Oops! Coleus is one of those that won't do for WS - they will not tolerate the cold. If they haven't sprouted yet, bring 'em inside and give them some warmth. They *should* sprout for you. You want to direct sow the seeds on your list? Why? Not sure about the beets, onion or cilantro, but all the rest are good wintersowing candidates. I wouldn't worry about the tomato seeds you sowed "too early" either - they'll come up when they feel it's time. PV

Just so you know, your pretty plant isn't a peace lily, but one of the aglaonemas. :-) I'm that it will flower if the conditions are right and when it's ready.

I have lots of "house plants" but they stay outside in the shade most of the time. If I have company coming and I want to "dress things up a little", I bring some of them inside and then I take them back out. I have a sun porch that is all windows down two sides, and plants do very well in there, and I keep them in there in the winter, but there are too many to have them inside all the time. I have mostly epiphyllums, commonly called orchid cactus. They are a jungle cactus...not a desert cactus, and I also have a lot of hoyas, some ferns and alocasias. The alocasias are shaped like elephant ears but have a shinier leaf and I have some very pretty variegated ones.

Hi all -- I recently found bugs in the saucer of one of my plants, so I decided to do the potato slice test (stick a potato slice into the soil overnight) to see if it was a widespread problem. Turns out, most of my plants have bugs. Can anybody help me IDing them? I think the small silver/white ones are springtails, but the others... I'm not sure if they're spider mites or root aphids perhaps? I have 25+ plants, so this is kinda a big deal / huge bummer.. I tried my best to photograph them, but they are SO tiny you can mostly only see them through a lens. It seems like there are 3 different bugs.. what I can assume is a springtail: Not sure what this one is? It's even tinier than the 3rd one. Smaller than a pinhead. this one is about the size of a pinhead, and appears to have 6 legs and possibly antennae. But it's hard to tell. he moves fast. Any help in IDing and treatment options would be great. I may end up just culling my plant collection down to my favorite ones and only treating only those, depending on what's going on. The plants themselves seem fine, minus a few of them seem to be slightly ailing (yellowing leaves, but nothing major). They all seem to be living in the soil itself and not on the leaves as far as I can tell.