Hey Orchiddude, I agree thanks so much for the info. I have a few questions if you don't mind. I recently bought a small 6x8 GH & plan on using Natural Gas to heat it this winter. I have been looking at the Blue Flame heaters (199.00 at Lowe's) and have heard they are better than the infrared. Any thoughts?? I want to use NG over electric given that in the past few years I have gone thru 2 ice storms that have left me without electricity for several days. I also plan on putting the Gh right next to my house so that I can easily tap into the gas line right under my living room. Have a line that is capped off where a heater used to come thru the floor. Should be easy to ell over and come outside. I know that I will have plenty of plant materail to fill it up already...brought everything in with our first little cold snap and was overflowing on a 12x9 dropcloth...and of course love the idea of having to add more plants..haha I guess my only question again was with regard to Blue flame verses infrared, since it seemed you linked to one of each. I appreciate your thoughts. Thanks Rick

What about common milkweed spreading through rhizomes? Doesn't that pose difficulties, even if you cut off the seedpods? Also, at least around here, the common milkweed plants get pretty ugly and ratty looking after blooming. Although I have to say, they have been getting getting all the action from the monarchs. I haven't see any monarchs on the butterfly weed or the swamp milkweed, even though the peak bloom season for common finished a couple of weeks ago, and the swamp milkweed is peaking right now.

Meyer Mike, the temperatures you are describing for winter (60's/70's by day, and 50's 60's by night) would not be considered cold for any citrus (including limes--which are really tropical). Most citrus are more subtropical than truly tropical and would appreciate the the seasonal rest. Cooler temperatures (and higher relative humidities) are also very effective in reducing problems with all sorts of insect pests. You can always supplement your southern exposure with artificial light if you want. (Not all southern exposures are equally bright in the winter of course, depending on surrounding trees, buildings, houses, latitude, snow cover (if any), even the interior paint color. If your temperatures were really cold I would suggest going with the florescent lights made especially to work under cold conditions--but you shouldn't need these for the temperatures you sited. As I have mentioned in a prior posting, I always would eventually have problems with overwintering citrus indoors. I only had success when I left them in my garage turned greenhouse that they would survive, flower and fruit from year to year. Besides, they are too big and too thorny to have inside the home. January is the biggest hurdle to get through in terms of temps but I try to keep temps between 32 F to 60 F. They do face due south and there are a fair number of cold but sunny winter days here. Under these conditions they start to push active growth and begin flowering by mid February. I keep them really dry during the winter. The citrus share their winter home with Phoenix canariensis palms, and oleanders.

I don't think it's necessary to buy the source book at first. With over 3,000 varieties listed in the Yearbook, which comes out not always in Feb, although that's a target date, there's plenty to chose from. And as a long time Life member of SSE I don't think SSE membership is for everyone. Don't get me wrong here, being a member helps very much to further the goal of SSE which is preservation of OP varieties . But I'd prefer to see folks join who have had some experience in growing tomatoes and that's b'c a certain percentage of seeds you request may not be pure and you need to know how to rogue out plants and you also need to know how to save seeds in terms of reoffering varieties that you might request. And while reoffering is desired, not everyone does it, unfortunately. And I agree with what jackbenny said above, in that the Yearbook should never be seen as a seed catalog. After a person has grown lots of the more common varieties offered commercially, then I think it's fine to go searching for the more rare varieties that are offered there. The other fact to note is that there are listed SSE members and non listed members and as mentioned above, listed members list their varieties in the Yearbook and those seeds are available to both listed and unlisted members but the cost/pack is higher for unlisted members. Currently, for US members the cost of a pack of tomato seeds is $2 for listed members and $3 for unlisted members. A few folks like myself ask the same price for both listed and unlisted members. So by all means if a person is interested in preserving genetic diversity I would urge anyone to join SSE if not for obtaining seed, then just for helping SSE with your membership monies. SSE has been an important part of my tomato life, as it were, LOL, and I've made many good friends through the years. I joined I think in 1989, and it's been a great experience for me. There's also a PUBLIC catalog with about 40 or so varieties that anyone can order from and the online version can be found at seedsavers.org Carolyn