Thank you farmerdill and Jimster. Specifically, I made a circular dam around each plant (about 1" - 2" tall) from the soil dug up when they were initially planted. So when I water the water is contained within an area about 1 foot in diameter. However, I don't 'fill er up' at each watering. So I'm 8-9 weeks after planting but no flowers on the pepper. Just give it time? Glad about the confidence level regarding the fertilizer. Just can't figure why I get flower buds, especially on the pumpkin, but no flowers. They each have a faint brown edge to them and never bloom.

You can call it "smother" or you can call it "burn". 8^) In both cases it's too much organic material and the result is the same...dead grass. Oops! Seeing you're in IL, your summer weather isn't that much different than mine (drier, I think, but no hotter). I also had a Milorganite spill--about five pounds in a hand-sized area. I cleaned up what I could and figured there would be a bit of burn. There wasn't. I got a dinner-plate sized patch of the brightest green grass. I did irrigate very well for a week at that spot to help out where I could. Which is not to disagree, but more to say that care should be taken with spills and whatnot. Regular application at the recommended rate (or even a bit higher) will not burn. Concentrated spills certainly may. A more realisitic concern should be runoff. Quite correct and I should have thought of that (bad organicist, bad organicist!) In thin spots of grass, runoff would be a major concern. Fortunately, thick stands of grass tend to limit runoff to practically zip, even in severe weather. The water can't manage much velocity before striking and having to break around grass crowns and stems. Even so, if I lived next to a stream or lake or had a steep grade, I would be very careful not to overfeed (and would probably install a small berm at the stream/lake edge and not feed there). I don't, and my grade is less than 1% with a retention pond more than 1,500 feet away through a swale. I should have qualified that previous statement.

Fertilize in intervals. It does no good for the wallet or environment by overfertilizing. How long ago did you spread that fertilizer. How big of patch do you have, squarefeet? Lawn fertilizers are good early-mid year. Here is a link to an info page from halfside bamboo Here is a link that might be useful: fertilizing

Episcias generally suffer from maladies in winter. If its not the lack of humidity in our heated homes its the drop in temperature at night or all day long when we keep the thermostat at lower settings. Then again, cyclamen mites know no season and can strike now or in the middle of summer. Mites present that characteristic dead baby new growth. Then the damage spreads to the next younger leaves and kills all the foliage before the stems die. Chances are you are having those winter maladies rather than mites. A good way to tell is to enclose your episcias in bags and give them the high humidity treatment. The bags also seem to protect the plants in lower temperatures. If the problem is cultural then the episcias will respond by perking up a bit. If its mites, the centers will look worse and worse. The high light that your plants received may well have contributed to the problem, but I suspect it was temperature. Wood stoves can also cause dryness and gasses which could affect the plants. But, that is a subject I know nothing about. Jon