Tad & Diana:
As you both may or may not remember, I once committed the grave sin of porch garden incompetence. Tad had sent me a large group of huge bamboo plants from George of the Jungle, and I could keep none of them alive. It was sad and weird as they all died, regardless of what I did to save them. I even kept one pot, barren of stems or leaves for a year, which re-sprouted and new bamboo shot up-- but that too died in a couple years after only being able to obtain a height of about two feet.
Well, last year, after being given your seeds from the screening of The Immigrant Garden, I decided to try to redeem myself. Enclosed is photographic evidence of my success. I planted about 10 seeds, and one of them grew into a fabulously beautiful flowering wonder. I've sent photo evidence of this beauty at various angles and stages of growth. I hope I've now redeemed my porch gardener honor in your eyes!
Meanwhile, at the end of months of lovely blooms, the dead 6 foot stalk of this plant had to be eliminated, but then a month later a new plant popped up in its place, and it is now about 2 feet tall and I am looking forward to another set of blooms in the months to come. I'm thinking of moving this to my actual land garden (I rent one from the City of Santa Monica now) to be a permanent reminder of the Devlin family's various horticultural efforts.

- Bobby Weinberg