Just wanted to follow up on how my chids are and they are better then when I left my paph sanderianum ( prob spelled wrong) now has it's first spike since in my hands bout half in to 3/4 but i darn sure didn't see it when I left. Also my phals have bloomed full force all but one bud do you think me not misting for a couple days and watering motivated the plants to start new growth? Thanks again for all you insight!! I love this forum such great friendly folks r

My tanks are really small: the Crosswind sphere is 10" i.d. and the cylinder is 7 3/8" i.d., 16" tall. Sphere gets SW light partially blocked by neighbor's house and filtered by the Tilly. The cylinder is in a corner and is down several feet from the SW exposure but level with NW tree-filtered light. The sphere dries out in 1-2 days (really! water in the bottom pebbles gone or mostly gone and sphag around plants dry, so I mist and add water daily. I know that blocking one side isn't enough (disaster: both Phals lost their largest lower leaf and one also made a scrunched-up leaf). I don't see how to set up misting for these tanks, so Bob8's modality is what I will try: closing it off completely and moving into a tree-filtered NW window. (I've already learned how hot it can get inside the sphere in bright light even when fully open.) Here are the set-ups. In the sphere, the (well-boiled) mopane wood holds 3 mini-neos (âÂÂBabeâÂÂ; which all flowered and now are producing pups) and 2 mini-Phals on the side facing the window; and on a cork mount is an Aerangis hyaloides which arrived somewhat tattered but has now started a new leaf.) The cylinder has ~ 1 inch of glass pebbles and water near or at the top of these, then a tree-fern pot with some sphag and potting soil in it for the ferns and sweet flag, and on one side is a piece of mopane wood attached to a tree-fern slab for the orchids. Water wicks up the pot to the sweet flag, Lemmaphylum microphyllum, Microgramma heterophylla, and a Fissidens-like moss (not IDed yet). The orchids are 2 Podangis dactyloceras and 1 each of Sedirea (Aerides) japonica, Haraella odorata (flowering), Lepanthopsis astrophora, and Oberonia japonica (looks to be initiating flowering). I am totally stoked that Bob8 and Greencurls replied to my post. I love orchids for their foliage alone (weird, I realize), and flowers are a sweet bonus! Even with my restricted space (once the other houseplants come in for the winter), thereâÂÂs such a huge variety that I might grow! Naturally IâÂÂd like to have more and maybe even a brighter light variety upstairs in the study window (SE), but want to be sure theyâÂÂll weather my occasional absences.

I had the same dilemma. My daughter moved from NJ to California in January and we needed to get creative as far as planning her shower. Because she had to fly in from California the shower was brunch style on Saturday and her bridesmaids and friends had her bachelorette party that night. When I was researching proper etiquette on showers and how to handle the gifts, I found this board. I started to panic when I read some of the responses about not having a shower if the guests can't bring their gifts, or the pay $100 of dollars to ship. The best one was to return all the gifts and re-buy them. Well we didn't do any of that and the guests loved what we did... so here it goes. I wanted to post so anyone else who reads this board can have a good option. On the invitation we wrote: To make _______'s flight home easier, if purchasing a gift, please ship directly to: >>>>> and we put the brides address. For fun!! Wrap a photo or token of the gift you sent to open at the shower. Note: Most stores that would be on a registry offer free shipping. A lot of people teamed up and put their orders together to qualify for free shipping . The bride then set all the packages aside as they got delivered before the shower and she promised not to open. At the shower, when it came time to open presents, it was so much fun to see how creative people were. My sister in-law bought the silverware and wrapped up a set of silver plastic ware and had photos of the actual set. Everyone got to see all the beautiful gifts, and it was fun. At the end of the shower so many people commented that it was the best shower they have been too. They got to see the surprised look on the brides face when opening the gifts. When the shower was over, we were able to pack up all the tokens and smaller gifts into her luggage and I gave her a shopping tote to carry onto the airplane for what wouldn't fit. Something else we did: the groom was not able to fly out that weekend...so we had video clips of him with a welcome and then answering questions about the bride. After each question the bride would give her answer and then we would play his. This was a hit. It took about 12-15 minutes and everyone was laughing at the funny stories. Don't be afraid to throw a shower for an out of state bride. If you only invite close family and friends, they will not mind shipping their gifts. I know if I went through the trouble of shipping a gift to myself, bringing it to a shower, to find out that it was returned, I think I would be upset that the bride and mother had to go through all that trouble, when most times it is free shipping. Those people that did not want to ship a gift ahead of time, purchased gift cards or gave a check. It was a beautiful shower and the bride beamed from beginning to end... She is now back home and just started opening all of the gifts with her husband to be. This worked out perfect and we did not offend anyone. Good luck!!

I've been watering every 10 days, and it seems to have been ok. I didn't think a few more days without watering would cause disparate results! The cold, dry air sounds like it may have been the culprit. My apartment has a draft and it seems to have cooled down in temps in my area last week. My Meyer lemon was next to this satsuma...and it has gone to citrus heaven. All my other citrus in a different part of the apartment were ok. I have a heating mat underneath because it tends to get cold in my apartment. I used to have some Bears limes that did very well after I put a heating mat underneath. After reading these comments, I moved the satsuma with my other citrus. Hope that may help! thanks!