Hi & welcome to GardenWeb! Hope you've had a chance to investigate the list of GardenWeb forums more closely. They are the most active gardening forums of which I'm aware. Name-that-plant is almost always the forum to go to for ID'ing, with a few exceptions, most notably roses. Unfortunately, it's just the time of year when gardening discussions in general are heading into their usual, seasonal slow-down. But by all means, feel free to start/add to any discussions you like! Unfortunately, the cute little flower from your picture is generally considered a weed because it has too many strikes against it. It is not native, unruly looking overall appearance, seeds prolifically, and the flowers are hard to catch since they open/close so quickly. Hence the common name "flower of an hour." I wouldn't pull one up if it appeared at my house, but wouldn't let it drop a bunch of seeds after I'd managed to catch one of the flowers open. I wonder if these plants react to light levels, like morning glories and Mirabilis jalapa (4'o'clocks?) Maybe they're open all day (or earlier/later) if it's overcast?

That is a dramatic progression of pics Wendyb! I can sympathize with your loss. I have had tremendous losses to voles over the past year since the snowy winter of 2011. Large chunks of roots of many of my favorite perennials. Most of them look like your Hakonechloa and there are more or less remnants left. Although the bulbs in the front garden did not fare so well - they were pretty much wiped out, except for a few, and the Daffodils of course, which no critters eat. Last summer the cat caught DOZENS of voles, and I dispatched a few myself, and they seemed to be largely brought under control. However there was one still rampaging through my front garden this past winter up near the sidewalk where the cat doesn't hunt. So a few weeks ago I mixed up this vole repellent that was recommended on the Hosta forum, using castor oil and human urine. Used the watering can and sprinkled that over whatever perennials and bulbs were left in the front garden that I know the voles like. Lo and behold, no more losses since then! In the next few days, I want to transplant a dozen or so Echinacea plants back in to the front garden. These are good sized seedlings and remnants I rescued last year. I plan to make permanent barriers out of hardware cloth to encircle the roots of those.

I am a 38-year-old (I think, hard to remember at times!), female with 2 young children and a full-time (overtime required) job with no nanny/grandparents/help. My youngest has finally reached the blissful age of 5-years-old, so I can finally let him out of my sight for a few minutes! I've had more time for hobbies this year than the past 9 years combined. I don't remember when I registered. I know I lurked on several forums starting around 2005 before I finally registered. Whenever I searched for information on things like appliances or kitchen renovations, gardenweb posts always appeared on the search engine. I started saving myself some time by searching this site first. I think Vip (vcheethi) said what I have been trying to articulate for years. As I have always suspected, this board leans heavily toward the still active, empty-nesters. I can't keep up. I do read and try to retain information for later. I've found lot of great ideas that I hope to use later. (Lately you all have me pining for a sewing machine. That may have to be my next project/hobby for my next block of free time.) Peaceful state ... yes, that is it exactly. I pop in and out of here as my time permits. Decorating is a fun "extra" to me so it comes last after all my responsibilities. I received a lot of help recently with my library. It is looking good (at least I think so). Last weekend I took the plunge and bought new curtains. Once I have them in place, I will post new pictures. I *thought* I'd have them up by now, but as always, life throws a curveball. FIL is in ICU right now. I popped in tonight for a distraction since I can't sleep anyway.

The Tropicalesque Forum has never been very active. Like most forums, it is most active in spring and early summer. I belong to garden.org as well as some other sites. Some on a different sign on name. Hopefully the aroid and tropical forums will become more active again. There seems to be a revival of sorts, of people growing houseplants, especially philodendrons, monstera, and alocasia etc. People seem to be willing to pay insane prices for Pink Princess Philo and variegated Monstera now on ebay and other places. Before the economy collapse etc. a lot of plants were selling on ebay for big $$$ but then it stopped for awhile. Now I am seeing the higher prices again. I noticed some newer and even (older harder to find) colocasia and alocasias on the agristarts tissue culture type sites so they will probably trickle down and show up this spring with cheaper/more reasonably priced ebay sellers like wellspring etc. if one is good at starting smaller plants.