Blooming will provide a sure identification. Ragweed has small rather greenish flowers in racemes which are reviled by allergy suffers everywhere. The feverfew has white, daisy like blooms. The corydalis has tubular flowers, color depending upon species. Of course the smell of the plant may help in identification. Ragweed doesn't smell like much to me. Feverfew has a strong chrysanthemum like smell. I can't tell you what smell the various corydalis species smell like, if anything. I'm not that familiar with the plant. There is a great variability in one single species of plants but I stick by what I originally said in feverfew. It just looks that way to me. But here's a question that may help... Now I couldn't tell from the photo, but are the leaves opposite or alternate? (See the link below if you don't know what I'm asking about.) And this is something that may become more clear and consistent as the plant grows upwards. The reason I ask is because I just pulled out my Newcomb's Wildflower Guide and it lists feverfew as alternate, ragweed as opposite, and corydalis as alternate. I think corydalis is less likely than the first two but I looked it up for you. FataMorgana Here is a link that might be useful: Opposite/Alternate leaves

Agree with 3 strikes and you are out ------ don't necessarily follow it. After 2 strikes I take pause and try to find out as much as possible about the natural environment of the failing plant. I also try to identify a grower who successfully grows them. I have tried over and over again with Dendrobium cuthbersonii and have always failed . So I finally talked to Tom Perlite from Golden Gate Orchids who grows these things like I grow Dandelion and got some hints from him. Now it takes me 2 years to kill them instead of one. I have finally given up on these little beauties. Dendrobium nobile is another example. No matter how closely I follow the instructions as to how to grow them, winter rest etc, I cannot get a decent bloom. Either they don't bloom or they make a few lackluster blooms. So I finally talked to the grower in Hawaii who is the source of most of the commercial nobiles you see on the market every spring. Success, last spring all 3 of mine bloomed ------------ with a few lackluster flowers! Enough, they went on the plant table of my society and I'm done with them. Miltoniopsis; Killed every one of them in the past. Finally talked to Theresa Hill form Hillcrest Orchids who grows beautiful Miltoniopsis. Her advice was simple, keep them cool in the summer, warm in the winter, they like to be within 5F of 60F. Doing this I am now growing them successfully, meaning the plant is increasing in size. Last year they even bloomed, one or two spikes on a large plant. That should have been 10 spikes or more. So I'm not there yet and unless they pick it up may also give up on them but not yet. Parvisepalum Paphiopedeliums: I just got started with these so have no failures to report. Go to the Gallery where you see an entry I placed yesterday of my first success with Paph armeniacum. They also have a reputation of being a little difficult and I had a discussion with Dr Holger Perner at the San Francisco show who thinks most people are growing them wrong. Most people treat them as cold growers. True in the winter but not true in the summer. In their natural habitat, the ones from China get treated to a bright, sunny, cold, dry winter and a shady, hot, humid and very wet summer. The result of the monsoon season there. So unlike Dracula who should be kept as cold as possible in the summer, these Paphs should go in the warm greenhouse and drenched every day. Since there are 35,000 species of orchids available, I generally don't mess with ones that don't like me. My greenhouse is full of robustly growing plants. Not because I'm a genius but because that is the price they have to pay in order to stay. If a plant lingers, grows poorly and fails to bloom, I will get rid of it. Visitors to my growing area think I do magic because most plants look very healthy when in fact it is a process of throwing them against the wall and if they don't stick, they don't stay. There are innumerable others to replace...

Mike, I never tested anything, but it was pretty obvious that something 'really, really' bad went through the collection. Started as nectrotic spots on leaves of a couple of newer plants early last fall, those got much worse and spread to those entire plants. By the time I realized there was something bad wrong, it had spread to others. (Very cramped indoor conditions). It seemed the phals got hit first and hardest, even though they continued to spike and bloom. Between some back problems and the virus, I somewhat neglected things and then had some insect/mite issues as well. By December/January, I realized things weren't going to improve and I thought it best to start ditching everything if I was to ever grow 'kids again. I tried to save some special plants, but then I decided that I did not want to risk bringing in any new ones if the any of the older possibly diseased plants were still around. I ended up taking the nuclear approach and destroyed everything that was in the grow room last fall. Not positive it was a virus, but it looked and acted like one. Anyhow, one way or the other the plants were toast and weren't going to improve under my care... Bob

So here's an interesting note about my varigated dayflower find... someone on the "Name that Plant!" forum suggested it might be Tradescantia fluminensis 'Variegata' or Tradescantia albiflora. Both are often kept as hanging-basket houseplants, and get white dayflower-type flowers. Also, if they do not get enough light, the foliage will revert to green, and sometimes they throw green segments for no particular reason. Both are referred to as "wandering jew" on various websites, and mention that they do escape cultivation occasionally. I have never had them as houseplants so I'm still not convinced this is Tradescantia and not Commelina. I will wait to see the blooms. Even people who say they have encountered these as weeds have had people volunteer to take the "weeds" from them. The color is striking. I will grow as much of it as I can so I will have some to share! I'm thinking we shall all have to try to overwinter it in order to keep it from disappearing...