I'm getting swamped here w/duties at the moment, so I'll have to come back. Just wanted you to know I'm working on it! =) AFAIK, the Echinoc. does not need a chill to produce blooms. I rarely get frost or freeze here & mine have bloomed many times. Sometimes seemed like 2 months from the time buds started to when they finally opened! LONG wait! Penny, YES, I'd say the same~ looks like C. 'Springtime' to me as well. Euphorbia puzzle later!! And other possible IDs too...later! Have a fun day!

Zech Rosemarie posted instructions how to do it (from Photobucket-i don't know where you have your pics). I found them very helpful & saved & printed them. I hope she will not mind me re-posting them: ~Go to your PB album. 1) Hover over a pic you want to include & mark the box directly beneath the pic. Go to the next pic, repeat & so on~till you have selected the ones you want. If you are going to do ALL the pix in the album, you can skip this part. 2) Scroll down to bottom of page (here you can check box to Select All-if that is what you want) Click on Choose action. 3) From drop down menu, select "Generate link codes for selected" 4) Code link page shows up: select 1st section "Clickable thumbnails" (if will briefly show the word "copied"-then fade) 5) Go back to tab for GW 6) Insert what you copied into your post (or your reply) by right-clicking mouse to Paste 7) I change the code so it does not put just one pic per line. I have found that 4 thumbnails across works best. (You will probably Preview Message many times before clicking the Submit button) 8) First, I highlight & delete the code for centering at the beginning & the end of the group pic urls. (left arrow center right arrow ~ and the end code has a forward slash in it) You can leave it if you want-I'm not sure what it looks like with blocks like these. I forget. :) Taking it out lines up photos to the left edge. 9) The way you get one pic next to another: at the end of each pic url (which is indicated by a left arrow, a forward slash, an 'a', & a right arrow) Looks like the following without the spacing I put in: ...you place your cursor after the right arrow, then click space bar once & delete button once. You can go Preview Message to see if it worked, but when back to make corrections, it's sometimes tricky to find your place/where you left off. LOL 10) Repeat the space/delete sequence after 2 more photo urls. (You will get good at counting photo urls to figure out where you are.) 11) After 4th pic url, you want to make a line space (to separate the rows), so hit Enter key twice. 12) Now on to the next block (row) of pix, if there are more...go back to 9) and do again. 13) It's up to you how many you have in a row. Just Preview Message to check everything before you Submit! You might have gotten 3 in the row instead of 4 & have to go back to adjust. It's good to make note of which pic is out of whack -if named- to find the url with that name to change spacing, etc. If you have really short filenames, this will be much easier than when I do it, as mine are very long, making it more fun finding the end of the urls! Also, if you have a free acct, PB sticks an additional blurb in the urls to take folks to pages with advertising. You can delete this if it's there, but I think I'd confuse more if I tried to explain. Remember... EACH time you make a change, you have to click the Preview Message button or the change will not be made when you click on Submit Message. If you goof on something, you can always go back~restart or recopy. It just take a bit more time...if you have it! Once you've done it a few times, it'll be a cinch! Rosemarie, thank you again... Rina

For tropical species, I believe a plant actively pumping juice is much more tolerant of brief cold + wet in the fall than in the spring. Several nights of cold should not have much if any impact especially if it warms up during the day. Chilly fall evenings do not worry me. 3 chilly days in a row with rain would worry me. Winter growers are generally much more tolerant of cool wet conditions and some will even thrive. I know I've said this before, but the best way to figure out what your plants can handle is to experiment with sacrificial specimens. Get some cuttings to root during the summer, and leave them out in the cold and rain and see how they fare. There is another way to end the shuffle without moving to California or South Africa. Just accept the fact that tropical and subtropical species will not grow as quickly and not gain as much biomass than they would somewhere else. And more importantly, come to the realization that this is not a bad thing - an extended dormancy does not have to negatively impact the health and vitality of the plant. Just bring them inside when the time is right, and leave them there. If that happens to be next week, then call it a day and let them sleep. How much would you really gain with a few more days of warm sun anyway? Maybe pick a handful of your favorites and shuffle them while leaving the rest inside. Don't drive yourself nutty. x

Littlelisie, Sure I will trade some Melo_intortus seeds .Email me your addy and I will send them on their way. Dave has had success with them I believe .Unfortunately all my seedlings dried out when I had to go to Darwin for a day and Ive lost the lot .I will sow again later in the year as it is becoming cooler and will be harder for them to germinate.