Hi Frank, I can't help with the plant, but I wanted to offer a suggestion--have you tried freeze-dried miracle berries? If you look on Amazon for "Miracle Berries by Snozzberry Farm" you'll see the good ones. I have a miracle berry plant and enjoy getting berries from it, but it produces at best 20-30 berries a year (it hates our chlorinated, alkaline water, and our cold winter--in Zone 5 you're going to have to keep it indoors half of the year). The freeze-dried ones are awesome for when you don't have fresh ones--they're much better than the lozenges made out of miracle berry extract.