Cool idea to hear another other side of our citrus forum folks!

For me it's music and currently taking cello lessons. Also play a little mandolin....bluegrass and folk mainly. Also enjoy using the wood lathe to make bowls from native trees that have fallen.

Dancing and hiking.

Genealogy and horticulture, (Winter hobby and summer hobby).

Bob, you crack me up. I just showed your post to Thomas who was very happy to see that. You are a musician too Bob, but I guess gardening is #1 for you now. :)

For me it is 1) gardening (citrus and roses - the most recent obsession), 2) reading (I don't watch tv so reading books is my escape, and 3) it is probably a toss up between cooking and photography. I go back and forth - sometimes I get sick of cooking, and sometimes I put the camera down too. Nice idea you had with this post. John, cello - very nice. My son used to be obsessed with bluegrass music, but he has now moved to pop and indie. Steve - what kind of dancing?? Bonnie, genealogy is a neat hobby. I've done ancestry dna but that's about it.

Is there anybody playing second fiddle? I am good at it to. I was a r/r bass player.

Laura, got a request for Isabel, this is a difficult one. Got this favorite c/d from Jennifer Warnes,

Famous Blue Raincoat, the song is Bird on a Wire. I think this is perfect for her. If she ever get in America got Talent, this one will do it.

Laura, I LOVE Genealogy, I've been doing it since 1994. I hit a dead end on one branch, so I did the Ancestry DNA as well. Which proved my research is correct. Lol!

I grew up around music but never had the determination to stay with it long enough to play any instrument. Much to my Dad's disappointment. But my son and nephew, and son-in-law all play guitar. Tho' not on level with the rest of you. Just hobbies.

And I have a passion for growing things, mostly edibles. But just about any plant will do! Lol!

Bob, I have given the message to the appropriate authorities here. I am not musical myself, but everyone else in my family is. Ana, my little swimmer is now becoming a drummer. Apparently she is quite good from what I hear (I can't tell lol). I will show her the song for sure. Steve, that is very cool. I would have never guessed that about you! Bonnie, I have always loved growing things too. From the time I was a little girl I grew a huge bean plant in my grandmother's garden and I still remember that vividly. I love plants...always have. On a side note, I made a spinach salad with cranberries (from a package), but I added a sliced up tangelo that I grew and it was wonderful in there! I love hearing about everyone else and other things they do. Bob, if we ever make it out there, you have to take us fishing!

Bob lol you are too funny!! Party boating Musician who grows table loads of persimmons gotta love you bob What a life!! :)

Bob, I play the violin a little and want to continue lessons in the near future. I do love bluegrass! John - the cello is one of my favorite string instruments, second to violin. It’s tones are absolutely beautiful!

No 1 for me is horses, then a close tie between photography and fly fishing.

An invite goes to you too, Kelley! During summer we do our traditional “ Full Moon Pontoon party” , ty up 12 or so pontoons, eat......,wait for the moon to come up and scream as loud as you can, gals take of their sarongs and than jump in the lake, either to cool of.........,men continue their b’s.

Kelley, are you going to be the next, Allison Kraus? Good for you! Can’t wait for a little video.

All, it's great to have a lot of different interests so you can enjoy the ones that are either in season or that work for your stage in life. I think hobbies are like close friends in several ways but I read somewhere that we only have enough time to have two or three really close friends because that level of friendship requires time. I think hobbies are the same way. We only have time to be really good at only two or three hobbies and the rest will be more like interests or bucket list items for another period of our lives.

Ok, I'm done playing philosopher, Kelly, agree on loving the tines of the violin and cello. Only thing I know that sounds better than the bright pure sounds of the violin or the deep, bassy drone of the cello.....is when both are played together. Last lesson, my instructor played a treble clef part on violin, another student played the other treble clef part on violin, and I played the bass clef par on cello....sure is great when we get our parts right! We were playing Rondo e Saltarello. Seems like I recall that Laura's husband is a professional cellist?

Count me in, Bob! I do want to fish the Norfolk, Little Red, Spring, and White Rivers one day :)

John, I bet it was absolutely lovely. I know this sounds ridiculous, but I have been listening nonstop to the How To Train Your Dragon soundtracks. John Powell is an absolute genius.

John, my husband is a lawyer lol...no lawyer jokes ;). However, he studied music in school and is a jazz saxophonist and he also plays piano and congas. He has a band and they played at his office Christmas party this year, which was interesting for his co-workers since he's kind of a serious guy otherwise. :) . Kelley and John, I love strings. I wish I'd learned to play an instrument, but it did not happen for me. Perhaps someday...

Reading, writing, travelling, cooking, horses and goats, and golf; those are the things I like to do when I have spare time from my 4 tropical gardens and 35,000 trees.

Laura, you better not, having that many musicians in your household, who is going to keep them in check, don't even go there! What you are doing is plenty good. There come a time where you don't have to cook all that much, especial with musicians.

Bob, you are so creative here!

I like to sing for my friends and family at parties weddings and so on. I feel I am loosing my voise though the older I get , lol. I am also a physical therapist and message therapist by trade. I love to do landscaping, gardening, and first of all my passion in growing things is to grow orchids, roses and citrus, in that order. Use to be just citrus.

I am a breeder of birds and fish and a caretaker for my mom. My passion for working out also occupies my time a few nights a week, and reading and crossword puzzles when I can. Love watching Netflix, Dracula lately and other good shows like 'YOU" and 'Ozark' which you should see if you have not. Ha I can't remember the rest at this moment. I Love the music Kelly speaks of and use to play drums. Not anymore.

I also love to work on Chevy's in my spare time and going to be taking motorcycle lessons this year. Would love to own one of my own to drive to the top of Mt. Washington and go hiking which I also like to do often. Fishing I miss but use to love to do. No where you can catch good fish anymore. Sounds like fun near Bob's place. Dancing big time winning competitions.

Is anyone else here a health fanatic like me?

I can only imagine with all this talk of organic oranges and growing your own food. I don't eat or drink refined sugars, pasta, white starches, breads, certain sugary vegi's such as corn, artificial sweetners, coffee, corn syrups, smoke, or drink. I that leaves all the fun out with food. lol I am constantly watching my health, weight and six pack, ha

Here is a good one, while still employed, took a month off to go to school, not just a “school”, it was a course in building true Adobe houses in the Santa Fe / Taos area.

Mud/straw walls, all hands on. I love anything Adobe, wants to built my own retirement place.

I love the drums and my two boys play professionally. One lives in Nashville and has made a career playing the drums. My younger boy plays drums in church.

I'm passionate about studying Scripture for the past 40 years. I enjoy gardening, fishing, golfing and the outdoors in general.

I also roasting my own coffee for the past 10 years. You can say I'm a coffee snob of sorts.

I enjoy cooking in a well seasoned carbon steel wok since the 70's. I also collect old wagner/griswold cast iron and cook with them. And I love cooking outdoors with my Big Green Egg.

And last but not least I really like my pets. My Koi pond :)

Nick,

In California by law Koi are livestock; but if you love them, they are pets to you.

Wow! Where to start. I have a problem in that I have way too many interests for the time I have. Besides what I do for a living, which is medical illustration, and besides growing citrus, I love growing mangoes and plumerias.

My other horticultural interest includes landscaping with the hardy broad-leafed evergreens...which I grow in my yard, because I personally like to see green in the winter and not brown sticks. These include several species of the evergreen oaks, Azalea/Rhododendron, hardy palms (Trachy, Needle, Sabal minor), Photinias, hollies ( I have 30 varieties ! ), Osmanthus, the evergreen Witch-hazels (such as Loropetalum, Distyllium and Sycopsis), Prunus, Sarcococca, Illicium, Euonymus, Mountain Laurel, Pieris (Andromedas), Boxwoods, evergreen Viburnum, evergreen Dogwoods, etc etc. I could go on and on. But you should see my yard in January!! GREEN!

Another interest is music. I play piano, guitar, alto saxophone and I sing solos and do arrangements for myself and others that include full orchestrations with strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, etc. This is mostly for my church and small ensembles.

For recreation, I prefer to swim these days as it's easy on the joints! Many of my contemporaries are getting knee replacements, so I'm going to try to avoid that! LOL! But I used to play racketball, basketball, used to fish (back when I had more time) and water-ski and snow-ski.

Dave, I can only imagine. Have you ever cut dormant branches of the Witch-hazel bring them in and put them in water to open early? love those and they smell so good.

Dave, how many varieties of plumerias do you grow? I have two, one pink and the other just an ordinary one. I like to grow just one with a half a dozen different colors.

I was just looking at the plumerias site, saw your name there, love that Waimea variety, can I buy a cutting from you?

i don’t know how you find time for all those activities, good for you.

Hey Bob, well, before citrus, I really got into plumerias. I've probably grown maybe 25 varieties over the years, but they grow so FAST -- sometimes over 18" in a summer -- that I soon ran out of room. So, I've been really whittling down my collection to proven bloomers and non-finicky growers. I don't have any extra Waimeas right now, but I may have a cutting in the Fall when I'll have to trim in order to get it into the garage(!). So if you'd remind me then. They can root over winter if you give them some heat and long day-length supplemental light. Some of my faves are Cal. Sunset, Lani, Penang Peach, Waimea, Divine and Thornton's Lemon Drop. These are all pretty good bloomers and when they get some size to them, will bloom every summer. I've never tried grafting them.

But like I said, I've tried many more of them and some bloomed well one summer, but then not the next, or they grew up like rockets and were just too hard to contain in a pot. I do like the fact that you can pretty much store them away for winter like patio furniture, but they don't like anything much below 50 degrees on a regular basis. They should LOVE the summers of Arkansas though.

Since citrus came along, I tend to appreciate them a bit more I think. Although one has to care for them 365-days-a-year.

Penang Peach:

Thanks Dave, if you have anything you want to get rid of ,I’ll take anything, just want to finish one combo, just one,tree this year, to get some flowers next year. If you need anything I grow can send you . You sure got a lot of nice stuff growing.

Dave, the magic growing of just about anything))

I would be willing to by a Waimea from you too. It will be the first I grow in years because it seems so asy compared to what I have tried in the past. You know Laura loveplants? She is a wonderful gem. I have know her for years. In fact we still keep in touch. Please let me know. I would love to try one again. Beautiful there) And of course if there is anything of mine you'd like me to share, just let me know.

I hear you about wanting color in winter. Me too, LOVE witchhazel and I even have Osmanthus. YOu and I seem to like a lot of the same plants. Way to go. MY next order will be new Witchhazel shrubs. I am about to order some as we speak. I also like Odora shrubs.

Mike

My most interesting is CITRUS

Hey Bob, I tried to message you, but maybe your messaging is turned off? Let me assess what I have when weather gets warmer. I may actually have one spare, rooted Waimea (maybe). Everything is pretty much stored away right now and out of sight. Plus, it's way to cold to ship now anyway.

I had a TON of cuttings last fall as I trimmed some and totally dismantled and threw out some HUGE plumerias. But most all went into compost! Some were given away locally. some were under-performers.

Shipping is the big hassle for me as it's hard to get to the Post Office either on my way to work or home due to traffic and time crunch.

But let's keep in touch. You can try to message me. I think mine is turned on. I'll need your mailing address. I'm sure we could work out a trade!

Mike, not sure I have any extra at the moment. I had a ton of cuttings last fall, but they went into compost. If you're agreeable to cuttings, I may have something at the end of next summer. What are you interested in? Trade?

Plumerias love long, hot summers, by the way. Otherwise they take a long time to get going in spring and want to bloom when the weather already starts to turn cold. So too far up north they can be disappointing.

Looks like your messaging is not activated.

Dave, come to think of it you are right. I don't have long hot summers(. I am wondering if the Waimea one would do ok for my area? It seems to have a good description and says easily rooted. Thanks for that reminder. My figs are about the same too. Once they start fruiting the colder weather starts to move in. Time for a rethink on moving.

How do I activate messaging Dave? I have gotten messages recently but maybe it deactivated on its own. Strange.

Anything you like I post just let me know. I have too many plants to name) I can always wait until you cut them back again. Thank you)

Gracious!

Mike

Dave, I live 18 miles from the closest post office, I know what you means, it’s a pain.

I don’t want you go out of your way, you are still working, I am not.

Dave you can try to contact me, hopefully I got it turned on, I hope. Thanks for trying.

I do have many plants interest.

Steve

Steve, yes they are going wild, fig starting to look really good, nice branching.

Steve, the master grower at fresh plants! No bugs too. That alone is a feat in the winter. Great job.

Bob, you are so good. Green room, I love the sounds of that. Can't wait for the plumeria to wake up. zthanks for the info, I really appreciate it. I noticed no snow on your ground. Same here. It been one of the warmest January's, since 1913. on record. Up until yesterday we had 7 days of nothing below 32 degrees. Crazy. The next few days again in the 40's and 50's. Scary crazy. I'm hoping my perennials don't wake up thinking it's spring to be hit with an arctic blast come March.

as far as mailing things, I think the recipient can buy a shipping label and send the pdf to the shipper. Then the postal carrier just picks it up.

dormant fig outside

Pepper plants bottom 3 picks.