Snowbush is a tropical shrub. It is grown for its attractive red stems and variegated foliage. In our area, it is best planted outside, in sun or part shade. If you grow it indoors, give it as much light and sun as possible. Prefers moist soil.

Angel Vine Topiary: Keep angel vine evenly moist at all times. This plant uses lots of water when warm. It will, however, recover from going completely dry and wilting, losing only the most dried out leaves. This plant is a fast grower, so limiting fertilizer will also help to limit its growth. Angel Vine prefers full sun.

Ivy Topiary: Watering is the most important factor in keeping your topiary beautiful. Do not allow the topiary to sit in water or to go completely dry. Use of softened water should be avoided as the salts can damage your plant. Fertilization of your topiary is not essential. Ivy prefers shade or filtered sun.

To maintain the shape of your topiary, new growth may be trimmed or woven into the frame.

Some Fun Thanksgiving Facts for You:

• The Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving feast, in 1621, lasted three days.
• On October 3, 1863 Abraham Lincoln issued a "Thanksgiving Proclamation" that made the last Thursday in November a national holiday.
• In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed Thanksgiving to the third Thursday in November, in order to make the Christmas shopping season longer and thus stimulate the economy. Two years later, he changed it to the fourth Thursday.
• In 1941, Thanksgiving was finally sanctioned by Congress as a legal holiday, on the fourth Thursday in November.
• There were no mashed potatoes at the first Thanksgiving dinner - potatoes were brought here later, by Irish immigrants.
• Turkeys were one of the first animals in the Americas to be domesticated.
• Benjamin Franklin thought the turkey a noble bird and wanted it to be the national bird of America, rather than the eagle!
• Native Americans used the red juice of the cranberry to dye rugs and blankets.
• Thanksgiving in Canada is celebrated on the second Monday in October.
• The pilgrims didn't use forks, they used spoons, knives and their fingers, so if anyone objects to your picking up that drumstick - tell them you are practicing traditional American table manners!

Spray peach and apricot trees against peach leaf curl, an airborne fungus disease that impairs fruiting and can eventually kill a tree. This disease thickens and stunts new shoots, and it puckers, thickens, and curls fresh leaves from the time they first emerge in spring. Affected leaves are red or orange when they first emerge, and later they turn pale green or yellow. Later still, a grayish white powder appears on them, and finally the leaves drop prematurely from the tree. Affected trees bear poorly, and the fruit that survives is usually deformed by wrinkles, raised areas, and irregular lesions.

Be sure to spray all your peach and nectarine trees — even dwarf ones growing in containers — against this dread disease, even if they've never show symptoms. Since peach leaf curl is caused by an airborne fungus it's carried everywhere, though it's at its worst in wet years. Virtually all unsprayed peaches and nectarines fall prey to it eventually, and once the leaves have emerged there's no cure for the problem.

Before spraying your peach and apricot trees, clean them up by removing any loose leaves or mummified fruits and by raking up and destroying all debris in, under, and around each tree. Spray the entire tree, carefully going over the trunk, the branches, and the twigs; also lightly spray the ground under the tree. Spray twice during winter while the trees are dormant, once as soon as the leaves have fallen and again before the buds swell in spring. (The exact timing will differ according to your climate zone, but usually you'll need to apply the first treatment sometime between mid-November and mid-December, and the second in late January or early February.) We recommend Monterey Liqui-Cop or Bonide All Seasons Spray Oil as a spray.

Thanks for all your answers and comments.  We love our subscribers!  And now for an easier question than last week's:

 This Week's Question:  According to Guinness World Records,  what is the world's loudest insect?

This Week's Prize:  a Snowbush (Breynia nivosa)