Well done Grant!!! one of the most important techniques in that book is from Mrs. Schulz's friend Mrs. Hardgrove in Arkansas. Her technique involves cutting the bulb at the base of the neck just as it finishes blooming, but before it goes into growth stage. The bulb will come into bloom again in just a few weeks and Mrs. Hardgrove is justifiably amazed and proud of her discovery. The bulbs she is using it on appear to be not hippeastrum, but amaryllis belladona the plant of African origin. I was surprised and pleased to find mrs. Hardgrove and her discovery mentioned when I read the book a couple of years ago. I figured out and defined the technique about 10 years ago for hippeastrum (amaryllis0 and wonder what other amaryllidaceae could be brought kept in the blooming stage in similar manner = heamanthus ? brunsvigia ? For 8 years I have been teaching this technique in seminars to Master Gardener Groups; Clubs: and even a few homeowners associations. Last weekend at the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs State Convention in Jacksonville FL., I was gratified to have amaryllis lovers who attended some of those seminars tell me of their successes. One lady kept her amaryllis in bloom for 4 bloomsets in under 6 months. That is one original bloomset from a new commercial forced bulb followed by 3 bloomsets expressed from bulb by decapitating the neck just above the bulb. A bloomset in these young 3 to 5 year commercial bulbs like Benfica, Pink Diamond, or Gervase bulbs is 2 or 3 flower stalks. I call my technique bloom extension[originally Consecutive Blooming] because by cutting the tips of the new leaf growth you are keeping the bulb in the blooming stage instead of letting it go into growth stage when the the new leaves ang root growt occur. You can do this with the bulbs you have in pots or in your garden. You will have difficulty with cybister hybrids and some species, but the wides range of hippeastrum hybrids is open for you to have a 4 to 6 month amaryllis flowering season. You cut the whole neck of the bulb completely off 1/4 inch above the bulb before the last stalk of the bloomset goes soft or wrinkles. E. Wm. Warren

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

Hi golis! Well, alrighty, then. The police were over there all night last night and well into the afternoon. Let me explain how the apts are set up: they are like ranch houses that are connected to each other, sorta like a duplex. The immediate next door neighbors were friendly with the lady--I've seen them going back and forth to each other's place, so that makes the next chapter even more bizarre. We get home about 6PM tonight, and so help me; my hand up, the murdered lady's immediate next door neighbors were having a loud racous party out in the common area, in front of the victims' apt ***WITH*** the police tape still up, the crime scene techs still running around, the coroner's office there, and several officers present. I thought I had completely lost my mind, but I have 2 fully sober witnesses to it, or even **I** wouldn't have believed it, and I'm standing there with my jaw on my chest. O.M.G. WTF is wrong with peeps now days? There's evidence/biohazard bags all over the place, and the kids are playing within several feet of them. A bloody mattress is (was) standing in the patio area, and peeps are eating and playing cards nearby. I am truly stunned. Where is that deserted island????????? (2 local TV channels tried to interview me, but I wouldn't, and we're supposed to go down to the police station and give a statement) (OH--I almost forgot--I was talking to my next door lady, and she was home on Tues, with her windows open, and she told me that she heard **everything**, but thought it was a screaming match between a couple. She didn't call the police, but did get suspicious when she saw the grandson taking out armloads of 'stuff'. She was bawling this morning b/c she told me that she will forever hear the screams and think that if she had called the police, one of them might have lived. Bless her heart--she's a good lady, and I feel so sorry for her--what a thing to live with.)

Well, DS#4 is our wild thing. He's only 5 now, so the worst might be yet to come. Couple years ago he cut the cat's whiskers off. I noticed the cat missing one side's whiskers and gasped "What happened to the cat?!" DS says calmly, "I cut his hair things off. Come here, I'll show you." And showed me the "safety" scissors and whiskers on his bed. I scolded him and explained the cat needs his whiskers. DS told me "You can get him new ones at Target." He came outside one day, age 4, covered w/band-aids. Must have had 15-20 stuck all over his body. The neighbor asked him what happened. DS went into a story, very dramatic, gestures and all, about falling in the driveway and bleeding, lots of details. The neighbor looked at me questioning, but I just shook my head and said "Didn't happen, he just likes band-aids." One afternoon the older kids shouted for me to come downstairs, that the youngest was a mess and smelled bad. They each told me something different, he smells like cat poop, he smells like puke, he smells like trash... I sniffed and said no, he smells sweet... DS said "I think I smell like pancakes!" Sure enough, he was covered in syrup and the bottle was tipped over on the kitchen table, leaking down the table, chair, pooled on the floor. Second day of kindergarten... the kids were lined up single file facing one direction. The teacher told them all to turn around, face the other way. Doing that put the kid who was behind DS in front of DS. DS was furious, yelling that the kid "cut in line." He also had a flush-it-down-the-toilet phase. Luckily, we did not have a tiny kitten! I think his best was one of those poofs for body wash.. it unravelled, it just kept coming out like a magician's scarf. The other kids caused trouble, too, though. DS1 and DS2 at ages 6 and 3 would build swords with, of all things, lego. One clash and legos would go flying to all corners of the room, behind/under furniture, everywhere. DH had recently discussed their behavior with me, saying I needed to be more strict with them. So when the sound of flying legos came from their room, DH went to "handle" it. For a couple minutes his voice boomed about respecting property and playing nicely, picking up after themselves, etc. Then a couple seconds of silence. Then the 3 y/o says "What-ever, Dad." I had to walk away I was laughing so hard! It was the fact that DH went in there to show me how to be more strict that did me in! When my brother and I were little, we sometimes stayed w/my mom's sister, who was unmarried and childless. I wonder if we maybe had some influence in the fact the remained childless! One visit she came in the room to find us throwing every crayon in a box of 64 against the wall with all or might. On the floor were all the broken pieces. As an explanation, we showed her the claim on the box, "Unbreakable!" We were just testing... and the claim was false! We know, we tested every crayon in the box. When I look at my kids and want to know "What on earth were you thinking?!" I try to remember those crayons and how it feels to think like a kid. ;o)