I have Solanum integrifolium...."Pumpkin on a Stick", which I've heard referred to as a decorative eggplant. But it is a different species than the "normal" eggplants I grow. I also have several colors and shapes of "normal" eggplants if you are looking for any "kinda" unusual Solanaceae. And maybe if I look around, I'll find another type. I remember a very spiny eggplant-like plant from a year or two ago, but can't remember what it was. I am very busy in September and would not be interested in working out a trade until October. I grew rocoto peppers a few years back. I agree with Tom that they are very interesting and beautiful plants and fruit. You would have a unique plant with them. GW has some photos (April 22, 2007) in an old hot pepper forum post I've linked below, also some overwintering info. Tom, you might try pruning your rocoto way back to overwinter it...maybe wait for the pods to mature and then hack, er, prune, it way back so it doesn't become too much of a space hog during the winter. I've had massively trimmed peppers survive and produce much earlier after overwintering. But I got sick of battling aphids on the indoor plants and haven't overwintered recently. If I'm remembering correctly, the rocoto's weren't as dependent on hot weather for good growth as many of the other peppers types, and they may have been heat and daylength sensitive for flower/fruit set. Here is a link that might be useful: Rocoto Peppers This post was edited by naturegirl_2007 on Thu, Aug 28, 14 at 15:51

Wow, that's a lot of plants! I don't have a list of what I'm growing in my little gardens -- sometimes it takes me a couple of weeks in the spring to realize that that weird looking weed in the corner is something I've had for years. I just assume that more plants than not will grow in this area! One of the more unusual plants I grow is agapanthus. Not a particularly hardy variety, this was simply a florists' plant my mother gave me four years ago. But it's come up reliably every year for the past three seasons in Central Ohio. It's planted against a south-facing brick wall with excellent drainage, and apparently doesn't realize it's not in zone 8+ anymore! One of my mother's more spectacular plants is a 15 year old calamondin orange that arrived as a little "get-well" houseplant. It spends the winter on the unheated glassed in back porch in Cincinnati, and now stands over 6' tall in the pot, and is nearly 4' around. It always has flowers and fruit on it, and we've picked 200 ripe fruits at one time.

The yellow mangosteens are much easier trees to grow and bring to fruiting than the purple mangosteen. There are several species of yellow mangosteen, including the mundu (G. dulcis), the kochin goroka (G. xanthochymus) and the asam gelugur (G. atroviridis). These yellow mangosteens can also tend to be very sour. I don't know about cold-hardiness in particular, but I would think they would be a little bit more cold hardy than purple mangosteen. Really, the insides of these yellow mangosteens look different from purple mangosteen, and I think the Southeast Asian mangosteens can be divided into two broad families. Garcinia forbesii, on the other hand, appears very closely related to purple mangosteen in morphology, and G. malaccensis is almost identical (in fact it is suspected that purple mangosteen may have originated from G. malaccensis). G. celebica is very similar to G. hombroniana, and could be mistaken for the same species. G. penangiana, in fact, was mistaken by a team of mangosteen experts for G. malaccensis, just goes to show how obscure some of these species can be, and how easy it is for even the experts to get confused. Hmm, what else do I have to say... Garcinia globulosa appears similar to G. atroviridis. G. globulosa is sometimes known as Asam kandis, but "Asam kandis" appears to encompass several different species, including G. negrolineata also, so this makes things confusing. G. globulosa is not as sweet or large as G. negrolineata but they are very similar in morphology. Asam kandis (whatever species that is) is common and sometimes cultivated in Malaysia and Indonesia. It bears grapefruit-size fruits whose sweet pulp is eaten raw. Garcinia hombroniana is known as the "seashore mangosteen" because it tends to grow near the shores and apparently has a salt tolerance. It has a bright red-orange exterior and I'd classify it in the same "family" as purple mangosteen, not the "yellow mangosteen" family. Garcinia prainiana is the "button mangosteen", morphologically it's practically like a persimmon, the skin that needs to be peeled off is thin. Well actually once you take off the skin it almost looks like the sections inside a mandarin.

Maryanne, I regret the direction this thread turned, as well as the condescending tone of my previous post. I won't say it was misinterpreted, because it was certainly intentional - a response to people picking my original post apart and alleging that I said something that I never said. Does anyone even remember my original post on this thread? Some posters here took a very simple comment of mine: "Other than the obvious differences of the U.S. product most likely being fresher and slaughtered/processed under the watchful eyes of USDA inspectors...." And from that, alleged that I was insinuating that Australian beef was "slaughtered and processed under less sanitary conditions than in the US." I NEVER said that or even implied it. NEVER! My comment regarding the USDA inspection simply referred to the fact that we don't know anything about the inspection in foreign countries. Granted, ours could be improved upon, but at least we know something about it. It's certainly possible that Australia's is as good or even better than ours, but we just don't KNOW that. And the comment I made about freshness was ONLY pertaining to the logistics of shipping. It's actually a pretty simple concept... The less distance there is between the point of a commodity's production and the point of that commodity's consumption, the fresher that product is likely to be. Not just beef, but ANY product. But, the shipping time is not even an issue for me, because I wouldn't buy the imported product under ANY conditions. I have a strong desire to support local farmers and ranchers - and not just because I'm a cattle producer. I feel STRONGLY that we should support our domestic food producers...even at the higher price. I put my money where my mouth is and do the same thing with products other than beef. We've already given much of this country's manufacturing capability to China. We're becoming more and more dependent on them all the time for fish and seafood. We depend on the Middle East for way too much of our energy needs. If we ever become too dependent on foreign countries for our food....well, I'm going to do my part to be sure that doesn't happen. Even if it costs more. Again, I regret hijacking your thread and the direction that it turned. Thanks for buying U.S. beef!