BKay, is that Squash Casserole? I don't think it looks too bad myself. Mine is still clinging to its color, and now we have some warmer nights again. However, with the sun lower in the sky and only a few weeks before first day of winter, I'm thinking the sun won't have the effect it had during its high-in-the-sky days. I figured out during the summer that my problem was not keeping the hosta away from sunlight IN THE SUMMER. No, it was KEEPING THEM IN THE SHADE in the WINTER. So now is the time I'm supposed to be raising the shadecloth over them. The hosta garden is over ankle deep in dead pecan leaves, which I must blow away before I get crowded in with shade cloth. My cloth is the 90% shadecloth, so it is very effective. Babka, the fact you get no frost and have to contrive a dormancy for your hosta is amazing to me. Have you tried a ceiling fan to circulate air in your atrium? A tub of ice, a fan blowing cold air over them, I mean, any old port in a storm. Note: I am ringing the bark of my smallest pecan tree to kill it. I plan to do something similar to the next pecan tree as well. But it will have to be taken out in pieces, hopefully by the young man who did the 25 fioot pine stump earlier this summer. He did not harm a single hosta. Dormancy is a good time to do the dirty work in the garden. The house is all to pieces, the rest of the lawn is too with lumber and construction crew compressing the ground, and the hosta garden is all brown looking, so why not do ALL the messy stuff and be done with it.

Hey Galveston1602, I live in the West U./Med-Center area of Houston, and spend most of my time inside the Loop, west of Main St. and south of Buffalo Bayou. Galveston has always relied more heavily on tropical plants than Houston, especially with the history of "wicked" freezes that plagued the mainland until about 1990. After the winter of 1989/90 even about 90% of the W. robustas were AGAIN wiped out in Houston, but then things changed. Of course you see more tropicals on the island than in Houston. But what did Houston look like in the early 1990's compared to now? Galveston will alwasy have a "leg-up" on Houston for the more tropical of plants because of the warming effect of Galveston Bay and proximity to the Gulf. Most of the Foxtails that I've seen in the central sections of the city got minimally burned on that one cold night back in February... they actually did better than I thought they were going to. This past Saturday I happened to drive by some of the larger Foxtails in the city (that I've aware of) on the SW corner of Stude & White Oak, across from Fitzgerald's. There are 5 or 6 of them there, some of them are about 17 feet, and they looked really good, growing in full sun, planted out by the sidewalk and street. In fact the person with me remarked that they are not even in a protected location. Very heavy trunks, and heavy fronds, they've been there 3+ years. The few big Royals (25') in town have been where they are for probably 4-6 years, they have that "heavy" look to them. One of them is in the back garden of a patio home, in a place where you could not get large equipement in to plant a tree of it's present size. Actually I've seen it for years when driving by, and always though it was a Queen Palm. I never dreamed that I was looking at a Royal until it got so big (and different from a Queen) that it literally hit me in the face one day! The first Royals I saw down at Moody Gardens planted along side one of the buildings as early as about 1999, but I wasn't ready for a big one in Houston. Something I hadn't mentioned so far is A. cunninghamia. For the past two years I'd been watching about 3 different plantings of them around the city. Finally beginning to take off and grow. This past February they had absolute minimal damage (I was surprised), but one day when driving through Bellaire (just inside the Loop) something told me to take a right, I drove one short block, and then I saw them... two A. cunninghamias, each about 20-24' tall. Beautiful! THis was back in April, and they didn't have any damage from cold... I bought a large one from Home Depot the next evening on my way home from work. By the way, I checked out your website, it's great! I was expecially knocked out by the Carpenteria, I love Carpentaria's... I had a number of them when I lived in Miami. Carpentaria's are really tender, so I never even tried to find any to plant here in Houston, that one in Galveston looked great. Did it burn last winter? Also loved the S. amara. I think that the palm that you wanated an I.D. on in the Moody Gardens section is a Livistona decipiens. You've may have noticed that a number of these have been planted along the Gulf Freeway between downtown and approximately Monroe. It's one of my favourite Livistona's and for some reason it's seldom brought in tho Houston. I do know of a nursery that has some nice 10 gallon size. I'm about to buy 4 to plant in my garden. What did you see Bismarkia's do last winter in the cold? The ones that I've see around Houston all came through with no problem, to minimal burn. I'm thinking about planting one of them as well. Take care, Jose

kos_toni, there are a 2-3 nurseries in Italy and France with a large collection of uncommon (in Europe) citrus. I just can't recall any names right now. The one in Italy is particularly impressive, so much so that it might be worth a road trip. You are quite close by. Ambersweet, for all intents and purposes an orange but really an orange-mandarin-tangelo hybrid may suit your purposes. I'm not sure if you can obtain it though. Salustiana, Hamlin, Cadenera common oranges are early maturing. I'm sure you can obtain the first and the latter in Europe. Salustiana is a very good orange. Atwood, Fisher and Navelina are early maturing navels. I'm sure you can easily get the latter, I don't know about the first two. No idea about the cold hardiness of above oranges though. Also, I cannot comment about the rootstocks you might be able to obtain all above and their suitability to your climate and soil.... That unfortunately is an additional complication, especially when one needs to obtain locally uncommon varieties for planting in the ground. No common lemon variety I know of is generally suitable for your winters. Maybe if you can provide some 9b microclimate and protection from the wind... Be aware that maturity date is influenced by heat units, so if your climate cannot provide adequate heat during the summer, the fruit may mature later or not at all. Also, the tree surviving a few winters in the ground and then being destroyed in a freezing event that comes every few years may not be what you would like to experience.

I am in SW Louisiana on the 9a/8b line and have planted Tri-lite, Flavor Grenade, and Sweet Treat Pluery, and Spicezee nectaplum over the last 2-3 years (along with other plums and peaches). So far the only one that I have tasted fruit from was the Tri-Lite, which I thought was good, what was your issue with Tri-Lite?