If you run across a chinese evergreen with fruit, take some of those juicy red berries home! I swiped 3 off of a fairly large plant at a hospital and took them home. Wasn't sure whether to remove the red flesh before planting the large pit--then realized that in nature the flesh might have enriched the soil in which the seed would grow. I buried the fruits in pots of Syngonium, since hey like the same conditions as CE's, and one of the 3 sprouted a couple months ago. It is growing very slowly, but is growing none-th-less.

I agree with the advice you've gotten. If HD will give you a refund or credit, please do that and tell them about the insect problem. Then watch your other plants very closely for at least 2 mos. I'm another one who had a smaller one of these but it's been so long that I don't remember what happened. I've had mealies twice. Once they came on coleus from a mailorder source. Fortunately, they did not spread beyond the coleus. Recently I found them on one branch of one of those "fingered" jade plants (Lowe's). Luckily I caught them early, cleaned them off and isolated it and treated it a couple more times. I just did a re-check and it seems fine. I believe they had take chunks from several plants to jam in the pot and only one was infested. I do use systemic insecticides at times but some plants won't tolerate them. May I suggest that you learn what some common pests look like, such as scale and mealies? It won't always keep you safe but it will help. Diana in PA

Brian, There are several books on tissue culture that give more details on zygotic embryo culture than the In Vitro Plant Breeding book that I referenced. I mentioned it first because it is introductory, and I happen to have a copy of it. I think "zygotic embryo culture" is the technical term for the subject of your inquiry. Many of the books in this subject area are relatively expensive, so you will benefit from learning to use Amazon's Search Inside! feature. You can find more detail in the book, Introduction to Plant Tissue Culture by M. K. Razdan, in Chapter 11 (beginning on page 128) titled "Zygotic Embryo Culture". Apparently you can't link directly to specific pages within a book. At least, I don't know how to do it. But this link, Search Inside! Introduction to Plant Tissue Culture should get you inside where you can enter the search string "129" in the Search box and press the red Go button to get a list of hits for that string. At the top of the list is hit 1. "on page 129" and clicking on that will link you to page 129, which is the second page in Chapter 11. Just use the left arrow in the margin of page 129 to go to the beginning of Chapter 11 on what would be page 128 if it had a page number, which it doesn't. At $49.50, that book is fairly affordable, but it is temporarily out of stock at Amazon. Another good book, Plant Tissue Culture: Theory and Practice by Bhojwani and Razdan costs $370, so there is motivation to use Amazon's Read Inside on it. Once you get into the Read Inside your target is Chapter 11, titled Zygotic Embryo Culture, beginning on page 297. Entering "297" in the Search box is the quickest way to find a link to that page, because it does have a page number. There are a bunch of good books on tissue culture, and tissue culture techniques can be used to culture embryos that otherwise wouldn't develop into viable seeds. That makes it possible to grow interspecific and even intergeneric hybrids that wouldn't grow without using zygotic embryo culture techniques. You might be interested in the Kitchen Culture Kits, Inc. website. Dr. Carol M. Stiff is the proprietor, and she might be able to put together a kit specifically adapted to your zygotic embryo culture needs. MM

It's quite easy. Boil water, pour water in a mug or cup, and place seeds in very hot water, and allow seeds to soak overnight. Seeds will germinated close to 100% within a week when sown in potting mix. This method works with almost any pea family member including Cercis, Baptisia, Thermopsis, Indigofera, etc.