I'm so sorry you fell, Susan - be careful where you step! When I was hospitalized for 2 days last month, it was due to dehydration due to vomiting, which was due to the most unbelievable dizziness you can imagine! I had IVs with the regular saline solution, plus potassium (which burns going in) and all kinds of tests. I learned that my heart and blood vessels are fine, but after visiting a ENT, it seems I have vestibular neuritis or vestibular neuronitis, an inner ear thing. The latest thinking is that the chicken pox virus/varicella lies dormant, then reactivates to cause this horrible thing, much like it resurfaces to cause shingles and Bell's palsy later in life. I'm still having minor dizziness off and on. On my good days, I get as much done as I can, because I have to lie flat on my back when the dizziness is bad - I had just kept going with the dizziness when I got so sick, and I don't want that to happen. Anyway, laying in bed is VERY boring for a hyper person like me! Today is shaping up to be a good day - YAY! It's %@*! to get old! Sherry

Sorry you're not getting any gulf frits, Laura! That's too bad if the zebra range is shrinking, Mary. I got one visit years ago, haven't seen a single one since. If they're retreating, I'll probably never see one here again. I just released the gulf frit - she's a female. The sun came out, the temps went up to 90 degrees, and she was flying all around the cage wanting out, but now I'm hearing thunder out there. I sure hope she'll be alright! There is a pair of gulf frits that have been nectaring in my garden, a male and a female, but the female hasn't laid me any eggs, at least I haven't seen her do so. So I'm wondering if they haven't mated, maybe don't like each other, strange as that sounds? Maybe he'll like the female just released, and I'll get some eggs/cats! :) Sherry

Game bird, Your list of 'requirements' is pretty exacting and there are not many vines that will perform that way on such a narrow trellis. Most vines I've grown have branched out just fine, although as Moni mentioned, sometimes you have to take some time early on to direct the plant's growth horizontally through the trellis, arbor or fence if it is growing strongly upright. Sometimes I spend a little time 'weaving' a young vine horizontally early in the season, but even when I don't, they eventually grow laterally on their own even if their original growth was mostly upward. Most vines climb as high as they can and then when they reach the top of their support, they go sideways, or droop and hang back down. Some will climb onto the roof if you don't prune them at the top. After all, they are programmed to grow upward and don't have a self-limiting gene that makes them grow X number of feet and then just stop growing. Asarina (vining snapdragon) is a slower grower but might not be vigorous enough to outcompete the mint or to give you the shade you're seeking. Black-eyed Susan Vine is a very lovely annual vine. I grow it on my garden fence and it seems to spread upward and sideways both, although sometimes I do take a few moments to weave it sideways to spread horizontally because it reseeds every year and doesn't always reseed evenly and I don't like big gaps in the wall of green. Both Cypress Vine and Cardinal Climber have a lighter, airy foliage. They'll climb as high as the nearest support but don't get terribly heavy due to their airy foliage. They'd only give you light to moderate shade though, not heavy shade. American Cross Vine might be a good contender. I have it in very poor clay soil and it climbs a 7' arbor and pretty much stays there. It gets only rainfall (as little as 18" or 20" in a drought year) and no irrigation, though, so that and the concrete-hard unimproved soil where it grows might be limiting its size here. It is semi-evergreen and hummingbirds love it. It is tougher than it sounds, though because it grows on an arbor with the yellow-flowered 'Flava' trumpet creeper vine, and the trumpet creeper vine does not outcompete it. Mina lobata is an annual vine with gorgeous flowers but is very vigorous. Mine climbed its trellis and then started climbing the wall of the house. If you grew it, you probably could prune it back weekly after it reached the top of the trellis, but it certainly wouldn't stop trying to climb higher. If those were my trellises, I'd likely plant moonflower vine because of the sheer beauty of the vine's leaves and flowers. It doesn't start blooming until mid-summer, but once it is blooming, we make it a point to be out in the yard when the lovely white flowers begin opening up in the evening. They all open up quickly and at about the same time and it is spectacular. I think it spreads out a little more horizontally on its own than its relative, the morning glory. It also has a lovely fragrance from the time it blooms in the evening until the next morning when the flowers close up. Other than cross vine, I don't know of any perennial vine that will remain the size you want without pruning and they likely will need some training to get them to spread outward and not so much upward. Some of the annual tropical vines like allamanda or mandeville would be lovely, but you'd have to plant new ones every year or dig them up and overwinter them in pots indoors. Dawn

Hi Daniel, I think I got 2 fruits of the 'Blue Horizon'. The seeds were not used for anything. The plant I believe was in its second year. It declined severely after that, possibly due to mites (?). I got the plant at Annie's Annuals. As far as I'm aware nobody seems to know exactly what the P. edulis 'Frederick' hybrid is, although it sounds like it is some sort of complex hybrid of P. edulis f. edulis and P. edulis flavicarpa. Good luck with the seedlings--it sounds like you have a good shot at getting good fruit from that. It does take a tremendous amount of space, effort and time to raise a bunch of P. edulis seedlings. Why not try another fruit producing species/hybrid? I moved and my Passiflora collection is small at the moment, with nothing that most people would eat by choice. I would offer, but I don't have anything. I've mentioned it before, but I found it strange and sad that many people treat Passiflora cuttings like gold when it comes to giving them to others, yet at the same time put a ton of cuttings in the compost pile or trash. I really don't get it.