Hi Lali and all you gardeners :-), Very impressed w/your green thumbs in getting grocery "volunteers" to reproduce in your gardens. I'm pretty much a "brown thumb-er" in that I basically can get thing to grow, but keeping them alive~ now that's a problem. For example: I just can't seem to get lemon grass to thrive. I've had a pot in full sun and they just limped along till it faded away. I have another pot, this time under a light shade cloth and it's not doing much better. What's the secret here?

I have several Piedmont Azaleas that LOVE our south GA humid heat. They are in filtered sunlight with about an hour of full on sun and thrive! (its just baking hot here now) very fragrant blooms. One has white blooms and one white with pink. Also a butterfly bush that is about 2.5 feet wide and only 4 ft. tall. blueish purple. (more blue looking, soft, love this plant, the size is great! I have it staggered by a rose and it is beautiful. doesn't get out of bounds.) I have several clematis that I could cut from. I have rooted them easily! I also have Becky daisies that I traded for a couple of years ago and they have been blooming for almost 3 months! Blooms are very strong and about 4ft high. We have had a few very strong storms and nothing makes them lay down! They multiply and spread wonderfully! I could dig you some of those. I am happy to share. We bought a foreclosed home (not lived in for three years and had to just tear the yard apart! People here were so generous with their trades and got me off to a great start! (I should have dug up a lot of my things from my old house, but I was so darn tired of moving, I just didn't care..) I also live in a rural area and just don't have access to fab nurseries like others! I can cut you some butterfly weed. Roots easy and is a blooming machine!

So far, all of my cuttings, except the chicago hardy that I planted on 3/9/14, have begun to sprout One of the Hardy Chicago cuttings has only sprouted a little fig, but no leaves so far. In discussions on the internet I was informed that if I want to ensure that the fig trees make fruit in northern Virginia, I need to protect them for the winter. That is my plan for next fall. Before the first deep freeze, I plan to tie the fig tree's limbs together; cut a hole in the bottom of a plastic garbage bag; and slip it over the fig tree, bottom of the bag first. I will then fill the bag with leaves and tie it at the top to keep moisture out. If the tree is too tall for one bag, I will use two in the same manner, but tieing the bottom of the second bag to keep the leaves in. Finally I will mound mulch around the bottom of the tree. I will remove the protection after the last frost of the spring. Has any one in zone 7, almost 6, tried something like this?

Hi Colombian, that is a lovely Crown you have. You definitely have some sort of pest nibbling on your plant. I would visually inspect the underside of each leaf. It could be mites which are not always visible. Are there any other signs such as webbing which looks like melted marshmallows? hopefully some of the folks with more pest experience will chime in soon. Tracy