You hear some interesting things working at a nursery. Customers say the darnest things. My favorite came from early this spring. If this were a book I would entitle it: "IS THIS MUSHROOM EDIBLE?" So I get this phone call from a customer asking me if I know about mushrooms. Just to confirm I asked the gentleman (sounded like he was older) if he meant how to get rid of the mushrooms in his lawn. He said no, he wanted to know what mushrooms were edible. He said he thought he heard that any with gills were poisonous (flawless logic...). You know when something strikes you so funny that you laugh, even though you know ya' really shouldn't? That is what happened to me- though thankfully I was able to turn it into cough that lasted awhile to add a air of authenticity ;-) My only reply was that I REALLY was no expert on mushrooms and I would advise seeing if there is a a local mushroom-hunting group or specialist and asking them before eating ANY found mushroom. The guy even asked if I knew the phone number/how to get in contact with them. Yeah...I have that in right here next to the numbers for Skagit gardens and Monrovia. LOL. "Is this edible" has popped up before too with regards to other things. Hate it when I am asked that. Because obviously you have to be 1000% sure it is, otherwise they are NOT going to be a repeat customer, if you know what I mean, lol. I once told [a thankfully good-humored customer] that pretty much everything is edible, the question is whether or not you would survive the attempt. One thing I never EVER what to hear again (but know I likely will if I work at the nursery again next year) is "what is that grass planted around town that looks like wheat?" Talking about Calamagrostis. I can't for the life of me understand why people think it looks like wheat. Drives me nuts. Also for questions on the Euphorbia polychroma/epithymoides planted in the beds. Seems I alone get three questions a day about it when it is in its prime. "But it doesn't look anything like that plant" they say, holding up a not-"blooming"-anymore-1 gal.-potted version of the Euphorbia. SIGH. Ditto the "that plant looks like a weed" and "that yard looks kinda' nice, except for the lawn". CMK

You are lucky indeed to have so much space that you can have six big bulbs in one pot. Pot space is a huge issue here, so all bulbs that tolerate it are raised to their limit. The Jamaican doesn't care. It have good paper layering. Well, it was twelve scapes. I hit a 3? Hmm. Anyway, a full adult bulb is not as large as the biggest amaryllises I have seen in bulb size, but it like a very big onion. So I mean from one bulb. I keep an adult with its myriad little offsets in a pot. And the rest, the money part? This bulb has gotten around. It was brought in in '79 as I remember, and hase been given away many many times. My friend wanted it to run free, not to turn it into a money thing. So I hold to his spirit. If I create something which is free-flowering, good-looking and hardy as a horse I'll spring it on him. See what he thinks. As for the Jamaican, I'm sure others have done who knows what with it.

Annual bluegrass, "Poa annua" will do that and many sellers of grass seed include this "weed" in their mixes for some unknown reason. What is your soils pH? What is the level of organic matter in your soil? What is the nutrient level and is it balanced? What kind of life is in your soil? How well does your soil drain? Contact the local office of your University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service about having a good, reliable soil test done and then dig into yor soil with these simple soil tests, 1) Structure. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. A good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy. All of this will help you make your soil into that good, healthy soil that will grow a strong and healthy turf that will crowd out the "Poa annua"., but it will take some time and probably more then a year. Here is a link that might be useful: UG CES

Well, you've learned one lesson: Don't ever register your domain through your host. It's a pain in the behind if you want to transfer it. I always recommend to people that you use a plain old domain registrar like gkg.net or godaddy.net (I prefer gkg.net myself). You can then point the domain to wherever you eventually host the site. Lesson two would be, do your research when getting a webhost. There are lots of bad ones out there. And plenty of good ones. The problem is finding "real" reviews of hosts (a lot of the review sites have fake reviews on them). I use www.webhostingtalk.com as a resource a lot, and search there on any potential hosts that I'm considering -- you generally get the straight scoop from people posting there. Lesson three: you get what you pay for. $2.00 a month web hosting is...well, frankly, a joke. That's probably why they get generally poor reviews. To get decent service, customer support, etc., you really need to be paying somewhere in the $8.00 - $15.00 a month range for shared hosting for a basic site, IMO. As for what to do now -- personally, I would try to move away from this host. I did a search on 1and1.com on the forum I mentioned above, and they seemed to be a pretty mixed bag as far as reviews. You can definitely do better than that. There is NO reason they should fight you on letting you take your domain with you -- you just need to be very upfront, and don't take any crap from them. On the other hand, if you don't want to deal with the mess of trying to move, you can try them for a while, and see how it goes. Some people do seem to like them just fine. Maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones!