I almost feel as if this message thread is my psycho therapy. lol Bob was doing very well today. He was surprised that they let him have water this morning so soon after the surgery. After his bypass surgery, they didn't let him have water for about a day because the lungs can fill with fluid from being under anesthesia for so long. We won't know until they exam the section of colon they removed as to whether it was cancerous or not. The surgeon "thought" he got it all. So I imagine more tests are in order to know for certain. I have mentioned in my past posts that I have fibromyalgia. After a day at work, even though I have a job where I sit at a computer all day, I am totally wiped out. So Bob does all the cooking around here. I have trouble standing for very long so it is difficult for me to cook. So at the hospital, he is giving me ideas for food I can make and telling me the best way to cut onions so my eyes don't hurt as bad. Tonight he was telling me how to steam the rice he gets. I just let him ramble on because I know it makes him feel better. I was so glad I had a clogged drain so I could ask him how to unclog it the past few days. It kept him talking for about 45 minutes. Today I was able to tell him that I finally got it unclogged. He was so excited when I told him his tomato plants had little tomatoes. He is doing very well. They were waiting for him to fart. I guess that is a sign that things are going well. If that's the case, I must have one healthy colon! lol So keep up those prayers that Bob finally has a good fart and that he is cancer free! Thanks so much for being my therapists! Love, Kathy

If you remember your highschool biology, this is where punnett squares come in. You've got dominant traits (uppercase letters) and recessive traits (lowercase letters). Lets pretend Red pepper pod color is dominent, and yellow pods are recessive. So you have two purebred peppers next to each other, a red one (RR) and a yellow one (yy), and they accidentally cross. .....y.....y R..Ry..Ry R..Ry..Ry All of the seeds from that crossbreeding will be red, because the dominant red gene (R) is in all of the crosses, and it overrides the yellow. Now, that is your F1 generation. Say you save the seeds from that F1, and plant them. Say there is no cross pollination, only self pollination (which is most likely), you get this: .....R.....y R..RR..Ry y..Ry..yy So you end up with a 25% chance that the F2 is going to be pure Red, a 50% chance that the offspring is going to be a hybrid that is red, and a 25% chance that it will be yellow. If you were to take one of those Ry hybrid reds and backbreed it with a pure RR red, you'd get this: .....R.....y R..RR..Ry R..RR..Ry So your F3 would be 100% red, with a 50/50 chance of carrying the recessive yellow gene. Now, peppers have a lot more going on than just a single thing like this, but it gives you the idea. Heirloom peppers are generally stable breeds, aka ones that have been bred out for at least 8-16 generations to ensure there are no weird recessive genes lurking around. Hybrids may look normal for several generations and then spit something weird back out again. And then you get into the stuff with two dominant genes that end up creating actual hybrid appearances (like if in the above example Red and Yellow were both dominant, the RY offspring might come out Orange, for example, while still having offspring that come out Red or Yellow). Scrupulous seed dealers will only sell seeds that have passed at least the 8th stable generation mark (as in, 8 generations of seed grown out with no surprises), sellers like Pepper Joe on the other hand will happily sell unstable hybrids if they can get the sale. Its one of the reasons you need to look up the reputation for a seller, and never trust seed off of ebay. Because even if the ebay seller picks the seeds straight out of the pod and puts it into an envelope for you, they still might have been an open pollination cross that will mess it up for you. But please, don't let that scare you away from anything thats OP, as its very unlikely that an OP pepper actually hybridizes, majority of the time a pepper self pollinates. Which, as long as its a stable line, will get you more of what you want. Even then, I occasionally like to intentionally plant F1s from an unstable line (like the snacking sweet peppers you get from the grocery store) just to see what I get. Peppers sold for food don't need to be stable, and it can be interesting to see what grows (especially when it gives you a glimpse into what they're hybridizing to make the peppers they sell you). Sometimes the mystery of what grows is the most fun part!

howdy, Maddie here (short for Madgardener ) I decided to return and peek through the postings to see if there was a place for my insatiable need for horticultural endeavors. Yeppers! I am gardening inside to satiate my urges to grow....but that weren't enough. I pinched a few leggy purple leaf ends of an overpriced but way leggy ornamental Gynura aurantiaca (purple passion vine) and brought them home and started them in my rooting bottle (an older glass apple bottle I bought in Colorado that had apple juice almost 27 years ago, I believe now the apple shaped bottles are now plastic) and I just planted it. Right now I have a Sanseveria that has a spike on the end of it's rolled up leaves and makes it look like a green tail of sorts that has a bloom spike about to open its flowers, a crown of thorns that has both red and white flowers on it, a kalanchole that turned out to have red flowers, a Rubra oxalis that I got from Logee's years ago that has never failed me making buds on the little tree like plant. Next to it, upset at the dryness of my house is the Green and gold oxalis which always sulks during winter. It more looks like a small shrub underneath the Rubra I planted at the same time in the same pot. I also have a wide assortment of various spiny cacti, succulents, and an unusual tradescantia that turned out to be tropical that I finally had a fellow gardener find it's name after for over 29 years I referred to it as "Dutch pipe, or Cherokee pipe plant" which was totally false. It turned out to be a Setcresea Purpurea (Tradescantia Cousin) as far as I know. I also have a cactus named Brenda who weighs 150 pounds in the 20 gallon pot who blooms at night in September which is an upright Cereius and a monstrosa cactus that is really old in a clay pot weighing in around 60 pounds who has refused to bloom yet that I've had now for well on 30 years. A schiffelera that is over seven foot tall that I hung Christmas decorations on because we couldn't get a tree, and no room in our new den because all the tender house plants (including the 5 gallon clay pot full of 22 year old Blood lily bulbs) needed to come in before killing freeze. Yep, I can't seem to give it up either. I have shallots, red onions, and garlic with shoots up in the new garden, narcissus and other little bulbs I planted in November starting to come up already because I'm unsure of what it's like here in Western Tennessee. thanks for listening! maddie gardening in zone 7b 50 miles about from the Mississippi River near Jackson, TN

Aw, Glenda, thank y0u! Sure wish I had her b0dy ;-) It w0uld be nice t0 just eat whatever s0unds g00d each day!! Shirley, I feel f0r y0u. The dreaded big sh0pping day. It's getting them all in the h0use that wears me 0ut. At least five trips with as many bags as I can carry. Then w0ndering where the heck I'm g0ing t0 put all that stuff. That salad s0unds delici0us! Have a great time t0night, Raven. Haven't f0und any g00d seaf00d restaurants ar0und here. Y0u'd think they'd be everywhere in FL. N0t! What a sweet st0ry, Ge0rgysm0m. Nice y0ur s0ns are carrying 0n the traditi0n. H0pefully, the girls are being taken 0ut f0r dinner!! Y0gaLady, what a neat Valentine's day gift. I just l0ve ladybugs. I think kettle c0rn and candy w0uld make a l0vely dinner L0L!!