Here's a CNN link discussing the fee increases. Specifically noted in the story: "The greatest fee increase will come for goods selling for less than $25. EBay's fee for those transactions will rise 67 percent, to 8.75 percent of the final sale price." Eesh - that would DEFINATELY hit plants. "Incoming CEO John Donahoe, president of eBay Marketplaces, which encompasses its shopping sites and classifieds, has said he will aggressively change eBay's product, customer approach and business model." Eesh - if he did this - he needs to go take a macro economics class. Econ 101 - if you want to increase an activity - you try to cut fees - cut some costs on admin side - increase the activity. Not hike your fees in the face of stagnating usage. Jeeez, duh! We're hurting - people are complaining! Increase the fees to make up for them not using the site! Wow, some people don't get it. Here is a link that might be useful: Cnn link to ebay story

Jen, There are a lot of threads about growing gardenias scattered among the various forums. Do a search on all forums for "gardenias" and you'll be busy for awhile with the results. My all time favorite GW thread is "The Suicidal Gardenia" which is beyond hilarious as folks describe how tempermental their gardenias are. However, gardenias are almost native plants here along the coast near Wilmington because they thrive in our very light (sandy) soil and high humidity with no attention at all. They are the very opposite of tempermental here! I've seen 8x6 foot gardenia bushes covered in blooms beside long-abandoned farm houses. But they HATE clay, so if you have heavy soil, so you'll have problems -- put your gardenia in a pot. Allie

I'll second what Martha said previously - according to many sources and studies, some of the tropical varieties of milkweed appear to encourage monarchs to hang around when they should be moving along to their over-wintering grounds in Mexico. Here are some varieties that I found on another site which are native to South Carolina (source is below): Asclepias amplexicaulis Asclepias cinerea Asclepias connivens Asclepias curassavica Asclepias exaltata Asclepias fascicularis Asclepias humistrata Asclepias incarnata Asclepias lanceolata Asclepias longifolia Asclepias mexicana Asclepias michauxii Asclepias obovata Asclepias pedicellata Asclepias perennis Asclepias physocarpa Asclepias purpurascens Asclepias quadrifolia Asclepias rubra Asclepias syriaca Asclepias tomentosa Asclepias tuberosa Asclepias variegata Asclepias verticillata Asclepias viridiflora Cynanchum leave Source: http://monarchwatch.org/bring-back-the-monarchs/resources/milkweeds-by-state I have A. curassavica seeds up for trade. It does appear that this one is native to three counties in SC though so if you're interested, shoot me an email. I was looking for A. incarnata (swamp milkweed) but also interested in heirlooms and other things.

This year I found a 'maurelii' banana at the local nursery so have a couple along with my musa basjoos in pots and flower beds. I also found a musa zebrina (blood banana) but I really don't think it's liking full sun. Interesting though, there's an impatien plant in the same pot that's doing well in full sun. My cavendish banana from last year is indoors as a houseplant and seems to be doing much better, I guess it didn't really like full sun when it was outside. I bought an 'improved meyer' lemon and so far so good (nice growth). My spindle palm is about to open it's only new leaf of the summer. My bismarck and fan palm from last year are only former versions of themselves (from growing indoors in poor light for the winter) but are back outdoors and doing good. My latest thinking, with this cool summer, is to analyze tropical plants that seem to do good no matter what the summer. The moonflower, morning glory, persian shield, begonias, nicotiana, petunias and even easy-to-grow marigolds seem to be doing fine. I am coming to the conclusion that my mandevilla is growing so slowly that it's not really worth the effort especially in a cool summer. It's only two feet high and not really filling out a trellis. Every gardener can probably relate to planting something, giving it a prime location and hoping it makes a big impact, and then have it just sit there and do nothing. I also have my rubber plant growing outside for the summer and am trying a Wollemi pine - I just had to have it. Part of my thinking for this year was that summer, even when we have nice summers, are so short. Therefore for alot of my plants I started with ones growing in a pot (example morning glory) rather than start from seed. Happy tropical gardening, Glen