Hi. rhizo mentions that peace lilies "like their soil to be kept somewhat on the moist side, [but] they despise anything that smacks of over watering, soggy soil conditions, etc. Thus, providing a very porous (meaning fast draining) potting medium will solve that issue." Having had a lot of trouble with this moisture balance issue in the past, my experimentation (and paying attention to what people had to say on this forum) led me to what I've found to be a good mix for most of my houseplants. I'm in a very out-of-the-way location, but I can get the materials locally - so they should not be too hard to find. My current mix is made up of equal proportions (by volume, not weight) of perlite, ground bark, and coir. I put these together, mix, and then use the mixture in unglazed clay pots. (If you're not familiar with it, coir (pronounced "kwar") is ground coconut shell - it's like sphagnum peat moss, but less acid, does not cake so badly when dry, and is easier to re-wet after the growing medium has dried out.) I find that with this mix, I can count on good aeration to plant roots. Plants are unlikely to show symptoms of over-watering, yet most of my plants can go four or five days without watering. My plants flourish in this mix, as long as I pay attention to their light needs and give them an occasional dose of water-soluble fertilizer via their water. Joel

If a plant is patented. the the seller is required to enclose a plant identification tag with that plant, listing it's name and the fact that a patent has been applied for(PPAF) or if granted, the patent # (PPxxxxx). It will also include a statement that "asexual propagation prohibited". If it does not include that tag, then I have always assumed that it is permissible to propagate the plant, at will. There are many thousands of desirable cultivars that aren't patented, as many, many people are only happy to share their beauties without compensation. Only the greedy want coin for their fortuitous garden seedlings, TC culls, plant sports, "witches broom's", etc. (MHO) If a patent is merited, with disclosure of extensive, long term breeding efforts, then I am likely to purchase a desirable plant. On the other hand, if no human effort was involved in development and it appears that the patent was applied for a species Ecotype(Morphotype), then I am disinclined to pay a royalty to obtain it. (Again, MHO) Rb

You probably do have some patented broms, HDD. I think there are a number of them, including Neo. carolinae Tricolor 'Perfecta'. I don't know of any enforcing that goes on with the propagation of that thing-- just about everyone has it. 'Ultima' is patented but I didn't find that out until after I bought a pup at a convention. There was no tag saying that, and it hasn't stopped me from selling pups either. I don't think anyone is going to go after the small grower, so I don't worry about it. I seem to remember hearing that Neo. carolinae 'Mother' had a patent covering not only it but also all of its offspring, making it illegal to use any of them for breeding. 'Mother' itself is seldom seen; the people who have it don't seem inclined to share it, but its babies are everywhere, so I don't know how you can control that. We grow a lot of Globbas too, and several years ago we tried to purchase some corms of the 'Jungle Jewels' series, which are patented. This in and of itself seemed odd to me because I had always assumed that a patented plant had to be a hybrid or sport or a GMO of some sort, but these are wild-collected species, so how can anyone hold a patent on them? At any rate, the grower/patentholder (who happens to be a friend of my husband's) gave us a stern lecture about not propagating them, and when Ken told him we wanted to try them as cut flowers he said no, we couldn't do that either! He never did send us the plants, I guess he figured we weren't to be trusted, LOL! Fortunately for us, we already had a couple of unpatented clones of that same species that we like better anyway, so we'll stick with those. Renaming and selling patented plants goes on all the time, sadly. From what I've heard pretty much all of the major tissue culture labs are guilty of this. David Shiigi had a lawsuit over a lab that released his Guz. 'Puna Gold' under another name. I don't know what the outcome of that suit was, but it's hardly an isolated incident.

I like getting my hostas from a nursery that specializes in them. I've found that they tend to at least be more knowledgeable than growers that don't. I tend to like to talk to nursery owners.....and "somehow" it always comes up in conversation. Recently I was at 2 different places and the answers were completely different. The hosta grower was very upfront when the topic came up and told us how they look for signs throughout the growing season and use the bleach solution on their tools, etc. etc. The other grower kind of knew about it and told us they use the bleach solution on their tools but didn't want to dwell on the subject. HVX happens and when you go to a grower that exclusively sells hostas you do run a bit of a risk because that's all they grow but you also deal with people that are fully aware of what to do. BTW, I would not buy anything twice from a grower with out a guarantee....They may not have anything posted, but most people will take a dead or diseased plant back within a reasonable time. If they don't, I can't justify spending that kind of money with them....