Woodyoak..I'm very sorry you got the response you did from your visit to the local garden club. I know it may seem that you'd be tattling like a kid does when somebody does wrong, but I think you need to write a letter or call the President of that club and bring this matter to her attention. It is possible that she was not aware of what you encountered. Does that club have a monthly newsletter that goes out to all its members? If she is any kind of a person/President, she would mention this in that newsletter to prevent it happening to somebody else that has disabilities. I'm sure you are not the first one that has come there with a disability, so it's obvious that it should be addressed. Are there other Garden Clubs in your area that you could check out? The lady that you said walks by your house, is she in the same Garden Club as you? If so, bring up the subject one time she is visiting? Invite her in for a cup of coffee/tea while she tours your gardens. I am on our hosptiality and worship committee at our church, and our leader has taught us to walk up to people we don't normally recognize or act like they are new, and start a conversation by introducing yourself and say "I don't think we've met before but I'm so and so and ask if this is their first time visiting with us? Sometimes it turns out to be somebody that is not a regular attendee and they've belonged to the church for many years. At least, that introduction breaks the ice and you'll remember that person and vice versa the next time. If you can't remember that person's name the next time, you'll probably recognize his/her face. A smile and a friendly Hello does wonders. I know a lot of people are reluctant to join groups or organizations because they fear not knowing anybody. That's a cope out, I'm sorry! I hope that this helps. Don't give up!

A few years ago I started a garden club at the company where I work and I also belong to a more "formal" club. Neither is what I was really looking for, which is total gardening addicts like yourselves! I get my fix for talking to other plant lovers by hanging out here every evening for a little while, participating in the plant swap that was started on the ohio valley gardeners forum and sharing with a couple of good friends. My work garden club let me meet some great people and one who I now count as a good friend who is as interested in gardening as I am. So for that reason and some other cool people in the club I'm glad I started it. However, I found out that most of the people who joined did not have much experience. That's fine but they expected me to lead every meeting. They had great ideas for projects and speakers but wanted me and one or two other people to do all the work. Not my idea of a good time. Plus every time we tried to organize something during off-work hours only a handful of people would attend. I'd hang it up but I feel obligated now to keep it alive. It has been better this year since I told them I would only serve as president (the company requires we have officers) if other members would volunteer to take a meeting. People signed up for a month and they are responsible for getting the speaker, etc. That has worked out better than I ever thought. I hope next year they will volunteer again but I'm afraid many will view it as a one time commitment. The formal club has very little gardening and a whole lot of rules and flower arranging shows, etc. There are some nice people but I only attend the meetings when it has to do with gardening. I skip the ones on floral arranging and flower shows. One of the perks of belonging to the club is a good discount from my favorite local nursery on annuals in the Spring. That makes it worth it to me. Sorry for my long answer but since I have started a club I wanted to let you know what you might be in for in terms of work load and expectations of other members. The type of club you want is my dream garden club! Good luck, I hope it works out for you.

Nancy, Well, the club you join will depend on your interests. Some garden clubs are very plant-specific while other garden clubs are not. Yes, you should join a garden club because you will meet people with the same plant-passion that lives inside you. My friends think I'm nuts because of my passion for plants, and my friends don't understand my passion, but the people in the garden clubs DO understand and it's nice to be able to talk plants with someone and not have them look at me like I'm from another planet. (:o) You will also have access to plants unavailable to someone who is not in a garden club. There is quite a bit of plant trading that goes on in garden clubs and sometimes some of the plants that are available are quite rare or unusual. I believe that the Minnesota state horticulture society has a listing of all of the garden clubs in the state with their respective contact people. I think you will be surprised at the number of garden clubs that exist in MN. The MN Landscape Arboretum has a day during the spring (March or April) where they invite garden clubs to pass out literature (and sell plants) to let the public know that these garden clubs exist. You might want to contact the arboretum to find out what date this event will take place during 2006. Good luck, Mike

Notvery, I'm not good with the chemistry part but I an tolerably acceptable on the physical part. I was under the impression that allowing this plant to reach its potential size was not an option and that while you gave it more room by enlarging its pot, it was showing signs of stress at its current size, thus the inevitable need to prune. We experience high temps and high humidity for a long time. 95 degrees and 90% humidity can go on for weeks and weeks with night time temps above 80 and even higher humidity. It can get worse than that. Pruning for air flow with out reducing your little solar panels too much is the game. So, I prune it and open a wound that could be a site for problems or don't prune it and have the interior of the "bush" surely have lethal and contagious problems. The point of all that is that while at first it may be difficult for you to prune your prince, he'll survive all but the most careless of hair cuts :-) Respiration, root to plant balence, vegitative to reproductive states, disease control, take your pick. If it were me, in my growing area and my plant was already approaching maximum allowable size and showing signs of root stress, pretty much any stem without blooms that was not strategically important for sunscald protection would go now. Some have said no more than three of these per day ... OK. Some like single stem, others more, I saw a guy with a beautiful but huge set up that intentionaly trains for 12! Its up to you and your space. Then I would switch to a little Missouri method. Then I'd wait and see how it goes. Probably would not prune anymore suckers because I would be topping the plant eventually and will want their fruit. But its not my plant. Best of luck and have fun.