Thanks, katwoman I read the review at Amazon and there are many complaints about this one, so I think I'll pass on it. The hose is so small that the water that comes out is small in volume, the hose kinks, and it's hard to stretch to its given length. I think I'll just buy a separate wand as you suggest. I want an on-off lever, an adjustable spray that will deliver a good amount of water to large hanging containers and another setting that is narrow so I can water through the fill-tube on my "earthbuckets". Lord have mercy, but I didn't know there was so much to consider when I started out! The only place I've looked so far is on line, so I'll do some looking locally, too.

Of course not, the rain obviously hits the top of the leaves, but here's the logic. If, let's just say, it takes 50 times (let's just say) to wash the wax off of a blue hosta, do you want to lose the wax in June because you watered from above or do you want to lose it in August because you didn't water from above and the only time it got exposed to overhead watering was rain? A daily/weekly dose of overhead watering is going to fast forward your making it to a green hosta when you started with a blue! The other part of that is that, if it has a leaf canopy over it because it's well-shaded, the impact to the hosta leaf may be minimal when raining, whereas overhead watering is a bit more vigorous. Again, fast-forwarding the rate of loss of wax. Make sense?

Awesome, Jon, that's good to hear! I've tried several and none have lasted very long (except for the "rose" at the end, which I save and use without the wand until IT croaks too, hah). Is Lee Valley strictly online/catalog or do they have brick and mortar stores? Thanks for sharing the great information. I need to get one! Happy gardening!

Jake, I agree with you totally as far as overdoing with home water treatment. I took the Kinetico bait, hook, line and sinker. I wanted to make sure my water was safe, but I am on domestic water that meets or exceeds all federal standards and the Kinetico system was way overkill. That is my point. If you have a Kinetico salesman test your water, you will be told you need a Kinetico system and they are way overpriced as far us purchase price and long term costs. My experience with the K5 and Kinetico water softener I installed in 7/2012 started with a kiosk at Home Depot. I sent in a water sample and of course I was told I had hard water and would benefit greatly from a K5 and if I buy a Kinetico water softener at the same time, I get a 10 year warranty. We know how that story goes. It can be helpful to have a water softener and maybe you need a water filter at the sink for drinking water. The point is to have your water tested by someone who does not profit from selling you something. It is required for domestic water to be tested and to meet federal guidelines, and it is free to find out the results of the testing by the local domestic water provider. Once you learn about your water from an independent source, then do your own research to find out what you need, if anything, to clean up that source to your liking. The plumber I hired is from our local area and knows our water test results. He is familiar with the 3M system, which more than handles our water purification needs. I reviewed multiple Amazon verified purchaser reviews for the 3M system before purchasing. It is not perfect, but it is a reliable system that is user friendly. There are no Amazon reviews for Kinetico water softeners or K5s because of the proprietary Kinetico marketing scheme that locks the consumer in to one dealer that charges whatever they want to service the overpriced Kinetico system. The Kinetico dealer lives 2.5 hours away and knew nothing about the local water test results, but he did know how to recommend a $5000 Kinetico system, which I purchased. Unfortunately I learned that Kinetico is all about the sales and not about the follow up customer. service. Lesson learned about people's expertise online. None of us know each other and I assume that AIW and Jake are actually different people, but there is no way I have to prove that. We have to trust each other somewhat and online communication makes it easy to hide behind fake names and multiple personas. Bottom line is buyer beware. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is, and there is no such thing as a free lunch.