Thanks purpleinopp for providing your link "here" to Garden Web Houseplants section on soils et al.... Lots of things I could use to think about what I'm doing and improve upon it. I always thought the soil that came with the plants was the "right" soil and reluctantly repotting when the plant became root bound i.e. seeing roots come out of holes or blocking holes at bottom or lack of new green growth have all been signs I've use to determine when to repot the plant (with bare to roots new soil and cutting off encirling roots at bottom). If these are not the methods I see you recommending let me know. I have other dracaena species (not always identified correctly--- newest one came with label in soil so its a Warneckii Dracaena)... so I read these posting with interest and responded here, hope it was right place. I also used something called "Black Magic" that was sold in 80s I guess, I have a bag left for knowing what it is in case I ever find something like it..... lots of my plants have it still in them unless I needed to repot them for various reasons and lost the soil then... I just always thought the light and airy soil was best so now I see the downsides to that as your link showed me about perched water and too wet at the bottom what it does to plants.... The only one I can think is suffering is my tall braided weeping Ficus tree, but unfortunately its reached the size where I need someone else to help me repot it (other sites say and agree you don't need to go to a larger size pot they are happy root bound, but soil is old), so there it stands (I tried scooping out some soil out of the pot and replacing it with more soil does that help when the pot is too big and plant too tall (over 6 feet) to repot easily?) Lots of little quesitons here, if not clear let me know and I'll repost it, just wanted to respond while the topic was being viewed and current. Thanks! Forest_of_Houseplants

Josh, you're not the only member here who has planted house plants in the ground. :) Karate. Planting in the ground has its pros and cons, unfortunately, more cons than pros. Pros...plants will grow like weeds. Con. Depending on the plant, it might grow too big. For example. One spring I planted two, 1' Musas/Banana Trees in the ground. By autumn, they stood over 15' tall, 7-9' wide. Because of their sizes, I had to leave them out to die. I also planted a 7" Brugmansia. By autumn, it stood 3-4' tall. I dug up the Brug..many roots broke, but not enough to kill it. The following spring, I planted the Brug in ground again. It grew another 2-3', and bloomed profusely. From then on, it was kept in a large container. I also planted a few palms and a hardy Citrus. The palms didn't put on much growth, but foliage was full, compact and very green. Some of your plants would do okay in ground, but don't forget the cons.. Cons: Broken roots, bugs, disease. If you decide to plant in the garden, when you dig up, hose entire plant, including roots. Some of your plants that could be planted in the garden: Jerusalem Cherry Ardisia Elephant Ear Canna Opuntias Most of your other plants would do fine outdoors, in pots. Be very careful with the Pothos and Philo. Leaves could burn. Keep us posted..Toni

The cherry might have Eastern Tent Caterpillars--do you see webs? The remedy is a BT product such as Di-pel. This is harmless to beneficial insects. Tent caterpillars will drop down and travel, and they do eat roses. They are good-sized, fuzzy and tan with a dark longitudinal stripe. Look on the underside of rose leaves for greenish-white worms (rose slugs) and squish them. Di-pel doesn't work on these, but it would work on other caterpillars on roses.

"I thought of getting a Laceleaf Maple, but the price for a small one astounded me ($89!)" I suspect that might've been one of the 'dissectum' Japanese maples, in which case it was likely a cultivar produced to grafting a branch to the root of another plant, and these can be more labor and time intensive to produce than some people realize, although it provides a plant with reliable characteristics (such as color and form) when grown under good conditions. From what I've seen quite a few Bradfords have branches break off, but survive. Take a close look at some big ones and you may see old damage. That may or may not bother you. You mentioned Colorado Spruce; if you want one that grows slowly & doesn't get nearly as large (or at least would take a very long time to get huge), I believe the 'Baby Blue Eyes' cultivar might be worth looking into. Not all Japanese maples grow at the same rate; if you've got a Bloodgood, I'm surprised it only grew from under a foot to 7' tall & 5' wide in 11 years! Wow. I don't know their growth rate, but I was thinking it's not usually that slow. Gotta wonder how your soil is, whether you mulch & how much sunlight & water it gets. There are a number of different kinds of upright Japanese maple, and some might eventually meet your needs. Are you familiar with Shantung Maple? It's supposed to be hardy. Might look quite nice. Would it work in your area? Richard.