The two issues you'll need to consider are, A) the reservoir of water that will remain at the bottom of the container because the drain is higher than the container bottom. Unless you water in sips to ensure soil remains damp and no water accumulates at the container bottom, you'll have gases that include sulfurous compounds, methane, and CO2 produced during the anaerobic decay process in the saturated area. If you DO water in sips to avoid the conditions I just described, salts from your fertilizer and tap water will accumulate in the soil. This is particularly an issue with spiders because they don't tolerate a high level of solubles of any kind in the soil (solution). Drilling a hole in the bottom of the container is a potential remedy, but first consider, B) clear containers and direct sun don't mix well. The clear glass allows almost all of the light to pass through the glass. When it strikes the dark soil, it's absorbed and turned to heat. Essentially, you have a passive solar collector that can easily raise soil temperatures well above 120* in direct sun - enough to kill the plant or severely damage the root system. For that reason, you should avoid siting the plant in direct sun - even if there is insect screen acting as a partial shade mechanism. If you're sentimental about a particular plant, it's true that getting it out of the container would take a considerable amount of work that will certainly damage the plant. I don't see that as a significant issue because when you transplant you'll be root pruning anyway - hopefully. Also, like many folks, you might consider the plant disposable. I see you have cuttings started already, so it's no big deal to replace one plant with another. If your goals happen to include seeing how large you can grow the plant, another container choice would be advisable. The container would be great for making solar pickles. Recipe upon request. Al

I haven't posted in a long while, but admittedly, this is a subject that is unfortunately dear to my heart. For a couple years now I have gotten hit pretty hard with mites. Like real hard. Hard to a point where ALL the leaves turn yellow and fall off. Not all at once but within a matter of 1 week I've had brugs and other perennials like honeysuckle go from being lush and green to yellow, spindly and sick. Here in central CA it can happen and happen fast. This year I vowed to stay on top of things. I sprayed neem every 5 days. I sprayed Bt once a week to prevent worms. I was so pleased that again this summer that a good 'crop' of praying mantis were out and about enjoying their feasts. ---I realize the mantis's actually do not prey on mites - but I'm pleased that their presence along with the lacewings are the healthy by-product of an 'organic' approach. Well, given that technically neem shouldn't be used in direct sunlight and/or in temps above 80, that was literally impossible to uphold seeing that our low nighttime temps recently have not been below 90. So, in an effort to squelch the mites, I sprayed neem as late (or early) as possible and now I'm afraid I could have lost 2 brugs. Both have lost every leaf and they're turning brown at the tips. This is horrible! I want to say that neem and other organic measures are the way to go, also, but I'm afraid that in some cases of extreme or sustained dry heat, it just doesn't work. I've tried the spraying water thing, too. Getting a water ticket is not a good option. I have now ordered Avid which is a miticide that apparently is very, very popular on the Rose forums. It's not cheap, but I'm literally desperate. It's supposed to have very low phytotoxicity and it does not hurt beneficials. This really is important to me, hence probably why I've continued to try for so long without succumbing to more toxic methods. I'm going to see how the Avid works. Mites here in central CA are the bain of my gardening experience!

I'm not so diplomatic. There's lots of gardens I come away from with a big yawn. Many gardeners need some equivalent of LSD or electric shock to break out of the safe mode. Re the comments on Hostas. I agree but mostly because of the unimaginative way these and plants are used. For goodness sakes I wish gardeners would get random piles of dirt dumped in their garden and jump up and down on them to get some variety in bed shape and vertical relief. At least it would prevent the inevitable grass. If I was the gardening god I'd ban grass except for ornamental varieties. there are somes pecifics: -too small garden beds. Especially those anal retentive srips along the house. -vinyl fences and decks. Natural wood, P.T. or cedar is so so much more cozy. -annuals placed in bunches rather than planted randomly throughout the garden. -lack of or poor use of containers. there's always room for more. Lots more. These add height and fill in the gaps, especially of those unimaginative flattened gardens. -Japanese type gardens. We have 7 months of natural Japanese garden colour and style called WINTER. I want to be uplifted with colur and greenery in spring through Fall. -Lack of interest in half the growing season. Some gardens are anemic in April and anytime after the first frost. Great gardens are humming from early April until late October. The 'Victoria Day planting' syndrome is the bane of decent gardens. Forget about Victoria Day. -I don't like weeds but prefer weeds to grass. At least weeds attract interesting insects, bees and butterflies.

The Neem Oil should work well for mites, as well as other pest problems and to retard the spread of fungal diseases. Just be sure to thoroughly coat the undersides of the leaves. That's where the spider mites do their dirty work. I had to give up on Neem oil in the summer months because it burned my roses in our summer heat, (badly). Winter is a good time to try it out first. Some alternatives to Neem would be Avid, available from Rosemania, which is very expensive initially ($99), but lasts forever and a day. If that price makes you choke, you can also use Ortho brand sprays that indicate they kill mites. I think the cans of ready-to-use Rose Pride spray will kill mites (and it's only 5 or 6 bucks). The problem is, as Diane mentioned above, Ortho will kill off many bugs which attack mites. And spider mite populations bounce back very quickly. If you're going to use Ortho, you might try it weekly for maybe 3 weeks to try to break the mites' reproductive cycle, then stop and see if the insect populations can recover. Mites are generally only bad in warm to hot, dry weather conditions. So best not to spray year-round. It would be overkill. Maybe after you've used that miticide a few weeks, switch to blasting with water as often as you can(it's no more time-comsuming than spraying, in my opinion). If you're too busy to do it 3-4 times per week, then weekly is better than nothing. Anyway, I'm rambling. I hope the Neem oil works well for you, because I think that will do less harm to the predator population than Ortho would. Let us know how it turns out for you. Good Luck!