When life plays garden tricks on you.

yeh I know that feeling...I'm gonna stop right here...

Now you have to put a red flowering plant in between :-)

That's life! Unpredictable! I had not idea that Uncarina grandidieri could grow up there. It's an extremely tropical plant.

I hear you Paul-lol.
That sounds about right Klahanie. I have the red Mandavillia. Nudge one of those two Yellow's..a bit more to the right...

Andy, On The Tropical Fruit Growers forum,I had to do the whole bay area is warm enough explanation to a soucalian who was suprised Avocado's and Sapote's will grow in the bay area. I told him about you and living both places.
It was kind of funny back and forth. You know Fremont has just about the same growing degree days as Santa Barbara? 4300,Fremont 4100,Hayward 3900(hayx).
My Uncarina is in its 3rd summer. Within 2-3 months when I bought it,it bloomed. Skipped all of last year,that was our warmest ever. Now,ready to bloom again in mid May. A great fat plant!

Stan:

So many people from other states don't understand the micro-climates of California. It's until they move then they understand.

The Bay Area, in my opinion has some of the most beautiful avocado trees I've ever seen...that even goes for in Hawaii. I think it's because the climate is very similar to where they're native and there's more rain up there to leach the soil of salts. Also, the soil up in most of the Bay Area is so much more fertile than down here many parts of Southern California. I haven't really seen avocado trees here as tall and large as the real old ones in Hayward and throughout the Bay Area. Avocado trees love the deep soil! They can put that very long tap root down deep. I do know they have a lot of feeder roots, also.

Have you ever seen that monster avocado tree at Stanford University? I think it's by the church (I think it's a church) on the campus. It's gigantic!

I have to make it to Stanford. I've heard its a nice place to just walk around..and they do have a website just for the plants of Stanford. A mini desert garden also. Sounds nice.

The gardens are very beautiful at Stanford! I used to go the book store there, also. It was a beautiful, very comprehensive book store.

"the fickle finger of fate"...am I showing my age, quoting that?
I love the bookstores at a university...as you say, D1, comprehensive! i liked to go to the bookstore at the U of Guelph to buy the Botanical Garden Fact Sheets and manuals that the other bookstores never heard of.
Hibiscus only last a couple of years in my garden. I had two lovely ones when we moved, I brought them both with me and they struggled thro two horrible winters and I think last winter was the capper, because there's no sign of them.

At the local Hayward U,10 years ago I was working there and at the library what did I find? A first edition of Darwin's Origin of Species. I was shocked it would be ...free to touch and read.
It was the first and only time in my life I touched a first edition book that changed the world.

Wonder how it came to be there? Donated by a rich alumnus? That is truly amazing. Amazon has a facsimile of the first edition for sale quite reasonable. Born 13 years after Darwin...Gregor Mendel is an interesting read as well. These men were working on theories that would eventually become a science. Have you ever seen pictures of the two men? They look like brothers!
Living in a University community is a real advantage for young people. In the spring (this month, actually) the U. of G. has Homecoming. All the colleges open their doors to alumni and their families.. the arboretum, the veterinary college, the horticulture and agricultural college. Haven't been back for a long time. ...that's an excellent idea...thanks Stan!

I Lori,prefer to go to my Funk and Wagnall's.

ah,the good old days.

I'm a Luddite. can't help it.

I was going back to the old Rowan and Martin Laugh In.
For the kids reading this...