Purple, it had to be difficult passing up. How many times did you look at the Ficus before making that final decision? I've done the same thing. After getting home, X plant stayed on my mind. In fact, that's how I ended up with Chlorophytum Fire Flash. lol. I saw it at the grocery store, put it back on the shelf..Got home, wondering what type of plant I didn't get. The following day went back to the store...it was gone. A week or so later, dh and I went shopping for 'groceries.' I described the plant to him, non-stop, lol. Would you believe HE found it! lol. He goes, is this the plant? It was hidden behind, of all things, 'FAKE' plants. Plastic leaves and flowers. lol So, Purple, you have to have nerves of steel. lol. Rhizo..That IS funny. Possibly, with today's progress, computers doing jobs humans once did, robotical plants are turning, HUMAN!!!??? LOL.

Oh, Mike, you make me blush. Thank all of you very much for your kind comments. The temperature in northern Michoacan in late February was in the high 70s or low 80s. It was probably cooler as we went higher, but our climbing kept us warm. The Monarchs at El Rosario were higher this year than last. I haven't seen a figure, so I'll give you my best estimate. The park lies on a mountain above and between the towns of Ocampo and Angangueo, which are at 8,000-8,500 feet. The Monarchs typically overwinter at around 10,000 feet. I'm sure we climbed at leat 1,000 feet inside the park. The mountains, I'm told, go up to 12,000 feet. Next year, I intend to take a GPS device with me so that I can determine the altitude precisely. Except for the visit to El Rosario, I didn't see as many butterflies as I expected in Mexico. But, then again, it was winter, and we experienced hard freezes on three or four successive nights in December. Before the freezes hit, I saw a large number of beautiful butterflies in the garden at the B&B where we spent our first week. I saw Mourning Cloaks, sulphurs and some checkers in my yard in Las Cuevas, and quite a variety of large, bright butterflies at the beach in February. I was not able to photograph many of the butterflies I saw, mainly because I could not get close enough or I didn't have my camera with me or I was with other people who would have been inconvenienced. Those that I was able to catch with my camera are here: Butterflies of Michoacán geni

I guess I should have explained better. The neighborhood has gone seriously downhill since the housing collapse. I had equity once but now owe twice what its worth. Anyway we are the stepchildren of the city, crime is going up and the residents don't take an interest, for the most part. The whole thing has turned into a nightmare really but to make a long story short I can expect no help from the city, been there and done that. The neighbor's yard is huge and this sedge has had years to get well entrenched - if that doesn't get me then the crabgrass will. I used to hoe like crazy this stuff out but then the crabgrass moved into the bare ground, its amazing how that stuff can move a foot or so a night in expanding. Anyway on account of the financial thing I have very little funds to work with and so sodding is out of the question. My neighbors are very unpleasant people so no I don't talk to them. I wish I could move my house and my garden somewhere else, its a simple house but I've done tons of work in landscaping and added a nice big covered patio. If I move I'll never be able to afford another place - it will be to an apartment with a postage stamp deck and I live for summer and my garden. You know if it wasn't for the mud thing I'd almost so OKAY I give up - I don't care what grows here as long as its ground cover so I can quit with the mud tracking in the house. Its really, I guess, a no-win situation. I could get rid of my dogs that would solve the mud problem but I was brought up in a different age/mentality I guess where the person who was screwing up was the one who had to change, now I find myself constantly lowering my standards - and why should I have to lose my dogs, not fair to them for sure. I have puzzled over this and all it does is depress me. The way it is my garden is where I spend most of my time and as long as I don't have to go out into the neighborhood I love it there with my birds and squirrels and flowers and stuff, but the outside keeps working its way in. My children, lke I said, are frustrated with me because grass is not high on their list. It's like they take good care of their cars so how would they like it if their car was always muddy even though they just cleaned it - that might get thru to them better. But the city and my kids and the neighbors have come to an agreement - I'm the problem. Because I want a nice garden. I'm getting depressed thinking of it. As for the tilling, I really didn't mean tilling, I think it just said work it into the ground so that what's down there but not emerged gets exposed to the chemicals. i will try to found more information or find someone in the business who knows, it all gets confused in my mind. I did put down annual grass in the spring and it took over fast but died about July and then I was back to the bare ground. The problem in the fall is that I have lots of trees and about the time its time to do the seeding the leaves start falling and smother any new growth or make it so I can't water. I can't rake the leaves away because the grass seed would go with it. I have spent a fortune on water and seed and I have the ugliest yard to show for it. Maybe I will just put the sedge down I think it said a month before you put down seed and see what happens and if it doesn't work then I either need to adapt / or move. I did try out front putting down some ground cover which survived but it would be very expensive and take years. I dunno. I dunno but thanks for your suggestions I will read again later when I'm not so discouraged. All I want for Christmas is to know I will have my lawn back in spring.

We have the same distinct wet and dry seasons here. But the bulk of my gardening is in the ground, or in trees for my epiphytes and ponds for my water plants. Much depends on which plants you grow but many tropicals come from similar climates to yours so deal well with deluges as well as the drying out periods. If you do a bit of research on the natural conditions for any plant you should be able to set it up so that it doesn't have any problems. For the few plants I have in pots I generally mix what feels right for that plant.