For anyone out there still tempted to bid on these supposed "seeds" of "rare" Anthurium, I'd like to share with you my exchange of email with the seller. But first, a bit of background. There is at least one plant on the list of plants being offered that is so rare many have been searching for it for almost 20 years! The photo used was stolen (along with many others) from the International Aroid Society website. This seller is offering 5 "seeds" for about $2 as an opening bid! I'm not going to tell you which plant, but if you've followed my by website you can figure it out. The plant was once on the cover of the International Aroid Society journal and many of us have been trying to find it for years! A botanist is in South America right now looking for the specimen since new information recently became available. And this seller supposedly has seeds of this very rare Anthurium for $2.00??? The seller has now admitted they don't even have any of the seeds offered! Here is the email exchange: I asked via eBay email: "I noticed you illegally stole the photo of this plant and many others from the International Aroid Society website. Your infraction has been reported to the officers of the society. I'm curious, do you even know this species is extremely rare? Do you know that there is not a botanical garden in the Unites States that even has one? Do you have this plant? Where did you possibly get seeds of a plant this rare? Makes me wonder? Are you even legitimate? I think I'll report this to eBay as well. Right now!" And the seller responded: "Hi, Actually the seeds are at US. I am just a trader not a botanic expert. I buy several seeds through internet and again sell them. The photos and descriptions were sent by the seller. I'm aware of the photos but the seller says that we are not selling mother plants just seeds so the photos are for just to give an idea of the plant, what the buyer should expect from the seeds. Thank you for your interest. Kind Regards, ladybotany" Some of this sellers offerings are now up into the hundreds of dollars for 5 "seeds"! Seeds that are likely nothing more than "make believe". Seeds the seller admits they don't even have! So, is anyone foolish enough to bid on seeds the seller admits they don't have? Seeds, some of which are so rare botanical gardens can't get them? From a seller who admits they know nothing about Anthurium species but still calls themselves "ladybotany"? From a seller who will steal photographs in order to make the sale of "seeds" from plants they don't even possess? From a seller that uses a Hotmail address to cover their tracks? From a seller who is not even charging enough in postage to safely pack and ship any seeds at all? From a seller whose only feedback is from things they've purchased, never sold?? If you are still willing to bid on any of these "seeds", I've got a bridge in New York City I'll sell you cheap! You could make a fortune charging tolls to cross that bridge! This smells exactly like a cleverly disguised scam! And the seller didn't even do enough homework to be clever! This offering is obviously aimed at the people of Indonesia who are willing to pay very high prices for Anthurium plants and seeds. What was it P.T. Barnham supposedly said about a "sucker born every minute"? This one is looking for a bunch of suckers. And they will probably find them unless eBay stops this entire mess! Buyer beware!! __________________

Maybe someone got BINGO today, but I still need one more! Are we all waiting for the same one to be picked? We've been getting rain lately and my plants love it! I see some spaghetti squash forming on those plants. I have them growing in tomato cages because I don't have much ground space for them to wander ... although they are certainly trying to do that. I may have to place slings under the squash as it grows larger. :-) May went by in the blink of an eye! Jeanne

I haven't seen the show; will have to find it online because it sounds really over the top. I imagine that they get a rush, and have some obsessive tendencies. susie100-- I used to order coupons online for a small 'clipping' fee, if there were coupons available for items that I buy regularly. If you're looking for a coupon for specific items (or have time to sift through) try ebay. There are also coupon clipping services with a variety of coupons-- search the web for coupon masters and the coupon clippers, that should pull up 2 sites that I've used in the past. I find the small charge (usually 5-10 cents per coupon) to be worth it in exchange for not having to click through a lot of things or print, if I actually use the coupon. I've never been an extreme couponer, because I have no storage and don't have the time/patience to go to multiple stores in one week, and have no interest in buying things I won't use. But I do flip through the coupon circulars and clip coupons for the brands/items that we regularly purchase. When I was more diligent about using coupons on items that are already on sale (my local harris teeter doubles up to 99cents, and every area grocery chain has a policy that allows you to use coupons on items that are on sale that week as long as you're not getting a refund), I had significant savings. My savings were not remotely like the extreme couponing types, but the combination of sales & coupons would often reduce my bill by 30% overall. I tend to forget that I have coupons, though, so mine tend to go unused. Although my harris teeter cash registers process most expired coupons, I feel guilty using coupons after the expiration date so I throw them out; I could save more money if I were willing to try to 'game' the system by using expired coupons, simply by holding onto coupons until they're on sale. We don't eat a lot of 'fake foods,' so most coupons in the circular are for things that I don't buy. It's possible to get coupons for toiletries & staples--- juice, meat, butter, yogurt, eggs, cheese, cereal, rice, broth/soups, pasta, condiments, beans, nuts, sugar, flour, yeast, spices/extracts (baking supply coupons are usually in circulars around the holidays). Those are the coupons that I clip. But I don't think it's possible to use coupons at the level of extreme couponers (i.e. a cart of food for $5) without buying a lot of highly processed junk food. I think that several coupon-users, or a couple 'extreme' couponers frequent my local harris teeter because whenever there's an item on sale with a current coupon that would make it free or almost free, the item is out of stock out by the time I get to the grocery store on the weekend (sales start Wednesday mornings).

Thanks for everyone advice, I am located near coast's water area where summer is cooler than other area, This is 2nd years of growing negronne/VDB in 5G pot, I have 3 from different source, They has about 40+ figs with bland taste, I am pretty sure that negronne/VDB loves heat with great taste, I will graft it on my in ground mature tree next year for last test, I will graft couple varieties as well to see that how well they grow in our climate, I guess that it is better methods with less work/errors to Test and evaluation them in ground. I really like Binbin's Brandon unknown and Ramv's Nordland, as well as LSU O'Rouke, hoping that I can get them someday. I planted couple fig trees in ground last year, All of them cold killed to ground, They grow back to 7+ feet in ugly bush form, Only Chicago hardy is able to give me one ripen fig. very disappointed. I planted couple tiny fig trees in ground 2 months ago, I will cover them up with plastic garbage cans, Sorry for the big one, Just too much work to winter protecting them. Shawn, you have a greenhouse, you can taste some delicious negronne figs, This tree is slow growing with lots of main figs.