Interesting article thanks for posting. I've been wondering about sugaring my lawn and garden for some time. Tried it in one place and the following year got a rare mushroom called a phallus on the spot - coincidence? I wanted to quickly build my sometimes sandy sometimes calcified clay into a living soil and thought of the dark soil under the wild apple trees. This story reveals what the sugar is actually doing. I thought sugar would increase nitrogen and humus. That it would indirectly feed the worms but I worried about a yeasty over bloom. At one pound per yard without damage I see I can be very generous with the sugar. It strikes me as very useful. The microorganisms that fix nitrogen do so best in a low nitrogen environment. Therefore soil once treated can help nitrogen fixing plants and their fellow bacteria get back to work sequestering carbon. For myself I think I will try sweeting some compost tea + nitrogen because I want to get life deep into my ground. The real down side is sugar is the energy and inputs and subsidies that went into producing and transporting it. As far as weeds go - its the grass that is the weed. I have a grass that grows roots down more than a foot and infiltrates my perennials. With the exception of dandelions I like all the broad leaf plants in my lawn: johny jump ups, lupin, clover and crocus please.

Thank you Arthurm for the reply, have tried Aranbeem orchids though have found this hybridizer specializes in Epidendrums only. The reason am trying to contact him is that the orchids being sold on have damaged foliage typical of virus & am sure this grower also has quality plants which do not have virus, so am hoping to get some plants with out virus most likely much more expensive than what is already on offer? Know one on seller from Beenleigh, Queensland who regularly gets these plants so feel the grower is in this area? cheers allan

Ohhhhh Boy are we getting a bit of rain up here in the tropics alright I went with a friend yesterday to a popular brom grower in ebay australia we were ooohhhhh ing and ahhhhh ing at her beautiful broms that are so rossetted and the form is perfect and just growing up the stem...anyhow...... I spotted her CTiger and ran for it to have a look in real life and touch one as i had never ever actually seen one in person, I looked down in the cup and to my grief i noticed that it had floaty things in there and said"ohhh no Is it rotting?' she said No, it wouldnt be rotting, she looked in there and tugged on the top leaves and the leaves pulled out *CRY*, how so very very sad to lose a brom to rot in the wet season in tragic but to lose a costly brom is disaster I have lost a few now to rot this past week myself but not as costly as C Tiger. I have had some ebay purchases this past week and have emailed sellers to hold off from sending just at the mini and will contact them for further notice. Mainly due to not being able to get trucks up this way for deliveries. As I type my 5 children are playing out on the country road highway with Daddy in the flooding creeks and having a ball. Cars cant get thru right now as we just had a huge downpour and the creek is flooded. I can hear them squeeling with delight all the way from here its 27 degrees right now in the tropics...lol Its funny how we cant imagine the heat and the dry when we are wet and cool...and visa versa I always wish we could think of a way to help other parts of our land with our surplus...its so sad and frustrating

You want red, Sander? I'll give you red. Vr. Hawaiian Punch: Vr. Jan Nakamoto: Okay, the second one is more dark pink, but I want to keep crossing all the reds with each other and see if I can get some Vrieseas that look like Neos! They do lose their color if you fertilize too heavily or if they're not getting enough light. The form is not as much of an issue as it would be for a Neo though, and generally speaking my Vrieseas get more fert than the Neos do. How many forms of Vr. platynema are there, Kerry? The only one that anyone I know here is growing is platynema v. variegata. I always just assume that if it's a hybrid with colorful foliage that's the one that was used. I know that's what Shiigi is using. I can't see the point of using a green one at all. Actually, it's hard to even see the point of even crossing v. variegata with anything, how do you improve on this? The one in the photo was grown fom self-pollinated seed and came out pretty true so I know it's not a hybrid. The Baensch book shows a platynema v. flava with yellow flowers and a platynema v. rosea with rounded leaf tips ending in a dark fingernail. That second one looks very much like what I've seen as Vr. bituminosa. Also they have pictures of what I know as saundersii x bituminosa, but they have it labeled saundersii x platynema, so I'm wondering if bituminosa is no longer a valid species. FCBS still lists it with no comment about its relation to platynema. As to that cross I mentioned earlier, racinae was the seed parent and (saundersii x bituminosa) was the pollen parent (yes, it was a variegate). I kept the 2 best clones, not super showy but kind of interesting, and may have potential for further breeding of spotty guys. The first one got the dark red undersides from the bituminosa or platynema or whatever it is. Some spotting, most evident in the center leaves, and racinae's recurved form: The second one got spots, lots of 'em, from both racinae and saundersii: I think it might be interesting to cross the first one with the big fenestralis, but I really don't want to treat any of those to force them into bloom. I'm enjoying them much more as foliage plants right now, but maybe when one of them gets too tall to be attractive I'll shoot some Florel its way. Max, I can't remember when I started those seeds, but I'm sure it's been at least 10 years, maybe more. BTW, the flowers on the foliage types generally open at night, so you either need to bring them into the house or go out with a flashlight (torch) and fiddle around. If there's something else in the mix, like Poelmannii, schwackeana, etc., then you'll get day-blooming flowers, which makes it a lot easier. Speaking of racinae, one other thing I found interesting is that its distinctive leaf curl is much more pronounced in bright light. I could never figure out why they looked so nice in the greenhouse but when I'd load them up and take them to a sale they'd lose their curl overnight! On a sunny day (but not FULL sun): and after being in the shade a few hours: Did I answer everyone's questions? Oh-- pollen storage. Everyone has different methods, I'm sure we've talked about this before, but mine is to pluck off the stamens and put them in a little film can or pill bottle with a tag, then set all of the little bottles inside a bigger pot and cover the whole thing just loosely with a paper towel and stick it in the fridge. I can get a couple of months out of it that way. I was told that it's important to let it breathe, but others here have had just as good luck sealing up the container, so you can't argue with success!