Fine bark or course bark is six of one kind half a dozen of the other in a sense. Finer bark takes less time to hold moisture when watering and retains moisture for a shorter time. Chunky courser bark takes longer to absorb moisture and also holds moisture longer As with most epic cacti both EC and TC holiday cati are with fine thin and longer roots I am on the side of six of one kind, finer bark allows roots to grip, grow and move more freely VS the half dozen of root growth slowing while growing over the obstacle coarse of chunkier courser bark which is also harder for them to grip. Either bark will work but in a need to water finer bark can greatly reduce or prevent over watering as finer bark is more willing to accept lesser amounts of watering.

Sorry for leaving the thread hanging I have been consumed by the Johnnys Seed catalog trying to learn Veggie Gardening 101 as I have joined a community garden and have no idea what I am doing.. For nearly $4000.00 I think the lawnbott should come with a number of add ons such as a fork that removes weeds as in mows! #7 Lawnbott The LB3510 is the newest and most sophisticated robot mower on the planet. User programmable for up to 4 working zones, the LB3510 also comes standard with a double capacity Li-ion battery to power this larger model, covering homes up to 1 ½ acres. If you want the best in a robotic, electric mower, the LB3510 is it! $3,999.00 #22 Electronic Slug Fence Stop those pesky slugs from ruining your Hostas, your vegetable garden or any other plants that are being attacked by slugs in your garden. This ingenious device puts a very small charge on a wire mesh fence and will repel the snails and slugs before they get to your plants. By Slugs Away $46.03 #19 HIDEHISA Japanese Ikebana Shears The blades of these shears are not laminated (a hard, tool steel forge-welded to a softer iron body), but rather they are made entirely of Hitachi YCS3-Steel. With traditional Japanese laminated shears, the problem is often that when cutting, the relatively soft iron body of the shears bends under stress and so the blades, however hard and sharp, no longer meet closely enough to provide a proper shearing cut. But if one makes the shears entirely out of the hard "Hagane" steel, they would be too susceptible to breaking, as the "Hagane" steel is relatively brittle. The modern alloy YCS3-Steel makes it possible to harden the blades to HRC 63, but to avoid the brittleness characteristic of high-carbon steels. It also allows the body of the shears to be engineered more finely, to a total weight of only 138 g - lighter than other shears designed to do the same job. The light weight staves off fatigue. These shears are particularly suited to hard and knotty branches due to their short, strong blades. HIDEHISA hand forged shears are manufactured in Sanjo, Niigata Province, Japan by an old, established firm well known for the quality of their wares.

Well bossjim, the "yes dear" is kinda like agreeing to use MS software precisely as MS suggests you use it.........so being basically an anti-MS person, I have managed to develop alternative methods to using their mind-numbing software, by using a MAC! So....Wife 1.0, now has alternative methods of operation, which, while limited, provide for some degree of flexibility, and use of grey matter. These days though, the functionality of grey matter, has declined, therefore I have misgivings about winning the battle, in the long run. (smile)

Can you show close ups of the second picture where we can see details of the flowers? And could you take a picture of plant no 1 without the photographer's shadow on the plant?