If all the plants are short, then row orientation is irrelevant. Taller plants cast a shadow, and the footprint of that shadow - and its movement throughout the day - needs to be taken into account. I use both N-S and E-W orientation in my gardens. Whenever possible, I place the tallest plants in the North side of a bed, in E-W orientation. This results in a zone of permanent shadow, so E-W orientation in the middle of a bed will result in loss of usable space. Because of that, I often place paths in that location, or a block of corn. (And BTW, those shaded paths are most welcome in the dog days of summer.) If I use tall trellises in a N-S orientation, then I try to grow plants of medium height adjacent to them, so that shading will be less of an issue. These might be shorter trellises of cucumbers, or caged tomatoes. In areas with hot summers (such as when I gardened in SoCal) some plants can benefit from being planted on the East side of tall crops, so they will be protected from the afternoon heat. Tomatoes really seemed to like that arrangement, it caused a major reduction of sunscald. If you are planting a lot of tall crops, then the amount of shade increases, and wider row spacing is required to compensate for it. I often plant adjacent 6-foot trellises for various beans & gourds. With E-W orientation, the plants get full sun all day, but only on one side; and rows need to be spaced 3 1/2-4' apart. With N-S orientation, plants get equal sunlight on both sides... but the rows will shade each other both early & late in the day. If spaced too closely in either orientation, then the plants will be top heavy late in the season, with little growth - or yield - in the shaded zone. Shebear brought up a good reason to use tall crops, which is as wind breaks. I plant tall trellises on both the North side (running E-W) and the West side (running N-S) of my gardens, to protect from cool NW winds. Here in the North, heat-loving crops (such as okra, eggplant, and watermelon) do better in those protected micro-climates. Furthermore, those outside barriers usually sacrifice themselves to protect the interior from the first frost. I also use tall trellises as baffles, to block or re-direct pollinators for seed saving. In various locations, both N-S and E-W rows serve that purpose. So really, the question of row orientation is dependent upon your gardening philosophy. If you have limited space, then using only short crops - or a row of tall crops on the N side - is the best utilization of space. Rows can be closer together, so you can grow a greater variety... and orientation won't matter. But if you have more space, enjoy picking without bending over, or prefer to grow varieties that climb (as I do), then just consider that planting tall crops is planting shade, and plan for the shadows accordingly.

pot vs earth it might be a generalization... but the northern growers prefer earth ... the further south... pots ... over wintering pots... is a nightmare in the great white north ... especially on the volume that growers would have to mess with them ... i was once talking with two of the big growers... and complained.. i lost 9% of my pots over winter [like 100!!!] .. they laughed and said that if they ONLY lost 9% ... they would be making a lot more money ... [wade and solberg] but for your order.. its not really relevant ... the plant itself.. the one you receive.. doesnt care ... it also has to do with winter vermin.. tissue culture sizes .. zone.. greenhouses... etc .... we have favored vendor posts somewhere around ... your two choices are somewhere in the middle ... though i dont recall ever hearing a bad word about them ... [not that i studied it all with any interest] ... for the hardcore.. it usually boils down to the size sent.. for the money paid ... which you learn by experience ... or opinions of our GW friends ... ken

In California, USA. California has very strict agriculture laws on stuff that comes from other country. So i'm not sure if you could send them, but you can still try. Just email me at kimchitop@hotmail.com for contact info. I saw a blog on the internet that says they grew the plant from seeds and it started fruiting in their second year. That's why I said that, here's the link to that blog, I think they were from Malaysia or singapore. here's the link to that blog http://modulo6830.blogspot.com/search/label/For%20sale just scroll down that page and one of the picture says that it bears in the second year.

I grew ivies for a few years on a north-facing windowsill facing out on a covered porch -- so basically, no natural light whatsoever. Instead, I had electric lights on timers set to 16 hrs/day year round. During the summer, that meant daytime temperatures in the 80s or even the 90s and night-time temps in the 70s, and I never saw much growth. In the winter, with freezing north winds beating on the window, the lights would still heat the windowsill up into the 70s when they were on, but the temperature would plummet into the 50s or lower as soon as the lights turned off -- and the ivies grew like crazy. So... These are very much cool-weather growers. If the west-facing window is much warmer than the east-facing window, then I'd say that's why the ivy there is growing more slowly. (I only have one of those ivies now, and am debating whether to keep it... It's never quite recovered from the spider mite plague that went through a couple years back. FWIW: I've found that the key to keeping mites off ivy is to give the plant a shower every couple of weeks whenever the weather is warm but the humidity is low -- which for me translates to most of the spring. Related trick: Put the ivy under a ceiling fan after the shower to dry the leaves off quickly, otherwise you'll get leaf blight.)