Mike, This is a long shot, but Woodlanders Nursery in Aiken, SC had a pic of a big red flowered tea olive last year on their web site. I don't know the name of it. They have stopped shipping for this season, but they will ship in the fall, and it might be worth your time to call or email them and ask if they still have it. It caught my eye because I had never seen a red one. They will know what you are talking about, they also sell extremely rare plants mailorder. Check them out, many people from Garden Web shop at this nursery online. Good Luck and I can appreciate your absolute love for the plant. Let me know if they still sell it and if you are happy with it, if they still carry them.

I used to have two of them, which I bought at my local Italian deli. I found them to be more trouble than they were worth (especially the smaller one) and were more difficult to use than making ravioli manually. The single square cutters may work okay, but the only tool I found helpful was a rolling cutter/crimper that made a decorative edge. If I still had mine, I would send them to you, but I ended up donating them to Good Will. Lars

Sigh. My potholders only remind me of Bloomingdale's (they were on sale). Given laundering the normal amount for potholders, which is usually once or twice a year, plus once or twice more for when they get actually dirty, I really do think the printer fabric would work. You could also do block or screen prints (alas, Print Gocco, you are but a memory). You can easily carve a styro block, like computer packing, and prime it with gesso or acrylic medium, since you're only printing a few. Since you're good with mimeo, does that mean you're good with screen printing stencils? That would be so easy if you have the set up! For just a few prints, you can tape the stencil to a blank screen (true for hand cut too) rather than having to create a whole new screen for each. Anyway, laundry wouldn't be my first concern (you can always make a few extra prints, and have a lifetime supply). The problem with painting is knowing which medium is going to like touching a 450ð oven rack. Without looking things up, I'm guessing inks or dyes would be better than paints, but you can brush those on too, with the right medium. Or you could just cut paper stencils, adhere them well, and adhere to a stiff backing, and spray with car engine paint. Since you have some art/drawing/painting experience, I think doing it by hand would be the best, easiest way, if you can't do direct printing. I know a bunch of different ways to get an image onto cloth, but sometimes doing it by hand is just a lot easier, especially since you're not trying to get photographic detail. :) Actually, if you can't get the images you want made for you, I'm thinking that the engine paint might be the easiest and most durable. :)

Very few suppliers apparently and most are in Europe and UK. Unless you can find them available in a grocery store and plant those you'll most likely have to order them online from overseas and pay the high shipping costs. Ronnigers Potato Garden has several other blue/purple varieties but this late many of them are already sold out. http://www.potatogarden.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=PG&Category_Code=NSP