I second and third Louis Philippe... It by far is the best and most carefree bloomer ever! I have four of them, and they are all covered right now! But my Show stopper is...a Fortuiana bush I saved from the old Giles nursery that the bulldozers had plowed down when they sold their business... It is 6 feet wide, and spreads at least 12 feet up and over my pergula...In March it is to die for!!!!! So if anyone needs cutting for grafting...please let me know...you are welcome and I have plenty to spare.... You can see it in bloom on my blog "the roosting Hen" It's the main picture....It only blooms once a year...but well worth it...and never gets black spot.....and naturally doesn't get affected by nematodes...hehehehehe.... My other own root OGR are doing really well too...I'll have to find there names...A few other hybrids are Ok...but just not show stoppers...and only thriving ones are grated on Fort...I really need to learn how to do that!!!!! janine

Dan Tomatoes look okay. lol That is because I always grow them in pots to avoid soil diseases. Okra the same, I have it in small pot since we only eat it sometimes. All the figs that I have ever owned were pretty much care free, till I came here and I got what I believe a bad variety or maybe just a bad tree. I am going to fix that with all the advice I got here in this forum. Dan, I will be very interested about the heirloom figs that you talked about...keep us posted. Sal The variety that I remember from my childhood is probably going to be very hard to find it, since I don't know what it is. My father always had rare plants in the garden, we had a huge fig tree that gave many crops and had big purple figs, pink inside. We ate them sometimes green and candied. In the morning, when I got up I had figs for breakfast... I have raised beds growing veggies now with no signs of problems, and fruit trees are in the ground. The ones that have to be protected during a freeze are in containers where I can move them around. When I take down the Brown Turkey fig, I am going to look at the roots and see what I find. It is kind of big considering is only 2 years old. And has fruit that did not ripen, they are still green. Silvia

I keep getting these images of Doug, Tom, and Diane visiting my house. As they walk out into my yard, Doug clutches his chest ("oh my...!"), Tom scratches his head ("I don't really know where to start,..."), and Diane starts counting the holes ("here a hole, there a hole..."). Anyway, many of my choices thus far have been based on feasibility and convienence: the fact that I am renting, I don't know where all the awesome gardening stores are located, I'm just now figuring out that I can plant veggies this late in the year, etc :) I think I will keep what I started with and see what happens. This weekend I will plant some more veggies but in different types of pots and with bark. In the mean time I will make sure that I move the lettuce into a more shady spot and keep the cucs, tomatoes, etc on the bottom. I will also start seeds in the next couple of weeks. And to top it off, I will start a journal as you all suggested. I might also have to start a dictionary for all these "fancy" terms you all throw around: "leggy", "damping off", "perched water",...

Hi Silvia, maybe they're kind words but you make it easy, over a Sungold Caprese salad LOL. The thread got so big, I'm reading it in pieces so forgive me if I say something you've covered. To tell the truth, I just keep coming back to look at the pictures ;-) When/how are you going to pull your plants this year? Do you take them to the end, or as you say force a break to lessen carrying any disease (and I say enjoying Christmas). I think we're going to have an early frost this year since that's the way it's been going. It'll definitely get us up here, but hopefully you'll be insulated around 3 hours to the south. Three hours, hmmm. If things work out I might just crash your April party! I'm actually going to try the mix with spinosad and neem, because you suggested it... The spinosad alone is worthless but I've never used neem, and need to look more into it, since it gets such good reviews. I have a highly refined horticultural oil called Sunspray that I've used for mites successfully which may be an ok swap, so I'll read up on the difference to be sure. I started keeping single vines, and you're right about that. At this point, I am letting the plants put out everything they can. It's not because I am happy with that, only because every single flower counts here and pruning and waiting as the Sun falls further won't get a few last clusters in. So it used to single but now they are an intertwined mess with lots of yellow ;-) October was a great month in general as it always is, but the party will be over as quickly as it started. September was a total rainout which delayed everything and why transplant date was Oct 3. Hi labs ! Yes a sort of summer fabric would be just what the doctor ordered. Sounds like a project for next year spring/summer. But for extending the season, the plants now couldn't take the hit in loss of light. Sometimes I think I should just get a grow room inside the house with silver wallpaper and a huge electric bill :-( Cheers! PC EDIT... about Citrus, nope that's not our source here but I bet it is a big deal around Indian River... we're too far north except for an ocassional pet tree in the yard for fun. There are two trees within 500 feet and later I'm going to sneak a look at them both just for fun. Better not to ask, since it might not go over well, if I say can I inspect your lemon and orange tree for leafminers I have on my tomatoes ;-)))) This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Wed, Nov 12, 14 at 11:58