Hi all, I was going to post a qestion about the effects of all this rain here in the northeast. At the time of this post it is raining again. Most plants seem stunted and light green, which got me reading the books (Rodale). It seems that the rain may have washed most if not all nitrogen out. Calcium and magnesium also leach away. Pulverized lime is cheap today yet so I dusted every plant late in the day. I mean all including potatoes, lettus, amaranth, cabbage, brocoli, peppers, peas, beans, onions, ect.. Everything took a leap in appearance for the better. Greener and just plain better looking. As urine is endorsed here, I saved a milk jug of the liguid, cut it 50.50 with saved rain water and tried it on the brocoli. Success, so saved up some more, you can easily get 1 gal. a day, and donated it to the the balance of the plants. It works. Dear other does not know. In short try a dusting of lime followed a day or so later with some nitrogen whatever the source. You add the lime first I am told by some farmers. Anyway it works. Best regards to all.

You want more seeds? I have two huge packs of pods and chaff. I have a medium purple color and White Profussion. I know the seeds from the purple may not come true as it was the volunteer's mother. The White, it should have been far enough away, but I did see the hummers going for it. I can slip them in your swap pack.

I wonder if they were only 3 inches if they needed to be potted longer? Just a guess - I've never grown them from cuttings.

Last year was my first year growing mandevilla. I planted it out in late May and noticed it wasn't really growing much for a good month. At first I thought maybe it was growing roots (rather than top growth because I had transplanted it) but then I noticed that my plant started to grow more in July, when the weather finally warmed up. It grew to about 4 feet long by autumn, even bloomed a few times and I overwintered indoors. I had to cut back somewhat to untangle it from the trellis and I did transplant into a smaller pot. Anyway this year same thing, my plant has only recently started growing and basically resembles a two foot stem with a few clusters of new growth on it. We are having a cool summer so far too, aside from about 10 days of warm humid weather. Glen