I just wanted to say thanks everyone!! Very informative articles and so much knew stuff you learn each day comming here...I never understood this about bark and wood.. All I can say is thanks! I FINALLY found some! Fir bark... I remebered buying orchards from someone I met in my area over 5 years ago that was growing beautiful and citrus back then, and I remembered him saying someday he was going to sellevery good supply he could think of for orchards and tropicals, to help people be sucessful at these plants. It was a dream of his. I saved his number from then. I called him, and come to find out, he is a big supplier of YES!! "fir bark"...We were both happy to hear from each other besides. He has fine and or small and medium grade...He says it's real real good stuff. He specializes in this bark..NICE ha. Now I am excited. I get a FREE delivery of three bags within the next couple of days... I will take a pic, and you can see if it as nice as he says when I get to using it.... If it is, then I would be willing to tell you where I got it privately, since it can be VERY difficult to obtain this hard to find good stuff..:-) A secret he shared. I asked him how his plants were doing. He said better than ever before, since he waters his plants once a month with, ready? Seltzer water, sodium free.... He explained the benefits in detail, hard to remember...Hummm.. As anyone ever heard of this, watering container plants with seltzer water?

Pretty pattern but I don't know where to begin finding a match. Most fabric patterns in the US have a relatively short life span, but maybe France is different. I copied the photo for easier viewing.

I used fabric markers (fabric paint pens), purchased online from dickblick - dot - com, to deal with a similar problem on a cotton tapestry. The color reproduction on the site where I bought the tapestry made it look much more vibrant than it really was, and I was so disappointed. Using the fabric markers wasn't difficult, once I practiced on some scraps and learned not to let the color bleed onto an adjoining area. I wanted those green apples to be "apple green" and not an insipid pale sage. The blue and white porcelain vase in the tapestry was a dull, greyish blue originally and now it's much closer to the cobalt color usually seen on similar vases. I was very pleased, since less than $20 spent on the fabric markers made it possible to salvage a purchase that otherwise would have been given away. Good luck!

Kalanchoe luciae . Some have straight leaves and some are wave and some are variegated. It is getting ready to flower and then after awhile the stalk will die but one can cut it back and get lots of babies. I do not know if this is a formal variation. You might ask on the Cactus and succulent forum. The red tinting is from the sun. The more stress it is in , the redder. Especially in winter. The colors get real wonky then.