Just for starters, Indian Hawthorne is a good, reliable, evergreen shrub that flowers in the spring. Ours has the white flowers and we have just been in our home 1 1/2 years and they are filling in nicely. In other words, they are relatively fast-growing, which, if you're like us, is what you want. We live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, so know what you mean about hot, humid weather. Sago palms are also nice, year round. Good luck!

I understand, Seil. More than 25 years ago, I would leave an overhead, oscillating sprinkler going over large areas of my Newhall garden, requesting the community gardening staff to turn them off when they left for the day, on triple digit days. The horse manure mulch disappeared quickly. The foliage was huge, plants even more so, and they flowered amazingly. Water was cheap and plentiful, so not an issue there and then. There were no disease or insect issues. The plants were fully clothed in very dense, durable foliage and there was no such thing as sun scald nor Flat Headed Apple Borers which became great issues once that type of watering had to be discontinued due to availability and cost. Black spot and mites were frequent issues with the own root plants we propagated as volunteers at The Huntington. I learned early when bringing home any new plant such as those to pull off all of the foliage before bringing it into the garden. I had an area in filtered sun under a tree where I kept a pile of horse manure. I'd clump the newly arrived own roots in their pots together, surround and fill between them with the manure, often inside them as mulch, then overhead water until new foliage began developing. No mites, no diseases and the plants exploded into growth quickly. A bit of hardening them off in larger cans and higher levels of heat and light and they were ready for planting once they'd filled the five gallon cans. Growing them up in larger cans also permitted me to move them around to see what position was best to their liking. It often made quite a difference. At the beach, I had a number of customers who regularly used my "proprietary blend" of Ultra Fine and Miracle Grow sprayed every two weeks except between the middle of July through the middle of October. In the Perma Fog, it prevented disease, eliminated the constant aphids and saw flies and kept really terrible things there, like one lady's beloved and hated Paul Neyron, viable. He caught her heart in books and she was determined to grow him. He languished until I suggested the Ultra Fine and MG foliar application. She had severe bronchitis, but made sure she brought me a bouquet of beautiful Paul Neyron from her bush! Used during the heat, that mixture did burn, but when there weren't heat and light intensities to contend with, it worked wonders. NO way I could have ever used it in any garden at home! I tried it once, learned my lesson the hard way right there and then! Anything presented as being even slightly phytotoxic WILL burn here. I am in total agreement with your walking the roses daily. I can't imagine having them unless I wanted to walk them every chance I got. Each has its own personality, likes, dislikes, needs and will quickly let you know if you don't provide them. It's the best way not only to head off problems early, but also to detect sports. They can happen so quickly right in front of you and seemingly behind your back. A big part of the serendipity for me! Kim

Linda, I am afraid that I have tried many applications of Meyers and never like the result, in complete contradiction to John and many others to me anything that has a Meyer in it would be better with a traditional lemon. Meyers have a "dirty" taste most of the time and at best have a weak orange flavor. I cannot tolerate drinking anything with Meyer in it, or any fresh application. I have made cakes, curds, pies, lemonades, fish with lemons cooked or grilled on top, etc with Meyers and never particularly like the result, though cooked they are more tolerable then anything with the fresh juice. However I had to toss out the salmon I made as the orange undertone flavor was awful. I just tried a jar of preserved lemons I made with Meyers and they were very bland compared to traditional preserved lemons. I keep trying to like them but I haven't found anything I prefer with them in it yet, mostly just things I find less offensive. I used to cook professionally and used Meyers pretty consistently in many applications and still never cared for them (same with kumquats though I REALLY don't like Kumquats and don't even want to try them in things anymore). I am pretty sure I am a traditional lemon kind of girl, which means more Meyers for the rest of you that like them! ;) Also I agree that its likely that your rootstock is taking over, cut off any branches that have different fruit and take note if the leaves look different in any way to your orange, that way you can identify it earlier and remove branches before they fruit and steal energy away from your oranges. Take pictures so if it happens again years from now you won't be struggling to remember what they looked like. Its likely that your neighbor had a tree whos scion died back/was taken over by its root stock at some point. If your friendly with them and they are the ones that planted the tree ask them what kind of tree it was when they planted it and if it changed at any point. If they didn't plant it they may not know. If you show us a picture of the tree we could help you figure out when to prune it.

Hi Folks, I just wanted to throw in my $.02 on the subject of controlling Japanese Knotweed. This past week I spent two days removing the knotweed from hill along the side of my driveway. The infestation had been growing for about two years and spreading rapidly. In my case, the hillside that was covered in knotweed also had some plants that I wanted to save- some sugar maples, four varieties of ferns, and some viburnum, so using a foliar spray was out of the question. Instead, I used the "cut stem application" as outlined in this document: http://www.pullman-wa.gov/content/WYSIWYG/Recreation/Japanese%20knotweed.pdf The document recommends cutting the canes between the first and second node and filling the "well" with concentrated herbicide (I chose plain Glyophosphate, you choose your own poison). The document claims this method is 95% effective. Another method involves injecting the plant with herbicide using an injection tool. The upside to this method is that you don't need to dispose of the cut canes. In all, it took me just about two days to clear the hillside. I cut enough canes to completely fill my 8' truck bed two times. I'll keep an eye on the area for the next year or so in case any survivors pop up. -Josh-