Hello Nancy Jane, Attached is a picture of an outdoor table that has a faucet or pump that you can attach a garden hose to. I like that idea. (I think someone was requesting info on a similar pump in a message earlier today. I'll have to watch to see if anyone responds to that topic.) I also like the picture of the potting bench that Marlene posted. It has a slats in the top so that potting soil can fall through to a bin below. I also like the idea of casters on the bottom so that it can be moved. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to post two pictures in the same message so I will post a different message that has a picture of a potting bench that kirkus made a few years ago. I has lots of charm. It would be great to build a bench that combines features of all three benches. What a dreamer!

Snow pea- Interesting that your ODBRS has a scent. Mine does not. I think I'm glad about it too :-) What does it smell like? I am looking at the zones while I am re-reading this post. The bulk of the posters, Lellie and Nancy excluded are in Northern zones (5-7). Got me to thinking. My ODBRS skipped a bloom cycle this summer. It had gorgeous "meaty" growth, big chunky roots. It was outdoors. It will not bloom now, even though it has very appropriate conditions. I have been wondering why I am battling to bloom oncids this year. They will get to the point of swollen bud and stall. "Ortho-stinchum" has been the exception. I would have though it to be the more difficult, being species. Why? Alvin your posts have been superb; not only on this thread but all of them. Thank you. Your posts on this thread confirmed the "why" for me. All of you in the upper zones really sorted it out for me. I put my orchids out this summer. I'd like to clarify that I have a massive amount of air/wind outside, living in the Windy City. I grow on a 2nd floor roof. It is often 7ºF cooler than street level. "Real Feel" is probably cooler with the wind. I visited z-6 recently. I saw orchids. I could see that 1 zone can make a difference. That may be why I can put mine in full sun. May, June and most of July were cool here. Oncids did fine at that time. ODBRS, Twinkle, SB, Ortho started to react/stall during late July and August when it got warmer. It was harder to tell with the Bivens. They had to be shaded or brought in. The rest, if they weren't burning, they were left in place. Twinkle was not in stellar shape, root-wise when I purchased it. My focus was to let Twinkle grow. It did. But the Spring spikes did not pop. I called OHG and they said "Keep it cool". It will bloom near the holidays. Premature spikes. That info came too late. Next year that will be taken into account. Premature and latent are signals that something is wrong with the past/present culture. I probably grew Twinkle a little too warm last winter. Ortho should have gone inside in late July when it heated up. I opted to heavily shade ortho outside. It was in spike. It is blooming. It didn't hold it's buds. I think that made the difference. It finally cooled off enough for me to want to bring some in Sept/Oct. Unfortunately, the fall weather turned into summer. Inside temps started to really climb. I didn't move them back out. The sun was gone by then. It was a choice of light vs temps. I chose light. Never a bad choice. However, that small action of shading ortho or leaving some out when it cooled may have made the difference. I shaded a few when the weather was warm, mainly hybrids that had "O", BLLRA's too at Arthur's warning. They are in spike. We shall see how much of a battle it will be to "pop" the buds. Orchids do have a cyclical"window". The critical time in this scenario is before spikes are produced and when they become visible on forward. I believe that is why the higher # zones can have Twinkle blooming during the summer, and Kevin. No accounting for his "Twink Magic" :-)) Seriously, he sits on the border of z-4 &5 and probably keeps his orchids cooler than I, during the winter/spring. If conditions are not met as specific times, they will not bloom, bloom poorly or as I am seeing, become a battle to "pop". They can't be subjected to wide temp swings that are not within their ability to cope. Putting them out actually becomes productive for growth but counter-productive for bloom. It does have an affect on their ability to bloom, even though they have been hybridized for some flexibility. As most of you know, light is no longer an issue for me indoors. Temperature has been my nemisis this year. Small nuances such as shading at certain times in the cycle or bringing them in, may be the key. At this point, I may or may not have success in getting Twinkle to pop the blooms. I went off the "cultural deep end". Even a week of inappropriate temps may affect a plant. I may suffer the consequences as a result and watch Twinkle abort his spikes. He has aborted the 2 that were produced in spring. Time will tell for the rest. There is no compensation/manipulation possible to sort it out. Tight culture and time will straighten it out. I also see the plant is not finished growing and producing spikes. That additionally indicates to me that temps were not correct for a time. The plants is packed with buds. But the yield may ultimately not be that great due to my cultural failure early in the year. This winter, they will be grown cooler. Next summer, they will go out early and come in when the weather gets beyond their cultural limits. We'll see if it makes a difference. I may not like the way this growup of ioncids smell, but what a valuable lessin! Clara

We're on the other side of Lake Ontario from Rochester and up a bit from Toronto. Late November seems reasonable. You can't imagine how unpleasant (very cold hands) it is to chop through perhaps an inch (by then) of frozen soil and plant spring bulbs in mid December. As said elsewhere, I find no problem in overwintering perennials, planted in garden soil, in pots outside. Water up to the time of freezing. Ours do fine, frozen solid, in a protected place (e.g. against a wall) covered by the snow. As per Ken (not that he referred to this exactly), the soil in the pots should be about the same as the soil in the garden. As a general rule, here at least, plants grown in growers' peat-perlite mix should have most of it pulled off before being planted in the garden. Otherwise, here at least, the peat-perlite mix will freeze, in winter, at a different rate to the garden soil around the plant and the plant is likely to be killed.

now I know what brugs are LOL angel trumpet or as they call them in germany trompetenblumen, I have one of those too . I am just terrible with names, someone asked me what my monarda is called and I didnt know thts beebalm, anyway its called raspberry wine now thta I checked . I went to the day lily farm sale this weekend and brought all my day lilies that I didnt have a name for for plant identification, I reintroduced myself as the lady that can't remember names LOL Angeltrumpet, a spike I brought in for 4 years and hibiscus How do you winter sew, I have grow lights and have started some things fromm seed for the first time this year, this is really only my third year gardening . I weeded all weekend long in the morning, by the whell barrow, I am getting roundup for along the edges, I don, want to pull another creeping charlie out of the rocks