I have Swiss Cheese and several other Philos. I'd like to know what Sedums you have as well and if your still wanting a trade. Tami

On ric-rac (Selenicereus) watering: my understanding is that it's a jungle cactus, like Disocactus, Hylocereus, Schlumbergera, or Epiphyllum, and does need to have fairly moist soil during the summer when it's actively growing. Not sure about the ric-rac spines; what I gather from reading around is that the flower, should you ever be lucky enough to get flowers, does have sharp spines around its base, which could conceivably be dangerous, but I don't see any evidence that the plant is otherwise likely to hurt you. Aglaonema 'Maria' is just one more variety of Chinese evergreen; the care is basically the same as for any other one. There are at least three "swiss cheese" plants; Monstera deliciosa has large leaves which eventually develop slits that extend to the leaf edges. Immature leaves of deliciosa may have holes without slits, though usually the slits and holes develop at about the same time. M. adansonii (sometimes M. obliqua) usually only has perforations, and does not develop slits that extend to the leaf edges. The third plant is one I can't actually think of the name of right now, but it basically looks like a very small M. deliciosa, and has leaf slits even when young. So it sounds like you have adansonii. As far as I know, adansonii is a pretty standard tropical: let the soil surface dry somewhat between waterings, bright indirect light, warm temperatures, humidity. I haven't had one personally, though, so somebody may jump in and correct me.

Ilene, It sounds like your retirement is off to a wonderful start and I am so glad you'e enjoying it. I have a little mud, thanks to that 2.6" of rain we got the other day, but our soil should dry pretty quickly since it was bone dry before the rainfall. Your mud seems to be an ongoing thing this year.....unfortunately. The photo of the poppy is gorgeous. I planted poppies after we bought the land in 1997 and they've reseeded here, there and everywhere (including in the middle of the dirt/gravel road one year). They always surprise me by popping up where least expected. I was only outside for a couple of hours this morning. We started out with 100% humidity for the third day in a row and once the temperatures heat up a little, it is unbearable outside. I'll go back out at about 3 or 4 o'clock, once the temps. start to drop a little. The garden looks really good to everyone who sees it, except me. And it isn't that is doesn't look good to me, just that it looks "behind" where it normally is by the end of May. What do I expect? We still had low temps. in the upper 30s and 40s in early May, so it would be odd if the garden wasn't "behind". I suspect by mid-June the garden will look about the way it usually does in mid-June, except the corn is still going to be behind. Some years I pick early corn by Memorial Day weekend....this year there is no early corn, and the regular corn won't be ready until July. That's the breaks. At least I have corn. Last year's rain wiped most of it out, so I hope we harvest a good crop this year. There is no rain in our forecast here for a few days and I only have a couple of things left to do in the veggie garden. I have one area of the flower border that needs to be weeded when it dries out a tiny bit more. I'm seeing snakes more and more, but only one rattler, and so far none in the garden that I've seen. The venomous snakes are my least favorite part of living here. I just hate them. I have one guinea who lost his or her mind and started roosting up high in the chicken coop (which has a high, peaked roof) about 4 o'clock yesteday and still hadn't come down as of a few minutes ago. Finally, I went out with a rake and chased it down off its' perch and out of the coop. It headed straight for the drinking water, and I came back inside. Hopefully, now that it is down, it will go out and eat and do other guinea things like prowling through the tall grass, flying madly from tree to tree and squawking and yakking like an idiot. I don't suppose we'll ever know why it sat on a perch for 22 hours. It is never dull around here, rain or shine. Dawn

UK is officially zone 8, but I think it is really 9 where I live in Devon due to the gulf stream. We got 3 frosts last year in the front garden but no frosts in the back garden (more sheltered). The type I grow hate direct sunlight and go yellow unless grown in shade. I can't grow cheese plants in pots outside, but can grow them in the soil, where they grow enormous and do climb up into my cherry trees trailing roots several yards long which sometimes reach the ground and root. The leaves are about 1ft or more across and they do have white flowers a bit like arum, usually in January (which is actually our coldest time), but I cut the fruits off before they get a chance to mature because I have dogs and they are toxic until ripe. I think that although in the UK I am zone 9 though really, though we have cool summers for zone 9, but not cold enough in winter for zone 8.