My plumaria expert says that blossom booster or anything with such a high middle number is useless. In fact some of the threads by Al will agree. I use "Dynamite" 13 13 13...Even numbers right across the board. In fact most plants don't like such a high middle number, because your throwing the abilty off for the whole plant to be healthy, even the colors of the leaves by forcing flowers on your plants when you don't have to. How come plumies flower from the ground outdoors withou someone throwing so much middle number on them? In the ground, they are getting an even amount of nutriets to sustain over look, vigour, and health. I will send you an excert of why the middle number is useless. The "dynamite" has worked wonders for me. It is slow release along with micro nutrients and a well balanced fert. Just some excerts... "Whatever nutrients are available in excess, will be absorbed by the plant to a certain degree, and in some cases, this may lead to toxicity or even symptoms of shortages of other nutrients as toxicity levels block a plant's ability to take up other nutrients. Too much nitrogen will lead to excessive foliage production and less flowering. Too much potassium or phosphorus will not lead to ill effect, but will show up as a deficiency of other nutrients as it blocks uptake". "What about the "Bloom Booster" fertilizers you might ask? To induce more prolific flowering, a reduced N supply will have more and better effect than the high P bloom formulas. When N is reduced, it slows vegetative growth without reducing photosynthesis. Since vegetative growth is limited by a lack of N, and the photosynthetic machinery continues to turn out food, it leaves an expendable surplus for the plant to spend on flowers and fruit". "The fact that different species of plants grow in different types of soil where they are naturally found, does not mean that one needs more of a certain nutrient than the other. It just means that the plants have developed strategies to adapt to certain conditions, like excesses and deficiencies of particular nutrients.." "Most greenhouse operations will follow pretty closely to a 2-1-2 ratio of the primary macro-nutrients on most greenhouse crops with minor deviations based on tissue analysis and the effect of the growing medium. Most post-greenhouse fertilization will follow fairly closely to a 3-1-2 ratio, with some deviation. Again, this very closely mimics the range of the primary macros found in plant tissues". Read the thread......type in search.... "Fertilizer Program - Containerized Plants (Long Post) very imformative article". I never use blosson booster, and all my plants flower Profusely.... Hope this helps and greens up the leaves along with giving you nice flowers next time around..:-) Mike

Both pictures are so sweet! Those are keepers for those children to remember those moments. I made each of my two an "invisibility" cloak after the first Harry Potter movie came out. I used the metallic confetti dot costume fabric in silver and gold. My kids believed we could not see them when they were wearing...so much fun and imagination they had! unfortunately, I could not locate a picture :-(

My dad grew double grandiflora petunias from pelletized seeds. They were magnificentmagnificent! There was no let up in flower production all the way to frost. Individual plants got to be about a foot high and 18" wide by summers end. Their very compact, dense growth habit was maintained all summer long. No pinching, trimming, dead heading was ever needed. They resembled carnations at first glance. Giving so much for so little effort makes me wonder how I didn't follow his path, and got mixed up with roses....winter die back, rose midge fly, spider mites, aphids, rose slug, black spot, powdery mildew, downy mildew, Rose Rosette Disease, Mosaic Disease, rabbits, squirrels, THORNS!....but the blooms are pricelesspricelesspricepricelesspricelessriceless. Moses

I am LOVING our weather!!!!!! I don't even dare go into detail; all I will say is that THIS is what an Italian autumn should be like, and , no, we have not had an honest one like this in years. Looking at the forecast, it's hard for me to guess when there might be a day in which I can go out to my land and work- there are so few few relatively drier days forseen. I've still got about 9 plants left to move /plant out from their pots, and to complicate matters, the combination of rain and violent wind uprooted a huge oak that is currently blocking the flat path going up to my garden gate,so I have to clamber up a hill and slide down again to reach said gate. I'll miss that tree in the summer, for sure...BUT it may allow more precious morning light into the garden, and will provide oodles of great organic matter, too. "My cup runneth amuck", LOL. I am very, very happy and grateful! I figure that if I saw off one branch each time I go out there, in seven sessions I may be able to clear a path through the fallen tree. Then, when our finances are healthier, eventually we'll hire someone to come out with a motor saw and remove the biggest stuff that can't be done by hand. Hopefully I can get most of the leafy twigs cut off before they dry out and use them as mulch- I figure that as long as they are still green they might add more nitrogen to the soil (???)