Even if planted upside down, I bet that any existing shoot would find its way upward toward heat and light. My point was that the non-sprouters might either be slow starters, or not have any eyes to begin with, so you may be waiting on absolutely nothing. That's why I like to watch them before I plant them. It sounds like you got commercially produced pot roots Kat, with lots of (usually) broken 'fingers' hanging off a tight knot of smaller tubers clustered around an old cut off stem. I fell for a few packs of those at a big variety store and 2 of 3 clumps have yet to show any signs of growth. Sometimes you get all good tubers, it's just not very good quality control in those cases, in my opinion. And it's a shame the dahlia eager shopper might not know what to look for which are signs of growth: an eye or shoot already showing on the shelf in the store in either light green, pink or purple showing signs of life from the dull brown tuber. If you really wonder, I would do as Triple B said and unearth them, put them in light and barely damp soil with the crown/stem exposed and see if you do see growth in a few days. If you do, you can replant them with confidence. I have nothing against potroots, but those haggard, dried out, broken masses that are packed in bulk are often a lost cause and you're better off spending your $ on a solid dahlia vendor's tubers or potroots. For what it's worth.

Carolyn: what is cmv? I've heard you mention it but not sure what it is. Do you think leaves look like CMV? **** Tammy, CMV is Cucumber Mosaic Virus and as I said above the symptoms are very similar to TMV and CMV infects tomatoes and has many more host plants. No, your plants don't have CMV either. I've linked below to a good diagnosis site for tomatoes and you might want to take a look. Two important points. First, pictures are static while disease is progressive so not always can one use pictures to make a definitive diagnosis, but I'd say most of the time you can. Second, all such sites list almost all possible pathogens and while the common Foliage pathogens are found everywhere the systemic diseases such as TMV, CMV, Fusariun, Verticillium, etc., are not always found in all areas of the country. So you have to know what's even possible in your own area before considering a pathogen as a possibility. Carolyn Here is a link that might be useful: Tx A and M tomato diagnosis

Sacrifice many of the "just leaf" branches to increase air circ and leave the suckers going. Those that are "falling toward the ground" can just droop. They may bend but they don't break. But you have learned a valuable lesson - 2 plants don't share anything...much less a cage. ;) Dave

Missed the other questions---yes, I'd skip the drawer too. Personally I'd never use it since it would be hard to see what was in it. Saw a great kitchen with mixed counters the other day---all cabinets were fir, but they did an island in soapstone and perimeter counters in marble. Worked beautifully. We are mixing wood and stone on two sides of the kitchen, as much for cost as for anything. I'll send some photos of our kitchen when it's done....hoping for Thanksgiving! :) but in the meantime, here's a link to one of my inspiration kitchens for stacking the cabinets. I asked about it here a few months back and got some photos of beautiful taller cabinets, too. We decided to stack because: 1) our cabinetmaker was not charging us much more for two versus one tall cabinet; 2) we wanted to be able to close off the top cabinets and put infrequently used things there so they wouldn't get dusty; and 3) we wanted to use glass, but we have a little kitchen and most of what's in the uppers is not pretty to look at. So we're putting glass in the top cabinets, and will store serving bowls and such up there. We are also only doing uppers along one wall, which helps with keeping it from looking too busy, though. Here is a link that might be useful: Pretty stacked cabinets!