pitimpinai & I both nailed one of the key important steps in prepping for winter sowing--buy your growing medium before winter! Bless him, the poor guy at the garden center hefted an ice-covered, frozen bale of growers mix into my car when I discovered WS...in November! I gradually thawed it with a blow dryer but it's MUCH simpler just to have what you need ahead of time so it's ready when WS time rolls around. I'm lucky there's a nursery supply about 7 miles east of where I live--I just drive up there in late summer & have them load up the bales of growers mix. I stack them inside my garage so they're dry and ready to use when I need them. Just 157 days to go until WS 2011 begins!!! (I threw that in for Cricket... & cAROL)

Hi Clancy I apriciate your kind offer and i may take you up on that ,i will see how i go for time as the Bromeliad project is becoming quite large ,have around 100000 seedlings in all sizes to take care of , as well as adult plants , but the Hippies are just so lovely ,i noticed that in my white and pink crosses you would always get a quantity that germinated with white or pink leaves ,the grow normal green leaves but these always gave the better coloured flowers , i will post some other piccies but they are downloaded from colour prints so they are not great or clear but will still give a idea ,most are on 35 mm slides and that makes it a tad difficult ,but will try .when using Papilio ,its always best to use it for a pollen parent , much better results in colour and pattern , Jack

I just found this wonderful forum. My partner and I live in Jacksonville Florida. Are there any other members here living in Jacksonville? Richard-10

echo.