Its not a matter of pieces and parts, the problem is the plant can not use its own pollen. Those who say that they have had success with a single plant owe their success to the bees that found other plants in their range. Its not a coincidence that every year someone starts a thread asking why their lone tomatillo plant is not setting fruit. Here is a link to a thread from three years ago: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg080132591320.html ---------------------------------------------------------- This issue is widely documented on the web . Here are just a few examples: http://www.seedsandstring.com/2009/06/tomatillo-matchmaking-services.html The thing about tomatillos is: they are self-incompatible. This means that one tomatillo plant standing all alone will not produce fruit. Tomatillo flowers on one plant need the pollen from at least one other tomatillo plant's flowers in order to produce the tasty green or purple crop. This is a trait present in some plant species that encourages outcrossing, and thus more genetic diversity in succeeding generations. -------------------------------------------------- http://sparks-mexico.com/costalegre/fruit/tomatillo.htm The Mexican husk tomato is highly self-incompatible. When the flowering plants are bagged, no fruits are set. K.K. Pandey, while at the University of Ohio, studied this problem. He reported that only a few seedlings in a group produce rare fruits by natural-selfing and such fruits usually contain no seeds or only a small number. An occasional fruit may have 100 or more. --------------------------------------------------------- http://growingtaste.com/vegetables/tomatillo.shtml Vital note: Tomatillos are self-sterile, so always plant at least two! (So that's why the darn thing didn't fruit . . . .) Recall, though, that the tomatillo is not self-fertile, so that you must have at least two plants to get any actual tomatillos. --------------------------------------------------------- http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1990/v1-407.html Tomatillo is self-incompatible, so all plants are hybrids. Pollination is by insects. Cross pollination with other cultivars or other Physalis spp. would be possible if the plants are closer than 500 m. Here is a link that might be useful: 2006 gardenweb link

Thank you everyone, I agree English Perfume is lovely! Moses, as far as I know EP is only available own root. I got mine from Roses Unlimited. It being own root has not hindered bloom size at all from what I can tell. This is its first year, the bush is still on the small side, I do have it in a small pot though. It has bloomed in regular flushes all season long, seems to have decent repeat bloom so far. It lasts good on the bush and in the vase because the ruffled petals have good substance I would guess that it is somewhat tender, but I'm not certain about that.

Let us know when you get the refund. I used Expedia for the first time and got a surprise although I'm certain it's somewhere in all the fine print so shame on me. When you book a hotel room with them the charge hits your card immediately unlike booking through the hotel where it's not charged till check in (or at least that's the way it's always been for me). They have a 24 hour no fee cancellation policy although the hotel told us guests battle that and often lose with Expedia. We got lucky and had no issues other than having to pay well in advance but I'm now looking at the savings with a different attitude. So if your refund comes after the flight, what happens if the fare increases before then? I know you won't have to pay more, but does that wipe out your refund?

I am so happy to hear that you revived this bulb, Old Dutch, by doing basal plate trimming. It's been a bit of a hobbyhorse of mine, to make sure that as many amaryllis fans as possible know about the potential effects of thick basal plates. You really weren't taking much risk: the bulb was underperforming anyway, so all you had left was addressing the one thing you'd probably heard about. I don't have enough bulbs nor have been raising them for long enough, to be able to state with any authority at what point thick basal plates must be dealt with. I'm the merest amateur. All I know is that it's a real issue. I'm starting to keep actual notes on a spreadsheet now, about which of my (few, maybe only 15-18) bulbs develop such plates, when I trim them, and what the response is in terms up bulb bulk-up. No promises of a report; it'll probably be for my personal enrichment only, and even if I make mention of my observations here, it'll only be anecdotal, and may not adequately account for overall care and environment. In any case: good for you. (You might want to consider taking that flower stem off once the pedicel fully emerges from the bulb, if your intention is to bulk up the bulb instead of having it send its energy toward flowering. You don't need it to flower, right? Because you know what it is, already. Just a thought.) Joan