These are some of mine! A micro mini trailing African violet (the others around it are all mini African violets) Some miniature gardens I put together with plants that like being indoors (ignore the dead Serissa in the back of the oval one - I've been hoping it'll come back, but my hope is fading...). Pen for scale.

leafhopper http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/aimg88.html

Goodmorning Everybody ! :) I heard from my swappers last night...:))) Mariann I have a couple of surprizes for you...We love putting surprizes in our boxes Regina started it.. Chell you are so creative and your writing is so much fun to read... I bet the boys loved playing pirate.. I can see their smiling faces now...What a great idea to make a hideout.. They will always remeber their hideout mom made for them... Norma I havent traded with you but I am sure you went way above in sending her nice cuttings..I seen pics of what you send...They are awesome boxes..:)) Please dont be sad..:)) Regina howdy :) I am so sorry about Mark having to have surgery and the heart condition would just send me into heaven.. Wow I am so glad to read it all went well...Shooo My heart sank for a minute...He will be all healed for college this fall..:)) You empty nester dont go through what I went through...Stay busy and call them alot... I miss my kids so much it hurts sometimes... Dogs are okay but they cant replace our true babies...I love reading about chell and her boys... It makes me smile so much... Frances lol You poor gardener..ahhah You need a break from mother nature..Really..:)) Oh big snakes yucky... I would be screaming... I love chippies...They are so cute...Havent had many around with a cat now...Kiki has brought home two gardener snakes...He was very proud of himself... Yesterday I was getting ready to go out and play in the dirt...The crows or blackbirds were screaming...It just like a scene in the movie the "birds"... It creeped me out really bad...I couldnt see what they were yelling at.. I watched tv...Than got bored and went coleus shopping..lol The master gardener sale for the next county over is tommorow... I cant wait to see what they are going to be offering..I have never been to this one...Oh I almost forgot..I heard from the master gardener I met...Looks like we are building another gh..lol She wants to do it closer to fall since everyone is busy with their gardens...I am glad we could help her..They are a pain to build.. well I gabbed enough lol must be the strong coffee and I got a lot of sleep...:)) Have a good day everybody..Barb

I don't know about pets and plants keeping me healthy but they do keep me engaged with work and enjoyment. HAHA! The CB radios were inexpensive and had a magnetic base antenna attached to the roof of the vehicle. Sometimes we got too far in front of them and lost contact so we would slow down until we were in radio contact or could see them in our rear view mirror. CBs are a bit eavesdropping and we had good times with them - listening to truckers talk about their sexual adventures was a bit too much while other stay at home folks would drop in on our conversation and say things like "there isn't much going on in this town - I want to move as soon as I am old enough to get out of the house". Looking for Dunkin' Donuts in Urbana-Champaign, IL was like the Keystone Cops - "where are you", "I'm on Main Street crossing Elm", "Oh, I see you", "I don't see you", etc, etc. No GPS back in those years so we were looking for the Dunkin' Donut on XYZ street. I don't know how many times we went up and down this street and finally located it between two very tall buildings and set back further off the street. If they had a sign closer to the street, it would've been very easy to spot. Anyway we bought our donuts and headed south by east to home. Half an hour later my mother or brother hits us up on the CB wanting to know where we were going to stop to eat the donuts and get some coffee. I replied that we already ate all our donuts 20 minutes ago. Too funny. My mother thought I said we would stop down the road and get drinks. I can't recall if we had drinks in our car or we bought them at the donut shop. Lots of good memories. I understand you cannot recreate the past since some of the original party has departed. My baby brother (he was 19 years younger than me) died in 97 from a brain tumor (he was a week short of turning 26) and my dad passed six years ago. Our two daughters are grown and have kids of their own. At least they remember the trips (boring for them sitting in the backseat on some very long drives) and the youngest is wanting to do the same thing now as a mother of two young kids. That is kind of funny and karma-like. We also made a long trip to Maine one summer with my parents following. We got separated in Maryland due to a huge dark storm. Luckily we reunited half an hour later. The next day we made it to Maine for a few days. Going across the George Washington bridge going into NYC (4 lanes squeezed down to 2 and my dad is a slow driver but he stayed on my bumper to keep two big semis on each side of him behind him instead of in front) was harrowing. I think I had one set of grow light tubes many, many years ago. I didn't see the benefit of them but others swear by them. My T8 lights use the cheapest bulbs I can buy and I was buying 30 bulb packs for even more cost savings. LED shop lights have become very competitive today and are brighter (to my eyes), use less energy, and allegedly longer life (I've had two burn out this past year so I am not sold completely on them). Most folks who come to my house to look at my collection usually leave with at least two bags full of cuttings and any smaller pots of identical plants I have in larger pots (after all I can always make more). I would be very patient on your begonia - get as much light as possible for 10 to 12 hours a day, keep it warm and extra humidity while it is trying to grow will make a huge difference. I used to grow a lot of C&S at our last house but then I had a greenhouse which was ideal for this family of plants. They don't do as well under lights as they do with full sun. I was using the front porch to display some of my larger begonias in 2005 but my wife didn't like that so I rarely have anything growing on the porch for the last several years. 2005 when I had a lot of plants in the front of the house - the big begonia in front is Caribbean Queen and she was a giant filling this 18 inch pot in a few months from a gallon sized plant I bought in Miami in May. This was September This was her mate - C. King but she was bigger. Both in 18" pots The problem with big pots is wintering inside - space is an issue.