Marci and Mehitabel - You guys are funny) I think all phals are Godzilla's, the large leaf may eat you up if you stand too close. Richard, if there is no direct sun, what is the downside to increasing the light? Amyqofu- I am silly alright, I wish all that you wrote were true. The Phal God may show some kindness again>) Actually thinking about Rhonda's idea of tying some fertilizer in a stocking and hang it near the roots/ the Godzilla's may like some food!!

Armstrong's Gardens in SoCal is offering Rock & Roll and Shockwave in their new catalog, and they have a picture of it. But drat, I don't have a scanner!!! Both are showing up in the catalog as Armstrong's Exclusives from Weeks....think it's the same thing? It says Rock & Roll is a cross of New Zealand and George Burns. Sonja

I've always noticed and enjoyed looking at hostas. Unfortunately, I have to admit - like another poster above - that as a child I participated in 'popping' the flower buds. Shame on me! In my previous home/garden, we had some 'green and white' hostas that had been planted by either the previous owner or the builder/landscaper. I moved them, divided them, etc., but never added to the collection or even thought about getting different ones --- I don't think I really ever paid attention at the nurseries to just how many different varieties there were. And I certainly never knew that some would be happy in sun! I was gardening and planting, but hostas just weren't on my radar. When we moved into this house 5 years ago, I planted a little Japanese Maple and decided I wanted to fill out the bed around it right away because I know they don't like having their roots disturbed once they get established. So I was at Home Depot and saw some pots of Rainforest Sunrise. I thought - that will be a pretty contrast to the red leaves of my Bloodgood maple... so I bought them. I also saw some epimedium and decided to put some of those in that same bed. So the next spring when the hostas seemed to be taking a long time to appear, I started searching on the Internet for some info. I remembered how great Gardenweb was when we were building our house (couldn't have done it without the great info and pictures from people on the kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, appliances forums!!!). And I started reading the hosta forum, then the trees, shrubs, etc.... And my eyes were opened to these amazing hostas, and now I fear I'm hooked. I greatly expanded my beds last fall and so I've been making plans for planting this spring/summer. And thanks to you all, I have a pretty good list of hostas, and some companions, that I hope to get asap. So far, in the ground I only have 3 varieties: the Rainforest Sunrise, Cathedral Windows and Rhino Hide. In pots I have: Blue Mouse Ears, Fire Island, Prairie Sky, Wheee!, and the sport I removed from RS last summer. Edit -- Also - thanks to you all, I won't be buying my hostas at Home Depot any more. The RS, so far, seem to be fine and healthy. But I'm glad I've had the opportunity to learn about HVX and the need to be careful of sources.

I found this solution elsewhere and wanted to share. I use Firefox and followed the instructions and YEEE, NO MORE ADS!!!! Jen Once and for all: How to stop the iVillage ad onslaught. First we need to understand how it's done: iVillage doesn't bother to try and buy ads directly from all the various companies that show up on the pages of GW. Instead they use large ad-service agencies like doubleclick, akamai and pointroll. You can visit some of these sites if you'd like to see who's behind the ads. http://www.akamai.com http://www.doubleclick.com/us http://pointroll.com This makes it easy to block out all or almost all of the ads very easily, just block the originating sites. Right now all the ads on GW come from: http://amch.questionmarket.com http://a820.g.akamai.net http://iv.doubleclick.net http://i.ivillage.com http://m.2mdn.net http://tste.ivillage.com http://img-cdn.mediaplex.com http://ads.vmirror.com http://cmhtml.ivillage.overture.com http://ads.pointroll.com The Universal Solution. This will work on Windows systems for all browsers; IE, FireFox and Netscape. The Windows operating system provides a system-level method to block specific IP addresses before they even get to the browser. To effect this solution you need to edit a Windows system file called hosts. This file is located in the directory: Windows XP: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC Windows 2K: C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC Windows 98: C:\WINDOWS Open the file in Notepad. Cut the following from this post and paste it to the end of the file. 127.0.0.1 amch.questionmarket.com 127.0.0.1 a820.g.akamai.net 127.0.0.1 iv.doubleclick.net 127.0.0.1 i.ivillage.com 127.0.0.1 m.2mdn.net 127.0.0.1 tste.ivillage.com 127.0.0.1 img-cdn.mediaplex.com 127.0.0.1 ads.vmirror.com 127.0.0.1 cmhtml.ivillage.overture.com 127.0.0.1 ads.pointroll.com Edit each entry so that there is a tab between the IP address 127.0.0.1 and the URLs. Save the file and you're finished. Close and re-open your browser and all the ads will be gone. Unfortunately, iVillage may in the future buy ads from a new source. In this event the new ad source will have to be added to the list. The IE solution. Most of the ads are placed using Java$cript. You can remove the more offensive ads in IE with the browser settings. You can't however remove them all. To improve GW using IE do the following: From the menu select Tools -> Internet Options -> Security and click on Custom Level. Scroll down to the end of the list and you'll see an entry for Scripting. Disable all the sub-entries. Now select the tab labeled Privacy. In the bottom of the box that appears check on the option to block pop-ups. I recommend you also click on the button Advanced and select the option to block Third-party Cookies. NOTE: By disabling Scripting you will also effect the way other websites behave. You may need to get used to switching scripting on and off as desired. That's why this is the least desirable of these various options. The FireFox solution This is an excellent choice -- it's the fastest performing of the options listed here: FireFox is superior to IE in every possible way. FireFox provides the added advantage of blocking all Spyware, an evil that IE brought into this world. * download and install Firefox 1.5 * in the FireFox address bar type about:config * scroll down the list to the entry xpinstall.enabled * right click on the entry and select toggle from the menu * toggle as needed to set the value to true * go to the Firefox website and follow links to extensions * find the extension adblock and install it * remember to toggle xpinstall.enabled back to false * in Firefox select Tools -> Adblock -> Preferences * use the New Filter field to add the following items: http://amch.questionmarket.com http://a820.g.akamai.net http://iv.doubleclick.net http://i.ivillage.com http://m.2mdn.net http://tste.ivillage.com http://img-cdn.mediaplex.com http://ads.vmirror.com http://cmhtml.ivillage.overture.com http://ads.pointroll.com * enable Adblock The trick with Adblock is to block the domain rather than the specific ad. If you click on Adblock to disable an ad. Select Tools -> Adblock -> Preferences from the menu and then edit the new entry; remove anything that follows after .com or .net. This will block everyting from that source. The Netscape solution. With Netscape you can shut down all the iVillage ads using the browser preference settings. From the menu select: Edit -> Preferences -> Privacy and Security -> Cookies Allow cookies for the originating website only Edit -> Preferences -> Privacy and Security -> Images Accept Images that come from the originating server only Edit -> Preferences -> Privacy and Security -> Images Block unrequested popup windows -- turn this on Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced Enable native object scripting -- turn this off Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Scripts & Plug-ins Enable Java$cript for Navigator -- turn this off NOTE: GW will now be ad free, however disabling Java$cript will effect how other websites behave. You may have to get used to switching this setting back and forth. Therefore I suggest the Universal option above is more appropriate. NOTE: You MAC users out there: Sorry I don't have more info for you except to say that FireFox and adblock are available for the MAC. There's no sense in further complaing, iVillage IS an ad. We need to let them be who they are and stop them on our end. Take care all.