Welcome! Your first orchid! And you live in a terrific part of the country for growing orchids. You're asking the right questions, and Cody's suggestions are good. If you go to that nursery, or somewhere else, tell them the aspects of your "environment" - light and rainfall, and that you're getting your first orchid. They'll be able to recommend several types of orchids that will be suitable for your place. One question for you is the "dappled shade." What % full sunlight would you estimate will get to your orchid? (It may vary by morning, noon, and afternoon.) That will be important for the nursery staff when making suggestions for an orchid. Once you decide on an orchid... or two, :) staff will know options for the type pot and potting medium. Be sure and tell them your orchid will hang in a tree so they'll include a pot hanger, or you can make your own. Just look in an orchid supply catalog to see what they look like. (See link below.) You'll also need a fertilizer suitable for orchids and a schedule for fertilizing. Be sure and ask what strength the fertilizer mixture should be, if it's different from directions on the label. Ask how dry the potting medium should be before you water and how to tell when the medium is that dry. That last one may sound strange, but it's critical for the health of your orchid. You're in luck, being a "forgetter," aka "underwaterer." Water - if your water is softened, the salt will kill your orchid. You'll need to buy distilled water or filtered water that grocery stores here sell by the gallon from a stand with a spigot. Watering - water at the top of the potting medium until water runs out the bottom of the pot, then for 1-2 seconds longer. Another factor - because fertilizer salts build up in potting media, they need to get "flushed out" or "leached" periodically. Leaching means running regular water through the pot like you're watering it three times. If your plant's in bark (actually, a mixture of bark and other ingredients), the rule of thumb is to leach every 4th watering, with the 1st watering tap water, the 2nd fertilizer water, and the 3rd tap water. If it's in sphagnum moss, it's every 3rd watering: 1st watering is plain water, 2nd is fertilizer water, 3rd is leaching. The nursery staff will also know about pests in trees and hopefully effective prevention. You can ask all these questions here, too. However, people who live in other parts of the country - such as myself - will have limited experience with your environment. An orchid friend moved from Minneapolis to Florida and needed to change a lot of what she'd been doing in Minnesota. Caveat - there may be other factors to consider. Hopefully, others will chime in. Whitecat8 Here is a link that might be useful: Kelley's Korner Orchid Supplies

Sounds like a really challenging situation. One of the problems with planting under bird feeders is that the hulls of the sunflowers are allelopathic; there is a chemical in the sunflower hulls that keeps other plants from growing. So first off you want to find a way to prevent sunflower hulls from falling into this spot, either with pans to catch spilled seed or using prehulled sunflower seeds or not using sunflower seed at all. Many variegated plants will grow more slowly, so it will be a while before they reach your optimal height. Your variegated willow may be your best bet. Juniperus scopulorum 'Sparkling Skyrocket' is narrow with white splashes. Not sure how tall it will get. Sambucus nigra 'Variegata' is slow growing, but is supposed to eventually reach 6-9 feet. Not sure on width, but Sambucus is pretty tolerant of pruning IME. Syringa vulgaris 'Dappled Dawn' has gold variegation and typical blue-purple lilac flowers. Also quite pruning tolerant, but lilacs by nature are slow-growing. I'm not sure how well anything will compete with two satellite dishes, however. ;>) Have you considered a bright-flowering annual vine on a pretty trellis? Scarlet runner bean, Thunbergia, etc. perhaps in a pot so that it gets taller faster? The flowers will distract from the bird droppings.

I've read a lot of the posts, and as a BUYER of cut flowers, I thought I'd put forth an idea, several ideas, really. It's awfully long, but I was on a roll. ggg Note: The trouble with writing this is that I keep saying, "you need to" or "you should" when I mean, "one could" or even, "possibly this would be of interest to you" -- that's not how it came out, but that's how I mean it, ok? Instead of selling from your subdivision driveway, why don't you think about starting at an antique store? With online auctions, some antique stores that are not located in antique malls are really in sad shape in a lot of places. Look for one with a lot of glassware - i.e. vases and vessels to use as vases. You don't want the one with the $20,000 mahogany breakfronts! Make them a creative offer. I don't know your business, but I would guess you have some artistic bend...am I right? You may have to inflate it a bit when you talk to the proprietor, but why not offer them a class for their customors in "Shabby Chic flower arranging". The benefit to the store owner is they would get more traffic because you'd be advertising the event and it would be a special event they could advertise. You could also use their wares for your demonstrations. And you could really do some cool stuff, I imagine, and possibly sell the finished products, your flowers & the vase. There are a million ways to do this. Seems like using 'Shabby Chic' would draw in a certain type of person who would prefer an informal arrangement,,,but if you change the antique store to a different kind of antique store -- say one that has more of a country feel, you change your class to "Cottage Flower arranging". Or say one who sells antiques with a few reproductions and also more expensive antiques, it would change to "Williamsburg flower arranging" It doens't make any difference - LOL! The REAL object of the game is to find a store owner you love and who loves you. I'm thinking you could set up a sort of French open air market in front of their store on nice days -- using those french floral buckets on a wheeled stand. Maybe they would actually SELL your flowers for you. Or buy your flowers to sell themselves. It would have to be a fairly busy place,,,at least with walking traffic. Near ice cream stores, Starbucks, Trader Joe's, that kind of thing. If this is not your style, then think about what is your style ...Gingham? Organic? Healing Crystals? Just find a store, library, art museum, historical center, botanical garden, living history museum, church, whatever, and find your niche to get your name and product out where people can see you. If you're not opposed to people calling you for flowers or even picking them up from your home, look for public places to hold your flower arranging classes...the public library, public park systems, and the local high schools all have classes, both free and for a fee. You could put something together, talk about your business, talk to people about when and where your flowers will be for sale, have flyers or business cards to hand out..extras for their friends. Offer your specialty -- arranging your flowers in their priceless vessels or possibly doing it at their homes if you're willing. (I realize for some people it's the gardening/farming aspect and for others it's the design element...these are just examples -- just sell what you're good at) Public parks and libraries sounds sort of low-end, so choose municipalities where you think the residents have some extra cash for things like fresh flowers, people to whom $75.00-$100.00 for a flower arrangement is sort of middle of the road figure might be good customers. (and also target places where they don't have room for growing their own... and if not room, per se, then in manicured &/or gated neighborhoods where a lot of blooming flowers would be sort of frowned upon.) Get email addresses wherever you go! Make people sign a sign up sheet for any class you give, any-anything you do, and get those email addys! Then, 5 days before an event, or your sale, or whatever, email them the information. Set up a small website and have a newsletter / event calendar. A lot of people don't know what Agrostemma is, and if you grow it, you need to have a picture up! A way to do this is to tell people it will be ready "in two weeks" or whatever, and if they don't know what it is, say, "Oh, it's gorgeous -- lasts forever in a vase -- you MUST see it. Give me your email addy and I'll send you the picture." Of course, when you email them, just send them the link to your website with the picture on it. AND add the email addy to your list! If you wanted to sell from home, have a set day where people can roll up and get their flowers fresh. Even if it's only the 2nd Saturday of the month, make it EVERY 2nd Sat of the month during the growing season. Print that date on your flyers or business cards and at the bottom of every email and say it in about every third sentence in your classes. Farmer's Markets are fine and dandy, but they look like too much work to me! Sometimes the people working them (around in these parts) rarely smile and don't look like they are having fun at all. They just look hot & tired. I want to have fun choosing my bouquet and admiring their flowers. Ya know what else I'd like? To buy a bouquet and be able to add some super-duper stems to sort of make it my own. So buy a base bouquet and be able to add a variety of stems of my own choosing for extra money. Only 4 different add-on varieties would be enough. Love those giant purple/plum/lilac zinnias. Despise that millet or grass plume stuff. And the floppy faded-red stuff that looks like wilted ragweed. Yuck! LOL! I have more ideas, but I think that's all I'd better write for now! Lime

I agree, 38C is way too big for a shelf cami. They are made for A or B cups, and definitely for 32-34 sizes, anything bigger WILL end up "under the shelf" (love that, Scarlett!), guaranteed. If you want the right bra, do your research. zafu.com has a bra finder that was dead on when I put in my requirements and it gave me about 15 different options of brands that would fit, from prices from $15-100. Give it a try, you might find something that works for you.