Hello perrenialfan273, I think its great that you have interest in growing tropicals. Let me give you a little advise. Don't go crazy with buying a bunch of tropical fruits to start. They will take up more time in the cool months and you can end up with bug infestations, or diseases. Another thing, you mentioned growing cacao. From what I have heard it is a great plant but it may take years to get fruit from seed. I just don't want to see you get discouraged because you are waiting so long to get fruit. If you like guava, you could buy a grafted plant and get fruit in a relatively short amount of time. The key here is starting out with grafted plants that will fruit in a short amount of time, and also you should look up the fruits you are thinking of growing online. That way you can figure out what growing conditions you can provide. For begginners, I think the dwarf citrus are a good way to go. They do require strong light, but if you have a south facing window that should be good enough to get some fruit, also dwarf bananas that only get 4-5ft tall may be an option. The best advice is to start small. Buy maybe 2 new fruits this year and wait for another year and see how well you did keeping them happy. Then if all is well, you can add more the following year, this way you can find out what you can grow without feeling overwhelmed with a bunch of trees you paid good money for and now are ready to go into your compost pile.I am telling you what happened to me 5-6 years ago. I bought whatever I could get my hands on(and with the internet I had access to a lot!). I lost almost everything, and gave up trying to grow tropicals until about 2 years ago. Now, I have a good collection now and am currently adding 3-4 more tropicals. Its also nice to build slowly so you can have space for other things to grow. That's the serious drawback for us. Since we have to grow indoors during thr cold months, we run out of room a lot faster then our southern friends! Andrew

Oh Lisa, I'm so happy for you that you got your birthday egg. (that sounds a little strange, no? lol) Happy watching, happy birthday, don't forget to eat and bathe once in a while. :) Anita

Congrats Marigene...but check inside.....I think it might be my bag.....LOL Just kidding.....you'll look fantastic carrying it everywhere you go.

katishook, the lady who I bought the tiles from.. said she went to Lowes or Home Depot and bought a piece of plywood and had them cut it round.. and she bought the base at one of the Pier One stores on sale.. just the base.. So if you are thinking of just getting a new piece of furniture this might be the way to go.. or even go to thrift store and find a nice piece which needs to be refinished .. maybe paint the base black and tile the top.. Heck , look who is telling you guys.. I didn't know the difference in tiles..LOL just wanted to share what the lady did with the tiles I got. Huggy