Despite their new popularity Chiritas are still not widely available except from specialty (which usually means mail-order) nurseries. I have seen VERY limited offerings of gesneriads at nurseries in the DC area--you might try Behnke's in Beltsville, MD, where I've seen a smattering of Columnea, Nematanthus & Streptocarpus, (but never Chirita). But your best bet is still membership in a local chapter, which will usually get you access to many new, rare, or otherwise hard-to-find gesneriads. Speaking of which, I am the membership chair of the Washington, DC chapter. Feel free to send me a private message with your home and/or email address and I will make sure you get a copy of the newsletter. There is a meeting at the arboretum on Saturday, April 14, at 10:30 am in the administration building; there is usually a good assortment of plants for swap, raffle and/or sale at meetings. This month's speakers are Dee (not Lee) & Bob Stewart, visiting from the New England chapter, who are phenomenal growers with eclectic tastes and will almost certainly bring a few interesting plants to sell or give away. Several chapter members also grow chiritas and there are usually a few available at meetings. (Sorry about the out-of-date chapter website, there has been talk about giving it a major overhaul.)

In addition to local nurseries you could check out this great business called Edible Landscaping, which specializes in fruit trees. They're located in VA so most of what they carry will do well in our area. http://www.eat-it.com Juneberries/Serviceberries (amalanchier) are one of my favorite native fruits, and will do fine in some shade since they often grow in the forest. They have small red-purple berries with an edible seed inside. My husband says they taste like blueberries and I think they taste like Sweet Tarts (maybe I don't let them get all the way ripe!). The birds will love whatever you don't eat. I'll eat a pawpaw or two in the wild but the kerosene like aftertaste stops me after that, so I wouldn't plant them in my yard. Some people don't seem to be bothered by them though. Gooseberries and currants can also apparently take shade, especially afternoon shade (which side of your yard is the forest on?). Otherwise most fruit trees will do better in full sun. Figs THRIVE in my neighborhood in Takoma Park/Silver Spring. (There are so many trees within a few blocks of us, I have the theory that they're all cuttings off of one or two trees that have been passed around over the years.) I think the ones I like the best are Celeste, if I've identified them right. Animals seem to leave them alone, which is a major plus. You can dry whatever you don't eat fresh. If you've never had a fresh fig, there's nothing quite like it. I'm a huge fan. In general most folks I know seem to think apples and peaches are too high-maintenance to be worth it. I have a peach tree in my backyard that produces massive amounts of fruits but the squirrels like to eat them when they're green, so I get very few. It's kind of heartbreaking -- every year I see the number of fruits and my hopes are so high for good, fresh peaches, and it never quite comes out that way. We also have a pear tree that is not nearly as productive, but just as attractive to the squirrels. I have yet to eat a pear. I have a neighbor who grows plums somewhat successfully but loses a lot to the plum curculio bug. Mulberries grow pretty much as a weed tree in this area because birds eat so many of them and spread the seeds. I find them very tasty. You can easily feed yourself and the birds. You'd just have to stay on top of any seedlings that start coming up where you don't want them (especially along fences where birds perch). This year I have plans to plant a sour cherry. Birds are supposed to like them less than sweet cherries. We'll see. I'm also looking into Japanese persimmon. Blueberries also can do well here if you amend the soil to be acidic enough for them. You will have to fight the birds for them, too. Good luck!

HPF, Great pics.You have a picture of my favorite palm.The 4th picture with the two Phoenix Sylvestris palms in pots.I'm growing one in the ground,this will be it's 2nd summer there.That's a good question on the waggie,I've never seen one with that on it.My waggie has only been in the ground for its 2nd year from a 3gal. planting.It looks like the S.minors surived well.They look better on here than the T.fortuneis.I'm currious about that thing one the waggie myself.I hope someone on here knows.My money is on Jim knowing. Randy

I just finished (or almost finished) a gut remodel of my condo in a high rise building. I didn't move any walls but I did change the flow and functionality of rooms. My main decision was whether to close off the den area to make it a legal second bedroom or to keep a semi-open living area. My choices were not made in terms of resale. The first thing you need to do is speak to the manager of your building to find out what the construction rules are. I would second the advice of asking either the manager who has finished a recent remodel and get recommendations from those people and/or the manager. Doing a remodel in an apartment building is a skill set that many GC do not have as there are going to be rules in place that will make the process more time-consuming, difficult and expensive. If there is a GC who has navigated successfully and knows what they are getting into, you're well ahead of the game - and down the line the tradespeople they use will also be familiar with working in condos - and hopefully your specific building. I used a designer who had actually done the lobby in my condo building as well as several other buildings in the area. She was extremely knowledgeable about construction; Code requirements; working in a condo/high rise situation and so she and the GC were a great team. I used the GC recommended by her - she had worked with him on several projects and he had also done some work in my building. I took a look at two projects in high end condos that he was currently doing. So my "designer" was really a designer and an interior decorator. The interior decorating stuff she provided based on my inspiration is more than I could have dreamed of - but the hard core design stuff is really what was important - as the saying goes, you don't know what you don't know and I certainly didn't know anything about construction or Codes (especially in high rise buildings which have different construction requirements). While I provided a lot of input regarding how I wanted my space to function - i.e. I wanted to age in place in terms of creating a walk in shower where the crappy tub/shower combo had been - I didn't have to sweat the issues of where grab bars should be located or how high the shower heads had to be - I got to concentrate on the fun stuff like deciding what fixtures I wanted :-). Because of who I had hired, I really was quite "relaxed" about there being major flake out issues because I knew both she and the GC had delivered and I have been quite pleased in terms of the process - in essence she acted as my project manager and has been very on top of issues that I might not even have spotted in terms of results. And when there have been the normal snafus, both she and the GC have worked to solve the problem rather than making excuses and passing the buck. So again I stress, really try to find a designer and GC who - to the best of your ability in terms of vetting - you can work with. And also, both the designer and my GC are really nice people. As posted, I didn't feel the need for an architect but my designer was able to provide technical design plans that were submitted to the City for my permits and which provided the basis for the bids by the GC's when they happened. There is so much work being doing in my city (Los Angeles) that only one of the GC's actually provided a bid for my project. I could have scrabbled to find some others to provide a bid but in the end I asked my designer what her recommendation was and she said that she doubted that any other bid would be less and that since she had worked with the GC on several projects, she knew his strengths and weaknesses and how to get the best out of him :-). In terms of budget, I think you need to decide what your budget is and present it to whoever you choose to do the initial design. They can tell you whether it is realistic and/or what adjustments have to be made in terms of the scope of the project. I chuckle when I think of the initial figure I provided her as I think the amount probably has tripled if not more. I did have some expensive surprises but the reality is that remodeling in a condo - especially a high rise is more expensive than single family homes - and add in a high cost of living area like DC or LA. Things that drive up cost - limited working areas; length of time it takes for demo since all the stuff has to be taken down in the elevator; hallways have to be covered each day so flooring in common areas is protected (that was a $2000 line item) and so on.