Again referring to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden website, the following is from their article on this lovely little tree (link to entire article is below) "Propagation Prunus mume species may be propagated from seed extracted from ripened fruit. Stratify in plastic bags filled with a moist mixture of one-half milled sphagnum moss and sand for three months in the refrigerator, and then sow outdoors in spring or in the greenhouse any time of year. For cultivars true to form, you'll have to propagate from softwood cuttings taken in early summer and kept misted. Prunus mume can also be grafted by T or chip buddings with buds from soft or semi-hard wood onto the more available purple leaf plum, Prunus cerasifera, understock. Prunus mume will flower in three years from seed and in two from grafts. The tree grows quickly when young, three to seven feet per year, except for the contorted varieties which are slower growing." If you take and root cuttings, ermazi, may I be one of the first to offer you something in trade? ;-) I've been checking online and found very few nurseries that list this plant in their inventory. Here is a link that might be useful: BBG article on Japanese Flowering Apricot (prunus mume)

Thanks for all this good advice. Dawn, I had the cukes planted on the same trellis with my yard-long beans along the edge of the raised beds, the trellis that is made of a stock panel that is arched over the walk-way between two raised beds. I know that a few times over the summer it did get kind of dry there. I watered several times through the month of July and August as we didn't get much rain after having such an abundanza during the spring. So maybe they got too dry, like you said. Next year I'll plant them at ground level. Those raised beds are wonderful when we're getting lots of rain, but they dry out so fast when we're not that it's a pain to keep everything watered. We went to Atwoods and got one of those big sprayer tanks that people carry around in the back of their trucks. It's too late for this year, and anyway DH is still recovering from knee surgery on his second knee, but next summer I'm collecting water that comes out of the roof guttering drain. I grow a garden to save money on food, primarily, and when my water bill goes up because I've been watering the garden, that cuts into my bottom line. George, Thanks for the tip about Armenian cucumber being a melon. I didn't know that! When I plant newspaper pots I always tear the "collar" off. It's always a little drier already than the part that's touching growing medium so it's easy to do this and I had heard about the wicking problem. Sometimes, though, the newspaper pot then falls apart in my hand so this is a process that must be done carefully! I left the Homemade Pickle cukes on the vine till they started turning orange, but the vine started to wither at about that time so maybe that's why my seed doesn't look so good. I didn't know if the vine was withering because I had left that cuke on, or if the cuke was turning orange because the vine was withering or if neither was a cause. I got some Armenian cucumber seed in a trade once that was flat and empty-looking and none of it germinated, so I just assumed if the seeds were not plumped out once they were dry that there was nothing in there. From your post I gather that's not necessarily true then? Carol, that IS perplexing about your squash. I had a lot of squash bugs this year too, and all I grew in the squash family were some volunteer spaghetti squash. On zucchini, though, aren't there male and female flowers, and doesn't the male flower just fall off and not make anything? Could the flowers you mentioned have been those? Myself, I don't know the difference between them, but I have noticed almost every year that I have squash that some of the flowers do just die off. I've also seen that with gourd plants. Something else that I've seen fairly often with squash and gourds is that there will actually be a small fruit that will form and then it will stop growing and start to grow mold, and then fall off, unless I break it off ahead of time. I haven't found this to affect the rest of the plant, but it is kind of disappointing when the plant is just starting out. I get so excited when a plant starts to set on fruit. I'm easily entertained. I'm thinking about Spacemaster 80 or Straight Eight for next year. Anyone have opinions about either? --Ilene

Flaura, you are absolutely right about Gemini having different looks - instead of Gemini (The Twins), should have been named Qunituplets! I added some picts from last year (June 8) that show a more mellow version. Beth, both of these are in about 8 hours direct sun. I also use alfalfa and AlgoFlash. I highly recommend both!

I'm not sure if I agree that 3-drawer stacks are more useful than 4-drawer stacks. Mine are all 4-drawer with the bottom drawer being taller. Top drawer is the smallest. The middle two drawers are a bit deeper than the top drawer. The only thing I own that I want to put in a drawer that doesn't fit in one of the deeper bottom drawers is my food processor with the lid on it. It's about a half-inch too tall. Not a problem as I don't use it more than once or twice a week and have another good place for it. I find my 4-drawer stacks super-useful. I would need a lot more storage in my kitchen if I only had 3-drawer stacks. At least one more drawer stack. I'm too lazy to take photos but here's a list to give you some ideas of what can fit well in drawers. Items in the shallow top drawers: Next to sink: washcloths, hand towels, dish towels In baking center: spices, extracts, measuring spoons, cups, whisks, rubber scrapers, and assorted other little gadgets used while baking. Across from DW: eating utensils, serving utensils, chop sticks, soup spoons, iced tea spoons, spreading knives Next to range: pot holders, trivets, cleaner/polish for glass-top cooktop and the little scrubber that comes with it, tongs, and a couple other little gadgets In prep center: lots of different gadgets used during prep like garlic press, can opener, measuring cups/spoons, graters, and more (can't think of them all off-hand); and knives In the 2nd and 3rd drawers (I won't detail placement this time, just randomly listing): plates, cereal/soup bowls, baking gadgets (cookie press, rosette thingie, rolling pin, sifter, 2- and 4-cup measuring cups, digital scale, meat pounder, potato masher, attachments for KA mixer, tortilla warmer, cooling racks, foil, plastic wrap, wax paper, parchment paper, plastic bags, hand mixer, stick blender, stove-top utensils, pie plates, bread pans, seasonings, oils and vinegars (laying down), and more Deeper bottom drawers: glasses, mixing bowls, serving bowls, colanders/strainers, tupperware, casseroles (stacked). Hope this gives you some ideas on what you can put in drawers.