Wonderful looking dragon fruit Bolt! Love it! My plants all got zorched by the odious winter of 2012-2013 but are slowly coming back. Yours looks great! Have you eaten it? Was it as good as the store bought ones? Nom nom nom! Great new pics, Dusti! Love the cupheas and the pink Malvaviscus. I really need to add pink and white to my "collection" of two varieties, hah. I've got green leaf with red flowers and variegated leaf with red flowers, plus a seedling from a seed I planted last autumn that's about 8 inches tall now. I imagine it will be red which is fine with me. I need more though, they're really great plants (I fell in love with them at the wonderful Tucson Botanical Garden where they have some awesome plantings of them). Anyway, your garden and plants all look awesome. How long have you had the Brunfelsia, and has it stayed happy? What conditions does it get? I've always been scared they would want more humidity than we can give it. We'd love to see/hear more. So nice to see the pics and updates all. The morning weather is great, isn't it? Even the warm afternoons aren't as warm for as long. Now if we can just get rid of the humidity, hah. Uber-quick pics from the garden: my variegated leaf Malvaviscus drummondii is blooming away under my grapefruit tree. I'm glad the variegation isn't burning in the partial sun it receives: Japanese honeysuckle (I know it's a weed in many places) is starting to bloom for autumn. Such a fun fairly well behaved vine here, and nicely green all year. Ruellias in pinks and purples are blooming like crazy: LAST autumn's sowing of hollyhocks is doing great and is really perking up with the cooler weather. They're in full hot sun and get no automatic irrigation. They did great even though I have five one-week trips this summer. Such little troopers that will definitely bloom in late winter/spring. Finally, some NEW hollyhock babies planted ten days ago. I planted a bunch from my own plants, plus some I picked up during a road trip to Santa Fe, NW a month ago (harvested from alley/parking lot plants, not from anyone's garden of course). Plant hollyhock seed now and you'll have nice plants that will coast through winter. Some will bloom their first spring, and almost all will their second spring and beyond. So easy and SO many great varieties out there. Happy gardening all! Grant Here is a link that might be useful: Pics from my garden, Sept 2014

I think you would get a better response on the fruit forum but here is my 2 cents: ---APPLES--- While you can fruit just about any apple irregardless of how many chill hours is claimed it needs, you must consider that some apples will turn to mush in a hot summer area (some apples need a cool summer to taste their best) ditto for blazing Indian summers (fall). I have not heard anything about Honeycrisp being an option in warmer areas but it could be that no one has experimented with it yet. Fuji, Golden Delicious, White Winter Pearmain, Anna, Dorsett Golden, Newtown Pippin have been tried and proved excellent (I live in a hot inland valley). There are some excellent books on apples, Apples for the 21st Century is one, there is a good eBook on growing apples in Riverside (applenut is on this forum) I think the website is Kuffelcreek.com. Honeycrisp aug Winter hardy tree from the University of Minnesota. Fruit is crisp and juicy with an aromatic flavor. Striped red over yellow color. Stores well. Ripens from late September to late October. Patent # 7197 Ashmead's Kernel sept Widely regarded as one of the all-time best-flavored apples. Small to medium-sized fruit; variable shape, often lop-sided. Greenish to golden brown russet skin with reddish highlights. Creamy yellow flesh is aromatic, crisp and sweet. Fruit picked early is somewhat sharp and acidic, but mellows after a few weeks off the tree. Ripens after Red Delicious, about with Golden Delicious. Keeps 3-4 months. Used for dessert, cider and sauce. Resistant to powdery mildew, somewhat resistant to apple scab. Winter hardy tree, begins bearing at young age. From England, discovered in the early 1700s. Estimated chilling requirement 800-1000 hours. Partly self-fruitful, biggest crops with cross-pollination. Yellow Newton Pippin oct Yellow-green, late, firm, crisp, slightly tart, superb flavor. For peak flavor and acid/sugar balance, wait to harvest til cheeks are yellowish-green (late Oct./ early Nov. in Central Calif.). Good keeper. Famous for cooking, excellent fresh or dried. Vigorous tree. 700 hours. Self-fruitful. ---APRICOTS--- What? no Blenheim? It's one of the best! Too fragile for shipping so you HAVE to grow your own. It's held in very high esteem by David Karp (along with Green Gage plums). If you get 600 chill hours I would definitely check out Harcot - while I have neither grown or tasted it I've only read excellent reports. Flavor Delight is delicious, I do grow that one. Flora Gold EARLY JUNE All-purpose freestone. Early harvest, 2-3 weeks before Blenheim (Royal). Very good quality, reliable producer (produces when other vareties don't). Good choice for backyard apricot. 500 hours. Self-fruitful. (Zaiger) Flavor Delight Aprium® interspecific JUN 5 Resembles an apricot but with a distinctive flavor and texture all its own. Pleasant, lingering after taste. Early June. 600 hours. Bigger crops if pollinated by any apricot. Pat.No. 7090 (Zaiger) Autumn Glo AUG Late season apricot with tremendous flavor. Ripens in the first two weeks of August. Fruit is medium sized with good color. One of the highest-scoring apricot varieties at Dave Wilson Nursery fruit tastings. ---PLUOTS--- Dapple Dandy is a very, very good pluot, bears well, looks beautiful, tastes better than just about any plum. Flavor Supreme Pluot® interspecific JUN 15 Taste test winner. Plum-apricot hybrid with sweet, richly flavored, firm red flesh. Greenish-maroon mottled skin. June harvest in Central California, about two weeks before Santa Rosa. 5-600 hours. Pollinated by Santa Rosa, Late Santa Rosa, or other Pluot®. Pat. No. 6763. (Zaiger) Flavor Grenade Pluot® interspecific SEP 1 Elongated green fruit with a red blush. Crisp texture and explosive flavor.. Taste-test winner. Hangs on the tree for 4 to 6 weeks. Pollenate with a Japanese plum. Estimated chill requirement: 500 to 600 hours. Patent No. 12097. (Zaiger) ---PLUMS--- I grow Weeping Santa Rosa - beautiful small tree (cut off any upright branches) delicious fruit, better than regular Santa Rosa. Laroda is supposed to be good one too. And Elephant Heart. You can always graft some other cultivars onto whatever you plant for variety (like some yellow plums). Beauty JUN 15 Sweet, flavorful plum, more widely adapted than Santa Rosa (more productive in coastal climates). Red overyellow skin, amber flesh streaked red. Ripens June in Central Calif. 250 hours. Self-fruitful. Weeping Santa Rosa Semi-Dwarf JUL 1 One of the most flavorful, aromatic Japanese plums when fully ripe. Beautiful 8-10 ft. tree, weeping growth habit - long slender limbs bow gracefully to the ground. Easily espaliered. 400 hours. Self-fruitful. Laroda AUG 5 Dark purple fruit similar to Santa Rosa, but larger and 5-6 weeks later. Excellent flavor, juicy, one of the best. Prolonged harvest: mid-July to mid-August. 400 hours. Pollenizer required: Santa Rosa, Catalina, or Nubiana. Emerald Beaut SEP 1 One of the highest-rated plums in blind fruit tastings at Dave Wilson Nursery. Light green skin, greenish-yellow to orange freestone flesh. Harvest begins late August in Central Calif. Ripe fruit continues to sweeten, becoming exceptionally sweet, but remaining crisp and crunchy. Ripe fruit holds on tree longer than any other stone fruit - two months or more! 6-700 hours. Pollenizer required: Beauty, Burgundy, Late Santa Rosa, Nubiana, Flavor King Pluot®. Pat. No. 9162. (Zaiger) Elephant Heart (NOT taste WINNER) SEP 1 Home-orchard favorite-large, heart-shaped fruit with sweet, juicy, richly flavored, firm red flesh. Dark reddish-purple mottled skin. Long harvest season-September in Central Calif. Hardy, heavy bearing. 500 hours. Pollinate with Beauty or Santa Rosa. ---CHERRIES--- I WISH I could grow Craig's Crimson! Whatever you grown, keep it small and throw bird-netting over it or you'll be lucky to get even one cherry. Craig's Crimson MAY Self-fruitful, natural semi-dwarf, perhaps the finest sweet cherry: dark red to nearly black, medium to large size, wonderful spicy flavor, very firm texture. Mature tree size about 2/3 of standard (smaller when budded onto Colt or Mahaleb rootstock). Mid-season. 800 hours. Pat. No. 7320.(Zaiger) Royal Rainier MAY 15 Large yellow cherry with slightly more red blush than Rainier. Excellent flavor, taste test winner. Ripens early, about 3 to 5 days ahead of Rainier. Estimated chill requirement: 600 - 700 hours. Van JUN 5 Very cold hardy, reliable, heavy bearing. Fine fruit similar to Bing, though usually smaller. Pollenizer required-interfruitful with all popular sweet cherries. 700 hours. ---FIGS--- I grow Violette de Bordeaux - my favorite, deep red, complex flavor. Janice Seedless doesn't compare it's just sweet, but good. I also grow Panache which is also delicious but I understand it doesn't grow well (taste good) everywhere. It seems to need a long hot season. Mission is a classic but it's a HUGE tree, I can't imagine planting that with two others in a hole. Janice Seed-Less Kadota AUG 10 New "white" fig. Large, sweet, delicious, light greenish-yellow fruit with practically no seeds. Prolonged harvest, August through November at Fremont, California. Suited to coastal and inland climates. Prune to any shape. 100 hours. Self-fruitful. Patent Pending. Celestial AUG 10 Purplish-brown skin, pink flesh. Widely adapted. Two crops per year - early summer and late summer to early fall. Prune to any shape. 100 hours. Self-fruitful. Black Mission AUG 10 The favorite. Purplish-black skin, strawberry- colored flesh, rich flavor. Heavy bearing, long-lived, large tree. Coast or inland. Fresh/dry/can. 100 hours. Self-fruitful. ---PEACHES & WHITE PEACHES--- So many excellent peaches to choose from...have a look at Bay Laurel Nursery catalog. Baby Crawford would definitely be on my list. Sugar May JUN 10 White-fleshed, sweetest peach of its season - mid-June, about one month before Babcock. Very juicy and sweet with fine flavor. High fruit-tasting scores. Excellent choice for early season peach. Medium to large size with attractive red skin. Estimated chilling requirement 600 - 700 hours. Self-fruitful. Pat.No. 8034 (Zaiger) Veteran JUL 10 One of the most reliable peaches for cold climates: winter hardy and late-blooming. Yellow to yellow-orange skin. Yellow flesh is freestone when fully ripe, and richly flavored. Harvest one week before Elberta. 900 hours. Self-fruitful. Loring JUL 20 Taste test winner. Superb large yellow freestone. Excellent flavor and texture, low acid. Harvests over 2-3 week period, mid to late July in central CA. Requires little or no thinning. Excellent for home orchard. 750 hours. Self-fruitful. Indian Free AUG 20 Taste test winner: one of the all-time highest-rated fruits at Dave Wilson Nursery fruit tastings. Large, firm freestone with crimson and cream-colored flesh. Tart until fully ripe, then highly aromatic with a rich, distinctive flavor. Highly resistant tto peach leaf curl. Late season. 700 hours. Another nectarine needed to pollinate. ---NECTARINES & WHITE NECTARINES--- I grow Arctic Star and so far I'm not thrilled. The flavor has been watery but could be culture (although I know not to water too much if at all when the fruit is ripening). I'd love to grow Liz's Late. I chose Heavenly White for a family member in Central Calif. and I've heard excellent reports of Independence. Arctic Star JUN 10 Early-season, super sweet, white fleshed nectarine. Low in acid, no tartness. Rave reviews in trial tastings. Semi-freestone with beautiful dark red skin. Harvest approximately June 10th to 30th at Hickman, Calif. Self-fruitful. Pat. No. 9332. (Zaiger) Flavortop JUL 15 Firm, yellow freestone with excellent quality. One of the highest scoring nectarines varieties in DWN fruit tastings. One of the very best! Ripens in mid-July in Central California, between Independence and Fantasia.Susceptible to bacterial spot and tender to winter cold. Large showy blossoms. 650 hours. Self-fruitful. Liz's Late Nectarine AUG 25 Sprightly-sweet, intense, spicy flavor - the State of the Art in fruit breeding. Overall score of 7.5 at the August 25, 1995 Dave Wilson Nursery fruit tasting - one of the highest scores for any yellow nectarine or peach to date. Late August to early September in Central California. 600-700 hours. Self-fruitful. Pat.No. 9437. (Zaiger) NO TASTE TESTS DATA....but still on my list..... ---PERSIMMON --- I did alot of research on Persimmons - I grow four in a hole, Chocolate (male blossoms to pollinate the "cinnamon" persimmons), Hiyakume (I chose this over Coffeecake because all reports were mediocre for Coffeecake), Suruga and Maru. I haven't tasted Chocolate yet (only a couple fruit but the squirrels have tasted it) the others are excellent. Don't miss out on Saijo - it's supposed to be like caramel, the name means "the best one." Bay Laurel has it. I'm not a fan of crisp persimmons, I grew up with Hachiya which is a fine cultivar too. Soft Chocolate Small to medium size, oblong, bright red skin. Sweet, spicy, firm, brown flesh, superb flavor-the choice of connoisseurs. Astringent until ripe. 200 hours. Self-fruitful. Firm Fuyu - Jiro ("Apple Persimmon") Medium size, flat shape, still hard when ripe, non-astringent. Cool or hot climate. Hardy, attractive tree, practically pest free. Fall harvest. 200 hours. Self-fruitful. Firm Coffeecake (Nishimura Wase) Anxious Fuyu lovers, who await the fall harvest with great anticipation can now experience an expanded season of delectable persimmon flavors. CoffeeCake persimmon, pollinated by Fuyu Imoto and ripening a month earlier, has a unique spicy-sweet flavor that instantly brings to mind images of cinnamon pastry, hot coffee and morning sunshine. If you are considering a Fuyu...plant it together with CoffeeCake for the perfect persimmon experience. CoffeeCake's spicy complexity contrasts with the delicate, sweet, flavor of Fuyu. Both varieties are flat-shaped, non-astringent, and eaten while still firm. Consider this: Romeo and Juliet, Laurel and Hardy, Mark and Sammy, sugar and spice, peaches and cream, CoffeeCake and Fuyu! Tamopan Large, flat-shaped fruit with thick, reddish-orange skin and light orange flesh. Flesh is astringent until soft-ripe. Vigorous, heavy-bearing tree. 200 hours. Self-fruitful. ---POMEGRANITE--- I personally wouldn't bother with Wonderful, it's just too ubiquitous. There are so many other "wonderful" pomegranates to try, do a search on GardenWeb, JoeReal has tried them all (or nearly) and has compared them. Wonderful Large, purple-red fruit with delicious, tangy flavor. Best quality in hot inland climate. Gaudy red-orange bloom, ornamental foliage. Long-lived, any soil. 150 hours. Self-fruitful. Eversweet Very sweet, virtually seedless fruit. (Even immature fruits are sweet.) Red skin, clear (non-staining) juice. Harvest late summer through fall. Coast or inland. 8-10 ft. arching shrub, or train as tree or espalier. Large, showy, orange-red flowers. 150 hours. Self-fruitful. Pat. No. 5418 Kashmir Blend Medium size pomegranate with light pink-red exterior. Ruby red seeds have intense flavor with no overbearing acidic taste. Plant has a slightly spreading growth habit and can also be grown as a tree. Keep any height with summer pruning. Excellent source of antioxidants- eat fresh or use in cooking. Requires 150-200 chill hours. Self fruitful. ---Paw Paw--- Maybe you'll have better luck but on CRFG garden tours the hosts usually point abjectly in the direction of the pawpaws and just say it's over there. Not much luck getting these to fruit in the Mediterranean climate. I hope this helps. Grafting is fun and easy to learn and do. JoeReal has a tutorial video on that too. Rebecca's Gold PawPaw From California. Large, late season fruit. Paw paws are slow-growing, deciduous, pyramidal-shaped trees with large, tropical-looking leaves. Fruit has custard-like texture and delicious, banana-like flavor. Harvest just as skin turns greenish-yellow and fruit begins to soften - in about October. ---lucia in west coco county ios_lrh@yahoo.com

To answer both of your questions--well, heat IS relative... Too much is when your Fuchsia gives up and dies... Let me explain what the risk is... It's not quite so much heat PER SE. While not exactly prime Fuchsia country, a few people grow them in California's sizzling Central Valley. They will survive there with shade and irrigation. Bear in mind that nights are surprisingly cool there despite the daytime heat. There are two problems. One is that the chemical processes that keep them alive are optimized for relatively cool temperatures. I don't know what those would exactly be, but probably between about 50-70F. As the temperature rises, they get more sluggish. At some point, especially with warm nights, their chemistry starts shutting down. Temperatures in the 80s are warmer than they actually like, in the 90s downright stressful, and in the 100s they are probably wilting. Dry heat is deadly to most Fuchsias--OK, let's talk about the ONE exception I am aware of: Fuchsia lycoides is native to near-desert in north-central Chile, just south of the Atacama desert!!! Funny thing with small leaves (to reduce transpiration). It is RARE in cultivation and most plants called that in the biz are NOT the real thing. It is very distinctive--if you had it, you'd know it! The rest of them turn crisp in dry heat as they do not have much defense against excessive dehydration. What is likely to finish them off is disease. While their own chemistry is sluggish, diseases like Phytophthora thrive in warm, muggy weather. While their resistence to Phytophthora is higher than that of a lot of their South American compatriots, I have heard enough sad stories of them collapsing suddenly in the southeastern states to realize that it is a risk for them. Dragon, is your trailing Begonia a tuberous kind? They like similar conditions. Yes, keeping the roots cool will help a lot. That's one reason I DON'T grow the hanging bastet types; when they are in the ground their roots are better protected. I would have to water them daily in hot weather (not easy for me to accomplish) but worse I would have to take them down and trench them in for the winter, because their roots will not survive hard freezes. I'm actually not south of you, but quite a ways north! Seattle rates a zone 8b because although summers are relatively cool here, winters are not particularly cold because the mountains east of us shelter us from the big continental cold-front systems, while humid marine air makes almost constant cloud cover in the winter that keeps our winter nights from getting as cold as yours. It's a deceptive rating system because my climate doesn't really much resemble Houston's! Here we have the kind of climate they really like: not too hot, not too cold! They are mostly from high elevations in the tropics, where the weather is "eternally springlike", or on the other hand they also exist in southern Chile at low elevations (the ubiquitous Fuchsia magellanica, which forms extensive thickets in the woods of southern Chile), where the climate is very similar to mine: mild summers, mildly chilly winters, and rainfall peaking late autumn, early winter. They used to be popular here through about the 1950s. Every retired chap had to have one hanging next to his window, so that he and the grandkids could watch the hummingbirds feeding on them. There were hundreds of varieties available then. Then their popularity went into decline, and only about a dozen types are still grown, and not as ubiquitously as they used to be. The most heat-tolerant of their kind that I am aware of is the beautiful Fuchsia triphylla from the Caribbean. It tolerates humid (not dry!) heat, and can also grow in dry heat with plenty of irrigation and some shade. Alas it is also VERY tender, freezing to death at about 32F/0C. For you I am afraid it would be an annual, unless you brought starts into a protected place for the winter. It has been bred and there are many lovely named varieties of it. This is probably the one that you read about growing in Texas and Louisiana. Or possibly, among collectors, F. regia. I have a few other Fuchsias that are just about as tender but perhaps from slightly higher elevations; I have no idea how heat-tolerant they are since it is not much of an issue for me. I have F. boliviensis, for example, that is also very tender, but seems to be OK in mildly cool weather and probably isn't as actually heat-loving as F. triphylla. I can sort of get it to overwinter by planting it deep and mulching it, but I lose the whole top at the first significant frost. I have a beautiful Fuchsia--one of my wife's favorites, called Fuchsia xspeciosa, which is believed to be a hybrid but I don't know of what. Whatever it is, it LOOKS tropical but is strangely root-hardy without much intervention on my part. It is not a heavy bloomer, but its large, slightly fuzzy leaves are attractively blushed with sort of a rosy color. Whereas most Fuchsias are non-descript when not in bloom, this one is always rather attractive. Oh, I have one more that might be interesting to you two: Fuchsia campos-portoi is a native of southern Brazil, where it occurs on hills at some elevation. I don't know how hight, but I was under the impression that Brazil's mountains aren't very impressive. Anyway, it is about as coldhardy as Fuchsia magellanica, meaning you could overwinter it with a mulch, and reputedly it is more heat-tolerant than its more common Chilean cousin. I know for a fact that it is fairly sun-tolerant as Fuchsias go--reputedly it grows in the open. Several of the Brazilian Fuchsias are cold-hardier than it would seem they need to be for the modern climate of southern Brazil (comparable to south Florida); they seem to have some vestigial coldhardiness from when the climate was colder, perhaps. Another of these, that I also have, is F. regia, a tall Fuchsia that likes to clamber into trees; it's not really a climber but it likes to grow onto something else to support it, as it does in habitat. It has a very typical small Fuchsia flower, and it sometimes goes cleanly deciduous. It is very coldhardy, despite coming from a fairly warm climate. Probably somewhat heat tolerant for its kind too.

Haha...Bruce, it's not quite as high-tech as it sounds ;-) And it didn't work any way, so I can't say that I'd recommend it, really. Armac, I'm glad you asked that question. This Thread's about to max out, so it'll be good to have these pics here for posterity. I use two main screening items. The first is a plastic flat from a nursery, normally used for carrying plants. The squares in the plastic are 1/4 inch. I use this to remove the large particles of bark - only the particles that are 1/4 inch or less fall through. I collect everything that falls through the plastic flat into a large pond-basket. The pond-basket has 1/8 and 1/16 inch holes all around the outside and bottom. When I shake or rinse the ingredients, the fine dust and particulate is flushed out the containers. *I also have some aluminum door/window screen that is 1/16 of an inch. I occasionally use this to remove the fines from Turface in particular. The nursery flat and a pond-basket: Set the plastic flat on top of the pond-basket, add a couple handfuls of bark. The appropriately sized pieces of bark fall into the pond-basket where the fine bark dust can be rinsed or shaken out. Josh