Hi, Sam. I never thought for a moment you wouldn't keep your word. I just wanted you to know a lot of us are really looking forward to seeing your album of pictures about the way catt buds develop. About phals: You really will enjoy phals, I think. There are so many different kinds and colors, there's beauty for anyone's eye in them, IMO. I started to grow them because I needed something that gave more flowers for less work. Trying to grow high light orchids was too hard in summer (not to mention winter). What sold me on phals was the ease of blooming them, and the fast growth. You can buy small ones fairly cheap, and get blooms within a year or at most two. Below is the url to the Carter & Holmes page. They have a lot of really nice ones. You'll enjoy looking, I'm sure. Here is a link that might be useful: Carter & Holmes phals

Howdy...Happy Friday. How's everyone doing? It's been a while since posting, but there were things that needed doing, and thankfully, got most accomplished. I'm so upset!! I lost my list of AV sizes..Now I have to jot each name down, then check each individually...I went to the first AV Questions, Part 1, lol, then copied each plant Fred listed. Thanks Fred.. Fred, nope, no name of the AV w/white leaves. Actually, last winter I rooted a few different leaves. Two were from old plants, and one, possibly two from a leaf/ves won on Ebay. All were rooted in water, but only one made it. After roots formed, the survivor was placed in a little plastic cup sent with an AV that needed repotting. The problem is, the cup had writing with some type of marker that wouldn't wash off. All it says is, CZ0499..that means nothing. At the time I didn't think any leaves would root, so I didn't bother using labels..Also, some of the leaves were from my old AV's without names, bought locally..Stores in this area where AV;s are sold do not print AV names on containers or add a tag. The reason I didnt think they'd root is, years ago I'd root in soil. For some reason, later on, no matter what I did, they just wouldn't root. A woman I know told me her mom rooted AV's in water..She simply placed a piece of aluminum foil on top of a container, punched a hole in the foil, then slipped the cutting in the hole.. What's ironic is, I told her I never ever had luck rooting AV leaves in water..when she rooted AV's, she rooted in water, and I rooted in soil. She nor I could no longer root our usual ways..so, I tried using her mom's idea and she tried rooting in soil, and both our leaves rooted.. Since, AV leaves are rooted in water. Fred, why/how does Fish Emulsion put Chlorophyl back in a plant??? That's curious. I have Alaskian and Ferti-Lome brands..does it matter which is used? Both are 5-1-1. You don't have to give me a scientific, chemistry reason..I wouldn't have any idea what you're talking about..lol I'm not thrilled w/its odor either, but it only lasts 2-3 days, and if it helps, so be it. In autumn, all plants, (not AV's) gets a foliar feed with FE. Those outdoors are sprayed thoroughly, with added 2-4 drops of dish soap (not Dawn) citrus rind, garlic, and this year Cayenne pepper. FE kills and prevents scale..Believe me. About 4-5 yrs ago, when I bought my Olive tree, it arrived scale-packed..of course, I didn't notice the first couple days, and because it was winter, (the house full) it sat next to other plants..one day while misting, I looked at a leaf and saw a ton of scale..YUCK..inspected the entire plant and saw at least 100 scale..Not only on the Olive, but those little suckers attached to neighboring citrus. A woman in Fl who sells citrus once told me she uses FE as a scale preventative. I followed her directions..2 days later, scale went to scale heaven. Or hell!! I've been making the soap concoction many years, all is mixed together and voila, organic insecticide..since, plants are bug free..if only I would overcome the fear of spraying fuzzy leaf plants...but one day I'll try it, even though I've never seen bugs on AV's. Oh, does anyone knew how long it takes for the AVSA to ship a book??? Tomorrow will be a week..am I being hastey? Is that the correct spelling?? It looks odd..LOL..then again, I only slept 4 hours.. Hope everyone has a great, safe weekend. Enjoy before winter arrives..sigh..Toni

Yall are as crazy as I am.. actually I use to raise violets over 30 years ago.. had kids.. so violets had to go.. now I am back into growing them again.. and YES.. I can not get enough.. everytime I use my FirstClass program, I see more I want to own.. so I go searching for the leaves.. can not afford the plants!! I know I will have to sell some of these next year to help pay for my habit!! LOL.. my husband says either sell them or we are going to go broke!! But I will have lots of babies and leaves to share.. just need to keep 2 plants of each for myself. Right now I do not have any micro-mini's but am sure someone out there would be willing to trade for one. Uh hmmmmmmmmmmm Korina (wink) (wink). I do have mini's and semi-mini's.. but mostly standards. I have suckers on my Organdy Trinket (semi-mini).. beautiful bloom if you love green frills, fringe or ruffles, check it out on the AVSA page (it is in the FirstClass database)... Green is my favorite of all... so about 65% of what I have, do have some green on the blooms. You have heard of the Bloomin' Onion.. well now there is a Bloomin' Violet Idiot!! Not pointing any fingers.. sitting on my hands! I know when I point a finger.. three of my fingers are pointing back at ME!! If you do not hear much from me this winter.. you know what I will be doing.. I LOVE IT!!!! And when they all begin to bloom.. I will be toasting them with a champagne (filled with beer.. can not afford the good stuff)! Besides why drink, when I can buy more LEAVES!! Thanks for of yall's comments.. but I am sure YOU are just as bad!! Tea

The best thing I've found to cook on is my Coleman single burner camp stove. Tried a variety of other things, portable ranges, a terrible whirlpool stove-top from many years ago, but you just cant beat that camp stove. The thing is basically a single burner that sits atop a green propane cylinder. Its only 10,000 BTU's, so it wont burn your pot up if you use it correctly and it uses about half of that bottle for a really long canning job. Ive done two canning jobs now and the thing runs perfectly for regulating the pressure. You just place your canner on it on a level surface, load it up, open and light it, set it to a decent flame and get your head of steam up. Once you have vented out the air and have the steam coming out for about ten minutes, place on your weights and let it pressurize. Once you reach operating pressure, lower the flame a to a reasonable level keeping the weights rocking and let it go until done. One word of caution though. Make sure you use the little stand that the bottle sits in to give your stove a good wide base, and don't let children bump into this. As long as its centered and you don't kick it or something, it will stay there with no problems. You can get a stove like this at any wally world :) If you don't like the height of the thing, Ozark Trail makes a two burner camp stove with two 6000BTU burners on it that sits flat and low. It's in the ballpark of 28 bucks. It takes longer to heat obviously, but you cant beat a gas flame for heat regulation. That's just my 2 cents. I'm sure everybody has their favorite way of heating PC's, but for me a gas flame does the best. I hope this helped, and don't be afraid of your equipment. There's nothing really fancy about it, Just get to know it and go to town. Just set up your gear and follow the recipe timetables and pressures.