Willing to pay postage, but looking forward to the day that I can offer cuttings myself.... I've been recently bit hard by the gardening bug, and can't wait to add to my little "family". I really get so much out of learning about/caring for them.

Welcome to Garden Web. I thought you might like to know there is no email link on your member page, thus no way to email you. To set up your email, just go to the bottom on any page here, and click on Member Pages Then click on Edit your Personal Information, Page, and Preferences You will then probably be asked to login in again. Once there, set the drop down box to Show my email address to MEMBERS And then check the box Allow other users to send you email via forms at our site. That will place a link on your member page, and will also show your email address to anyone you email about a trade. While there editing, you may want to fill in your state abbreviation. It goes in the one box provided as the garden zone. Happy Gardening and trading. Sue

I am looking for some Foxtail asparagus fern; it is the one with the long conical fronds and not the common asparagus fern that is a pest in NSW. I love the unusual look of this plant and it doesnt seem to be sold in plant shops/nurseries anymore.

GF - Plants are naturally shedding organisms; they automatically balance their root to shoot ratio. IOW, if you prune off a fraction of the top of a plant, and leave the roots intact, the plant has internal chemical messengers that stimulate the plant to quickly replace the 'missing' top growth. If you prune roots and leave the top intact, the plant is stimulated to focus its energy allocation on replacing roots. If there is a significant loss of either top mass or bottom (root) mass, die back (shedding) of it's counterpart can occur. You can't prevent that from occurring, and the only hand you might play is by simultaneously pruning roots and shoots so they end up in balance when you're done; but still, the plant will do the fine tuning because you'll find that there is a relationship between particular roots and particular branches that varies in the degree of dedication, one to the other, by species. IOW, root A has a closer relationship to branch A than any other branch and the exclusivity of that relationship varies by species. The reciprocal of that relationship is also true. So, if you prune root A or branch A, the 'adjustment' in root growth or top growth will be greater in it's opposite counterpart more so than in the rest of the branches or roots. So a mechanism is in place whereby the entire organism as well as individual root to shoot relationships will automatically be balanced. Lauren - I did a little experiment with a bonsai tree. After measuring a rooms RH, I set the potted tree above a large tray full of water and pebbles and placed the same digital hygrometer used to measure the room's RH in its branches. A half hour later, RH had increased only .4 % - 4/10 of 1%, an insignificant amount. So, if your wish is to raise RH surrounding your plants, a humidifier suited to raising the RH of at least the room where the plants gather for companionship is the best way, followed distantly by grouping your plants together, though the more plants you have, the better the later works. Al