Oh wow!!! That's an amazing gift! What you need to do for now is remove the plastic (of course!) and do put in the eastern exposure. Water when the top inch of soil is dry and don't spray it otherwise. Only water from above - slowly so all the soil gets some and isn't disturbed otherwise. Don't fertilize for 6 wks, then use a balanced house plant type. Now, try to find a bonsai (not bonZai) club nearby because they're great places to learn. Next go to www.bonsai4me.com and read up on things there, plus join forums at www.bonsaisite.com and www.bonsaitalk.com - good places with lots of info. Don't think of your tree as a house plant, or treat it like porcelain - it's a strong tree. If a few leaves drop or yellow, don't fuss, it's just relocating pains. If a lot yellow, back off on water, but if they're crispy, look for spider mites (unlikely outdoors) or overly intense sun (especially in the first few wks of acclimatization). Once things are going well, and spring brings new leaves, you'll want to learn about pruning, root pruning and shaping, but those can wait for now. Good luck with your beautiful baby!

Sounds like your doing O.K. with your plants. As far as taking the phals. outside or not, you will get people on both sides of the fence. I personally never took my phals. outside when I was growing under lights. I think you did the correct thing in bringing the oncidium and cattleya outside as once they get used to the higher light can take almost straight sun all day long. I don't know if you know it or not but the nobile oncidiums are easy to rebloom but due require a certain treatment to get them there. Please check out Yamamato Orchids. There is lots to read there especially about fertilizing nobile's only up to a certain date and then they need a 30 day period of at least one hour of cool weather. Check it out at : http://www.yamamotodendrobiums.com/html/general_care.html I do have a greenhouse but have started to enjoy the nobile dendorbium. A few months ago I bought a half dozen of them out of bloom. This is the only orchid that I own that is currently outside in New York, U.S.A.

I'm over 1 1/2 yrs late in entering this conversation, so forgive me. Before I'd consider working with your landscaping, I'd tie the house together. It's too disjointed. The top floor is reminiscent of a half timbered Old English Elizabethan home is Umber. The cedar shakes don't add anything when you consider the other elements. I wonder what might be under those shakes? The ground floor is more of a 1950's +/- brick home with windows that differ greatly in style from that of the 2nd floor is Terra Cotta) And the concrete porch is Redwood in color. I think you'll be happier in the long run if you can work on unifying the appearance of the house. Then consider adding your climbing rose on each post. I'd keep the bricks, don't paint them. That leads to forever painting them. So, use that as one of your primary colors. It will take a great mind that what I have as to how to tie in the two floors. But, if you can bring some of that Terra Cotta brick color up, then maybe it would might help OR bring some Umber down to your bricks. Shutters can be unifying, but consider that considerably later. You could even make them yourselves consider the Old English look you have to work with. Then paint the front on the porch. Maybe the terra cotta color with umber lines. Others could suggest that one better than me. I'd put a climbing rose on both porch posts. The rose that I'd suggest might not grow there. I called Chamblee's for my own questions regarding another climber. Lady Ashe is one that I would have selected, but the color doesn't work here. The peach accent would blend nicely with the terra cotta colored brick and very fragrant. Then I'd plant an evergreen shrub that could help fill in both those side of the steps as there are 2 blanks areas that could handle a small shrub nicely. I can see other areas where you could edge your sidewalk in front with some similar terra cotta colored bricks that you could probably get off Craigslist very reasonably. There are some other things that can be done, but I just hope that I haven't alienated you by now. So, take what you can and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away. I hope you are able to live there for years and years. You got a good place to start. Xtal Here is a link that might be useful: Lady Ashe

tree #1. I would go ahead and remove it the rest of the way. Reason 1, its ugly now and wont get much prettier. Reason 2, you said it produced sour oranges. Could have been rootstock that was producing and really you wont ever know. i would get a new tree. something desirable and known for good fruit. Tree #2 up to you but the way it was pruned you cant even get to the fruit. So that mean birds and animals get the first pick and you are left waiting for something to fall to the ground. Or get a tall ladder or harvesting pole but thats no fun either. Mike