I'm in good company then! :-) Don, GA was late and this is only second year coming up but leaves are more muted than last year but they will colour up, as is normal....but I noticed it when leaves opened. The FA was bare root last year (oops, some bare roots showing on the right! Lol) and finally opened up so I could finally ID it. Cute small leaves so far. Dave, that first pic of Striptease really shows off the pretty-coloured cataphylls. It's among the late emergers here too. Your Hanky Panky looks older and a tad taller than my 2014 late purchase. Bragu, do you know if all (with Montana-dna) are late emergers? I'm surprised that my On Stage beat Sparkler out of the ground!

Katlan, you're right about the tribe size, but they've also had small tribes snatch people to add to their numbers, and they let Stephanie become a tribe of one. What I like about the three women Katlan named, and Abi-Maria for that matter, is that I remember them. There are a lot of people on the show I don't remember at all! Some people like the drama that a person like Abi brings, so would have voted for her. And some guys who didn't remember her might have voted for her just because she's cute. At least she's memorable! Survivor wouldn't be fun if everyone were nice. I knew that tribe was going to tribal council just because they got air time. They've been telegraphing the outcomes something fierce! The whole depleted resources thing, however, was lunacy. Big Survivor no-no -- don't stand between hungry people and food! (Something Kimmie learned her first time out.) Yes, overfishing is bad, but if the clams were endangered or something, they would have been off limits. Another big Survivor rule, ration the rice, but eat what protein you can as fast as you can because you never know when you'll get more, and you never know when you'll be gone. Leaving it for later, when they might be abandoning the beach, due to a twist, that very day, makes no sense. Nor does going hungry. Unless they didn't show Monica saying look, there's a whole bunch of right sized clams/fish/crabs there, which would be better to take than a big clam, hunger wins over planning. I'm not the big Joe fan that everyone else is. He's okay. It wouldn't bother me if he won. I'd rather see someone more interesting make it, though. Like, can you imagine how much it would take for Kass to win? Or Keith?

Well, it has taken a long time, but winter is finally here. Woke up to frost on the car, ground and a few rooftops. One of my Firebushes already looks limp as well as a few Pentas on the western side. According to the indoor/outdoor thermometer, which I had located in my lanai with the remote sensor under my tropicals tent, it got down to 31 and the tent and Christmas Lights kept the tropicals at 36. The next few days will reveal just how much damage was done. But hey, at least my blueberries might have actually gotten their chill hours for the year.

Gardengal, I was researching where Salvia elegans is endemic to, and it grows wild in southern Mexico and Guatemala, way high up in the mountains, between 6000 and 9000 ft., at the edges of forests. Down there it's a large perennial shrub. They prefer a very long growing season, almost year round, with mild temperatures I was thinking the same thing as you when I grew it here, "why won't it blast off with all the summer heat?" but it maintained a slow pace. Because the majority of Salvia species we all grow are annual, or tender perennials that we usually treat like annuals. I had assumed that S. elegans was something like a tender perennial sage that will bloom for a long time, like Amistad or Mexican Bush Sage. So the S. elegans needs a longer period before blooming, and it's fortunate that SOMETIMES🙏 it will bloom. To me it's a divine plant, the smell, the taste, and that flower color! I think I read that in zone 8 it will overwinter. It won't overwinter here. I read that it has many varieties and that Tangerine Sage is a variety. I've searched, but can't find anything about other varieties, only Tangerine. Has anybody ever grown the Tangerine variety of Salvia elegans. Does anyone have it overwinter?