (the wetter years) yellow pear tomatoes split a lot, but not so much in drier years. If you've never grown SunGold, I think it is much better than Yellow Pear, with a sweeter, richer flavor. Garden Peach is a unique tomato, with an almost fruity flavor. Kellogg's Breakfast is very good, but in my garden, the similar Nebraska Wedding has superior production and flavor. It is interesting that most people who love KB won't even talk about NW and vice versa. I don't know why. This year I am going to grow them side by side and do a serious comparison. (Most years I have grown one of them one year and the other the next year. I want to taste them as grown side-by-side and see which one "wins".) Golden Jubilee has been a real winner in my garden. It has everything you want--great disease resistance, great flavor, the ability to keep pumping out tomatoes in our hottest weather, and the golden tomatoes are so pretty to look at too. Delicious was one of the biggest tomato-growing disappointments in my life. Maybe you will have a better experience. I wasn't trying to grow a record-setting tomato like Gordon Graham's, but just thought that a tomato named "Delicious" had to taste good. Well, as grown in my garden in an admittedly wet year, it was not that delicious in flavor, and I never grew it again. You'll have to let me know how it does for you. Green Zebra was interesting to look at, but I wasn't really crazy about the flavor. The only Green-When-Ripe tomato that I truly adore, though, is Aunt Ruby's German Green. It has a really unique, almost spicey flavor that is hard to describe. Maybe it is just me, but green-when-ripe tomatoes always seem to be less tasty than I'd expected. Well, Cherokee Green is an exception, because it tastes JUST LIKE Cherokee Purple....the only difference being the skin color! I haven't grown Fuzzy Peach so cannot comment on it. This year I am growing Wapsipinicon Peach. Keep in mind, Terrence, that what tastes good to my taste buds could taste entirely different to yours. Also, I think different varieties taste differently when grown in different soils and even different growing conditions. To me, too, tomatoes grown in hotter, drier weather always have better flavor. I hope you have a great tomato crop this year. Which tomatoes are you going to make juice out of? Dawn

Romy that single harvest would be enough for me :D amazing variety and healthy fruits, just beautiful. and the last one looks awesome, i also buy from semillas, this year i had one variety not turn out as it should, an anuum though so not so exciting. i would love to trade/buy for some of those seeds, especially if the plant is vigorous and fertile. peps22, i am going to selfishly assume you are talking about my plants? you'll hear everyone parrotting a min 5 gallons for peppers, but i doubt many people actually gave it a shot growing in smaller pots and tested the theory. the key is growing media that doesn't degrade (mine is pine bark and expanded clay) and feeding both foliar and root. it is actually a semi hydroponics system,especially this one i have constructed. i'm in zone 7b/8a, europe, with a climate that has quite low air humidity for peppers most of the time, hence the "pool" works even better.

So glad to see you, JC, Barbara, Chargreen, and Tinmantu. Barbara, how did the conference go? The new dress and the party? JC, as always, I love your perspective. Yes, I see a difference between newly single and those that are "confirmed" single. I hope we help all to be comfortable with both. Chargreen, I am waiting for some vacation days to get out and play in the dirt. Right now, I only have time to pull weeds and mow. I want to dig and plant. I may come home from my mother's with a dog. My sister is going thru a divorce. She has a five month old german sheperd, which she cannot keep. Sigh. I did want a dog since the break=in. But conceeded I dont have a secure enough fence. Two sides are only four foot picket. Deteriotaring, falling down, and propped up. I have a screened in back porch. It wont keep in a dog determined to get something on the outside. I told my sister, I would be last resort. If she could not find anyone, I would take her till she could find a suitable home. Why do I feel so bad? I grew up around German Shepherds. My family breed and showed them. I was a handler. The one dog we had and I handled was Best of Show in Dallas, Tx. Since leaving home, I had two minature Schnauzers. Wonderful dogs. I have two cats, indoor only. The screened in porch is their taste of outside. I don't know how to incorporate the dog and the cats. Maybe since the dog is young. I have posted this question before on the Pet's forum. So, it is my release. I dont know what to do. I sooo want to help and I feel sooooooo guilty.