Hi there, I am one of those professional plant people, and I deal with dracaenas a lot. I had a long chat with the wholesale greenhouse lady where I buy my plants about dracaena marginatas recently. She told me that when they are grown in Florida, they grow them under very high light with lots of fertilizer, so that they grow fast. Time is money, the faster they get the plant to full size, the sooner they can sell it and use the space to grow another one. With all of this light and water, their leaves are very firm, to the point that they can give you an extremely painful poke in the eye, like being poked with a stick (don't ask me how I know this...) A plant will keep these stiff leaves for several months after being put into its office location. If the light is very bright, the leaves will stay stiff. If the light is dim, they will gradually start to droop over time. Once they droop, I don't think they can get stiff again, at least not those particular leaves. The droopy plants that you see the plant company caring for probably only need water every two to four weeks, especially if it is dark and/or cold. I do not recommend moving marginatas into cold. They do not like cold at all, and it will lead to the lower leaves turning a mushy yellow, along with all sort of possibilities for root and stem rot. Marginatas do like to be kept dry, especially if they are in a dim location. Not as dry as a cactus, but pretty darn dry. When in doubt, err on the side of not watering. The ones you see the plant company take care of with the stiff leaves? It is quite possible that they remove them and replace them with new ones periodically, and that is why the leaves appear to stay stiff. Hope that helped!

Audrey: Once curl is underway, the affected leaves cannot be saved, and the disease must run its course. As far as I have been able to determine, neem oil is useless except for its fragrant perfume, and if it's the copper soap fungicide from Gardens Alive! that is worse than useless. Peach leaf curl is a disease that must be prevented by eradicating the overwintering spores from the tree, and that is done with a strong copper spray like Kocide with a high percentage of fixed copper. Copper soap, which is around 2 percent fixed copper, will not cut the mustard even as a dormant spray. Peach leaf curl is a serious disease and requires serious medicine. Curl normally dies out as warm weather arrives. It prospers best in the cool, rainy weather of early spring, so hope for warm, dry weather. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thanks Kylie, you know your right I need meds more than flowers but the meds don't bring me joy like the flowers do. Besides that they tell me there is no 12 step program for all you flower addicts. I had no ideal that postage went up again. Must have slept right through that one. I have some plants I need to plant too, but I need some other things to plant with them> LOL What I really need is my head examined. All kidding aside, I need to go get a dump truck load of good soil/potting mixture and pot up a bunch of stuff. But even the dirt is so high it's unreal. Thanks for dragging my head out of the clouds and me back down to earth. Slapping my hand and telling myself...no more plants Marian, no more plants.(frown)You know how an addict is they will give up EVERYTHING but what they are addicted to. May have to get George to lock me up in the closet for a couple of days so I can detox (sp) or whatever they call it. I still have yours, Karyns, Brendas, and someone else's boxes of irises I need to round up and mail to ya'll. It's been too muddy to work out there the last couple of days. They should be going out in the next day or two soooo watch your mailboxes ladies! I'm not happy when I'm not trading or getting plants. What's an addict to do? Banging head on desk top!!! I can and will beat this. The day the bury me. LOL

Mr Clean magic erasers don't have bleach in them. Some examples do seem to have detergent built in. I would attack the paint spatters with a single-edge razor blade, then any remaining spots with lacquer thinner. Barkeeper's Friend is very effective on rust stains, because it has some oxalic acid in its recipe, other than that the abrasive is mild like Bon Ami. A 1910 house that I have worked on had two of those sinks, each in one of the housekeeping/janitor closets. Imagine a house with 2 plumbed janitor closets; they had a full staff, like Downton Abbey!