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I will! I hope I have a pot big enough in the house to use.

I don't know exactly what kind I have yet...this is my 2nd year in my home and my first year I was in awe of the beautiful things that grew without my intervention! Here is what I *think* it looked like: I think my big tree is early blooming as well. It has to be the warm and wet weather SC has had lately. (It's currently 71 and sunny). My other, small camellia "bush" is still very tight and new. I hardly cut back my big tree at all because it wasn't particularly unruly or in need. I just dead-headed as the blooms died. I'll post a pic as soon as it opens. I'm going to stock up on paraffin. I already have mineral oil as it is good to add to a variety of things. I was just looking through some files I and found an interesting article that I saved about waxing camellias and a little bit about them. It is from my local newspaper. .. I also have some lily of the valley (my birth flower) that are peeking up. What fun things grow year round!! waxing_3657.pdf

The blooms on my camellia tree are about to burst open. I think I might try waxing some blooms. Anyone ever do this before that wants to share tips or tricks?

Awesome cotton plant! My boyfriend's mother's land butts up against a large cotton field (Cameron Cotton & Seed Company) for as far as the eye can see. When the cotton is "ripe" and we drive down to see her, it looks like the town got a few inches of lake effect snow!! It's so fun to make balls of cotton or save some of the seeds. Petee - make sure you don't get attacked by boll weevils!! Since cotton is such a cash crop in my neck of the woods, here are some interesting facts: In 2006, SC planted 266,000 acres of cotton and harvested 420,000 bales from that acreage. During the Civil War, the Confederate government banned the export of cotton, hoping to produce a cotton famine in England and France. The only cottonseed crusher and oil mill east of the Mississippi is in Hartsville, SC. 1 bale of cotton weighs about 480 pounds and equals... * 249 bed sheets * 2,104 boxer shorts * 3,085 diapers * 2,419 men's briefs * 1,265 pillowcases * 690 terry bath towels * 21,960 women's handkerchiefs * 409 men's sport shirts * 6,436 women's knit briefs * 215 jeans * 4,321 mid-calf socks * 1,217 T-shirts * 765 men's dress shirts * 313,600 $100 bills

Any tips for what I should do with spent iris foliage...trim them down to the ground or above the ground? I have some vibrant bearded ones that bloomed in the Spring.

When do you harvest butternut squash? That's one of my favorite vegetables. You can make so many great fall recipes with it.

You can see a drop of water at the tip of the cally lilly! I have noticed lots of gnats or "no-see-ums" in my sun room as well.

Lavender - it is planted in the ground, so it is outside year round...also...remember I live in SC, so our winters are tolerable Thanks for the info! I'll start feeding it and hopefully it will get bushier and taller.

Thanks lavender! Do you know the specific kind of hibiscus? I have two other hibiscus plants in my yard and they certainly don't bloom like this - in fact they are like very tall trees with much smaller blooms.

Since Petee shared a picture, I thought I'd share a picture of my sun room / container garden. My house has a breakfast nook off the kitchen, behind french doors. There are no A/C vents in the room, so if I keep the doors closed, it gets nice and steamy, thanks to the South Carolina heat. The sun also shines very brightly in the room. We found ourselves not eating in the room at all (since we having a dining room), so I decided to turn it into my own sun room where I can (try to) grow some "exotic" or tropical plants, and bring in my outside plants during the winter. I am growing Hawaiian plumeria from a small stalk and they are thriving outside in the SC heat. Anywyay, I digress. Here's a pic of my sun room. Going left to right: calla lilly (that isn't blooming), Christmas cactus behind the lilly, begonia (anyone know what kind??), bleeding heart and then some things I either need to repot or plant outside. I am steadily adding more things to the room since I have space for it.

What is this? As I mentioned before, I moved into my first home in January and decided to leave everything in the yard grow this year so I could see what sprung up. Well...I have had a TON of interesting plants bloom. It seems to be something new each week. You can not tell from this picture, but the blooms are as big as saucers, maybe bigger. Even the buds are large, bigger than a golfball. You can see in the last picture how scraggly the plant looks...once someone can identify it, I hope I can figure out how to care for it and make it bigger and bushier. The plant is barely strong enough to hold up the blooms and buds. In all honesty, before it bloomed, I thought it was dead. And a gratitious shot of my Amaryllis. I have a ton of these growing around the back corner of my house and decided to cut a few off and bring them inside. They seem to last much longer inside. If I leave them alone outside, the ants attack them. This particular Amaryllis had 12 blooms come out of one stalk!

That is a lot of plants! Must be a full time job to water and care for everything.

I will definitely let you what's up with the muscadines. I was going to go out tonight and check them out, but it's raining and storming like the dickens.

Yes - I live in South Carolina. I read online that it is easy to put a tarp or sheet on the ground and shake the vines to get the grapes to drop. So I should not pick them? Or can I clip off the cluster when they turn purple? I'd hate to have them drop off and not get to them in time. I guess I'll be watchful.

This is my first year in my new house and I'm discovering all kinds of neat things growing and I've been getting a lot of wonderful surprises once everything starts to bloom. The previous owner sure had a green thumb! My newest discovery is behind my garage. I was walking with the dog back there the other day and decided to check out the bunch of vines (that I thought were weeds) and found a TON of muscadine grapes growing. How exciting! There are many many bunches of green grapes with a few turning purple. Anyone have any tips on how to tell when they are ready to be harvested and how to prevent the birds and squirrels from feasting on them?

LOL I was just asking because I had some relatives move to a city named Eden and I was going to harass you if I found out you were my relative.

A town named Eden?

Any advice on repotting and breaking up the "back bulbs"?? I am getting ready to do this for the first time and I'm scared to damage the plant.

WOW! I'm an orchid enthusiast and I have to say - yours is truly amazing!!! Do you know exactly what kind of orchid that is? That is the tallest one I've ever seen. It just is beautiful. Please post a picture for us when it blooms. I can't wait. This is my Cymbidium orchid that bloomed in Spring. It got to be about 3 1/2 ft. tall.

I just googled some info about chamomile - it's an annual, so you have to replant every year. This article has some good tips about planting it and about using it around the house. http://gardenhobbies.com/herbs/chamomile.html

This is very interesting! Thanks for sharing it...I might try to plant some chamomile.

Yes! I have about 15 different rose bushes and only one gets blackspot. I can't figure it out. Mine started getting spots around early April. I bought some fungicide that I found at Lowe's for my other bushes, but it didn't help the blackspot...I thought blackspot was mold spores?