Fruitnut, I don't know how long the scion would remain viable...there was a surprising amount of frozen sap at both the top and bottom of the girdling, so the tree is already losing water...hard to believe if I cut wood now it would hold until suckers are ready in early summer...??? Harvestman, I can't be sure it was voles. but the damage was all very low and I believe only under the short snow cover we had during thanksgiving. Rabbits have started to become a problem here over the last couple years. There were none and then we had a neighbor let some "pets" go....now I commonly see tracks/scat and have lost several young grapevines, and an apricot to them....entirely possible they did the peaches too. Olpea, I appreciate the offer on budwood and may well take you up on it. I am pretty limited on what cultivars have a fighting chance up here and I know most of those are not "choice" for you folks who are in a more appropriate climate. but if you have some candidates I am open to suggestions. Generaly it seems like only 4-5 get brought up again and again..Reliance, Veteran, PF24c, Mckay,..possibly contender and redhaven.

I don't much care for Heidi fresh, but it is better than nothing, I suppose, in hot weather. I use them for salsa. I make tons and tons of Annie's Salsa every year because we give jars of salsa as gifts to oodles of people, including our entire VFD and Tim's coworkers. I usually get my seeds for Heidi from whichever seed company I'm ordering from at the moment. I think the last time it was TomatoFest. I also really like the tomato seeds from Victory Seed. They always have really high germination rates and are great quality seeds. I have some hot weather faves, but none of them are as good as the regular tomatoes that produce in milder conditions. One heat-setting hybrid that has set fruit for me even when the high temps were over 105 (up to 110-112) in August is Phoenix. I also like Merced, but its seed has been off the market for almost a decade now. Every now and then I can find a Merced plant in Texas at a nursery that either stockpiled a lot of Merced seed before the seed company dropped it, or they are saving seed and have dehybridized it. Some of the standard varieties that have set fruit well for me in hot weather include Arkansas Traveler, Burgundy Traveler, Traveler 76, Sioux, Super Sioux, Homestead 24, Rutgers, Mortgage Lifter, Carmello, Dona, Chocolate Stripes (I remember it set fruit all summer long without ever slowing down in 2008 and 2009), Orange Minsk, Jaune Flamme', and Black & Brown Boar. I think that I got the seeds for most of those at TomatoFest, Victory Seeds and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. By the way, if you remember Dona and Carmello from decades past, I am not completely convinced the current ones are exactly the same variety those were back then, but they are close. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Early Girl. While we always plant it as an early variety, it often produces all summer long, including setting fruit in August, for me. Sometimes it starts looking kinda tired and "done" and so I'll cut it back by 50% and feed it and sit back and wait for it to cycle back into production. One note about the effect of heat on tomato fruit set: we all know that high temperatures inhibit fruit set but I think we often do not pay enough attention to the effect of relative humidity. In a hot, dry summer when our relative humidity often bottoms out daily in the teens or lower, the tomato varieties I listed above will set fruit sometimes in July and August even when the temperatures are well over 100 degrees. They do not do the same thing in a hot wet summer when the relative humidities are normal to high. So, I think almost any tomato has the capability to set well when we have a combination of high heat/low RH values. I first began to understand the role that relative humidity played in fruit set at high temperatures in about 2003 when it was ridiculously hot (108-110) in August and the fresh new Big Boy tomato plants I had set out in early July for fall tomatoes started blooming and setting fruit. They set fruit like crazy throughout August, despite high temps over 100, and our relative humidity was bottoming out in the single digits in the afternoons. I had put six Big Boy plants in the ground and I bet every one of them produced at least 50 lbs. of tomatoes. When the first freeze was due to hit, I sent bags and bags of green tomatoes to work with Tim for one of his coworkers who wanted to use them to make and can chow-chow. I later learned that fried green tomatoes he made were the big hit of his extended family's huge family reunion. Anyhow, after that incredible performance by Big Boy, I began to understand why my dad grew it every summer without fail and always had great fruit set. It is likely the relative humidity in north Texas wasn't as low back then because those were wetter years, but it must have been low enough for him to get good fruit set because he always had tomatoes all summer long. Since we have had so many drought years since then, I have been able to observe and note over and over that I get better fruit set in July and August in periods with low humidity than I get in identical temperatures with higher humidity. In general I am not a fan of the tomatoes bred specifically for setting fruit in high temperatures. Whatever it is that they do to make them set fruit at high temperatures seems to destroy the flavor genes. That explains why you won't see most of the heat-setting types like Sun Master, Sun Leaper, Heat Wave, Heat Wave II, etc. on my grow lists. Yes, some of them set fruit at really high temperatures, but they are so poorly flavored that I won't waste space growing them. When those types first hit the market, I'd grow every one of them for a year or two after it was released, hoping that maybe they finally had bred a heat-setter that was worth eating. They never did and I quit trying them. Phoenix was the first new heat-setting type I'd tried in a long time, and it has decent flavor and definitely sets in high temperatures. I agree on the seeds. There are plenty of seed companies that have lost my business because the costs per packet and the shipping costs have increased so much. Have you looked at Wilhite Seed? I don't know what they have in the beet department but I am fairly sure they always have a golden beet variety. Since they are a regional seed company based in Texas, everything I've ever purchased from them has done well for me. The amount of seed they include in each packet is astonishing...in a good way. They ship pretty quickly too. I'll link them below. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Willhite Seed

Thanks for looking everyone! Bananatree94, Thanks for the IDs. You were definitely right on all those bird ID's and possibly the orchid ID too (I'm not sure since I dont know much about orchids!). Apparently Disney does protect their orchids, so they might have been given extra protection, but they were at least 25 feet above the ground, so I dont see how protection would be a very easy thing to accomplish! Someone ID'ed the Jubaea x Butia as a Syaragus x Butia, so it probably is just a very Butia looking Mule palm. Either way, its nice to see some palm hybrids on the property! Lzrddr, I think you might be right about that White Elephant Palm being potted. It does look like there is enough bare room underneath it for it to fit a pot. I did here that White Elephant Palms are somewhat frost tolerant and since the palm in this pic was in deep shade, its possible that it has not seen much of a frost even after last winters low temperature of 28F. Usually Orlando winters are above freezing, but they have not been so lucky with the past 2! Im sure that the Red Sealing Wax palm has to be potted up because even with heat, I dont see how they could survive last years Brutal winter. They can barely handle temperatures in the 40s! Jim, the plants definitely were one of my favorite about Disney! I was happy to see someone else taking pictures of plants so I didn't feel too alone, but plant lovers were definitely the minority! And I could definitely see why you thought the monkey's escaped, lol, the wire definitely looks like a telephone wire! -Alex

Ladies may I join you in this discussion? I am a young healthy looking 62. And today is my first visit here after looking up adrenaline I sure understand better now That's what I have going on MY NATURE'S PACE MAKER.working. Adrenaline After a stay in icu heart recently everyone finally agreed i am mot crazy.it was.my heart. The docs installed is a device catch my heart acting badly is a heart tracker like halter monitor. Under my chest muscles on top of my heart. I can cause it record what just happened.. iam write with excitment because your stories are all so familiar. These stories for me begin after mitral valve repair. 7 years ago. Basic problem ..unless the doc sees the heart behaving badly they deny the problem. All this time we never could catch it Last doc said bluntly if we dont see it didnt happen. You must to er Well recent at 230 am it woke me up, just as you have described. I went directly to the er They caught the serious thing! Arrithemia and more then two days in icu. Now meds have slowed my heart from 70 to 52 while docs decide what to do. Last night I realized I was having an adreilin rush. The same rush I went to a neurologist for help. Over a year and half. Often it also affect my skin. Goose bumps crawling feeling all day long! Well have I got news for him.I was not crazy about that either. my gp I visited last month just to say. I know you don't know what is wrong but I still got it. Knows too I sat in neros office two months ago ,,,same thing. I said dr i just want you know ME when I end up in er..and i need you. well it was er straight to icu. Home now with electrical issues. Last last night meds have my average at 52 bpm.it woke me. 2 3 am. I use my tricks to get back to sleep.as soon as felt sleep coming on the stomach feeling spread. It woke me up heart pounding.sweat .out of breath!!! Happened several times . then checked average heart rate on my Garmin. 48. Average 48 so i was probably lower. Maybe 45! My natural pace maker kicked in every time sleep lowered bpm and I was short on air. Natural pace maker? Adrenaline can't wait to see what was recorded on my device Thank you body! Now I think i know what as going on for long time hidden from doc view. Electric shock adrenaline style