I just wanted to say thanks everyone!! Very informative articles and so much knew stuff you learn each day comming here...I never understood this about bark and wood.. All I can say is thanks! I FINALLY found some! Fir bark... I remebered buying orchards from someone I met in my area over 5 years ago that was growing beautiful and citrus back then, and I remembered him saying someday he was going to sellevery good supply he could think of for orchards and tropicals, to help people be sucessful at these plants. It was a dream of his. I saved his number from then. I called him, and come to find out, he is a big supplier of YES!! "fir bark"...We were both happy to hear from each other besides. He has fine and or small and medium grade...He says it's real real good stuff. He specializes in this bark..NICE ha. Now I am excited. I get a FREE delivery of three bags within the next couple of days... I will take a pic, and you can see if it as nice as he says when I get to using it.... If it is, then I would be willing to tell you where I got it privately, since it can be VERY difficult to obtain this hard to find good stuff..:-) A secret he shared. I asked him how his plants were doing. He said better than ever before, since he waters his plants once a month with, ready? Seltzer water, sodium free.... He explained the benefits in detail, hard to remember...Hummm.. As anyone ever heard of this, watering container plants with seltzer water?

You should read a link that Tango posted on February 16, 2006 about a tutorial for newbies. It's a great, basic help about hypertufa before you start; tells about recipes, forms, etc., and you can take it from there. Maybe do a few smaller troughs until you get the feel of how wet, etc. the hypertufa needs to be, and how to pack it, cure it, etc. before you launch into something the size you have in mind. Don't know if you are thinking about making it outside this time of year, but in New York it is still too cold out -- it's not going to cure propertly with these cold winter temperatures well below freezing. I think that the best way to do anything is to just give it a try, but that being said, you may find a trough the size you are talking about for your first project a little more than you bargained for. That's a lot of mixing, sifting of peat moss, tamping and packing, and it's going to weigh a ton - you won't be able to move it without the help of 6 boys and a mule. Remember, you are going to have to turn it over to get it out of the Rubbermaid mold you are thinking about using (unless you are planning on destroying the mold). You might want to think about using Portland, peat moss and perlite instead of QuickCrete. You guys correct me if I'm wrong (not that I ever have been before :)... ), but I didn't think QuickCrete was the medium of choice for hypertufa. Happy learning!!

Carrie, I just moved some daffodils that I forgot to mark last spring. I wanted them in a more naturalized state. HUGE clumps of bulbs that were planted eons ago by someone who lived here until the early 80s. I also divided a coreopsis. Since our ground never really freezes, I was told I could do that. I did Shastas in early January and they've put out tons of new babies already. I also moved some irises, some hyacinths, and sprayed the front hill with Roundup getting it ready to plant my periwinkle. I'm going to be planting out on Sunday. Cabbage, lettuce, carrots, etc. Tonight will drop below freezing again so I want to wait one more day. After that, we have 9 days with no freezing temps and highs in the 60s and 70s. It's 55 right now with an expected high of 70. I just can't contain my giddiness. Glad to hear other parts of the country are warming up too. I love the south.

Hi - er, not sure what the status of this plant is, but I noticed that you had some dangling questions here that I thought I'd try to help you with. If you still have the tiny rosettes that fell off and they're still alive, I'd just stick them in some cactus soil, don't water it and leave them in a bright sun-filled area, but not direct sun, while they root. Oh, and leave the stem on, just put the whole stem in your cactus soil. After a couple of weeks you can give it a tug to see if they're rooting, but another way you can tell is if you can see new leaves developing from the center, then that is an indicator that it has rooted. I THINK you can give it a little water then, but maybe google this plant, because summer is supposed to be dormancy period for them (which I know conflicts with what I just said about new leaves growing. hey, we're experimenting here!) As for the dead branches that are shooting off the main stem, I would just gently take them off the stem. Mainly because you don't want to waste any nutrients possibly going to those stems, also because they're kind of unsightly, and thirdly, on the very off chance that at some point down the line they may be spots where new rosettes form! Lastly, if you have a spot outdoors to put it, I would put it there. I haven't had too much luck with my aeoniums inside the house, even when I put them in a sunny window, but the ones that are outside always seem to do better. That said, it looks like yours might be small enough that it's ok to have them inside. Good luck!