Justin recently made a post which I found electrifying. He mentioned, in passing, that he was able to grow Philesia magellanica. For those of you who don’t know it, Philesia is a monocot “shrub” native to Chile. It and Lapageria form the family Philesiaceae, a segregate from the Liliaceae in the old, broad sense. I’ve known about Philesia and Lapageria for a long time, but I wrongly assumed that they both need cool temperatures to thrive. And since neither is likely to be hardy in a zone 7 garden (or, frankly, any east coast garden of any zone; please, someone, prove me wrong) I assumed they were not for me. But if Justin can grow Philesia in Texas, then cool temperatures year round are evidently not necessary for the successful cultivation of these plants. I’ve already planted Lapageria seed; I’m still on the lookout for seed or plants of Philesia. Let me know in a private post if you can point me in the right direction. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/