Thank you all so much. The compliments are more than generous, and much appreciated! This is indeed an annual show. In fact, all of the local societies have an annual show and sale down here in Southern California. It ends up being a whole season of shows, lasting late spring to late summer! I suspect I will do much better next year as well. Mostly because the two people who beat me will be forced to move up into Advanced, while I still get another year as a Novice. Plus, I am intending to enter *two* car loads next year! ;-) I can't speak to any other club's show, but the way it works at ours is pretty casual. On Friday, you bring in each of your plants and place them on the appropriate table. Then you fill out a little card, yellow for novice and purple for advanced, with your name and scientific name of the plant. You simply place the card with your plant and voila! its entered. You take a final count and write your name and the number of plants you've entered on the master list and your done. Hauling the plants is a lot of work, especially for those of us interested in fat plants. I suppose it ends up being a painful experience for all those cacti growers too. What is truly amazing is the amount of work the vendors put in hauling their wares and show plants. These people are moving a dozen flats of 4" plants, *plus* a bunch of gorgeous show plants too. I suppose a number of plants get damaged in the move, but so long as you are careful, it isn't like anything really gets ruined. I had a pot tip over (that really tall Dorstenia) but I just repotted it there, it wasn't a big deal. For the risk involved, the reward of sharing our plants with a curious public and the adulation of your peers is well worth it. While there is no formal rule about what type of container your plant is in, there is a deeply ingrained tradition of using relatively muted, earth-toned ceramic pots. More and more the pots are being considered as much a part of the hobby as the plants themselves. Actually, for all I know, it has always been like that, but even in my short experience that would seem to be the case. Technically, only 10% of the plants "score" is from staging, but in practice, that just isn't true. There was a particular guy at this show who had some really stellar plants in pretty unique pots. I personally loved them, I know some others did too. The judges on the other hand, hated them. Time after time, plants that should have won on their own merits, were losing to plants with more conventional pots. Given that condition is supposed to account for 70%, and size/difficulty account 15% it is hard to deny that the container and staging factor more into what plants win than what is stated in the rules. In short, there were a couple of plants there in plastic nursery pots, but if you want to be one of the "cool kids," you've got to stage your stuff in fancy oxide-stained ceramic! :-) I quite often forget the stupendous luck I have in living in SoCal. Even a small show like ours is really full of some amazing plants that could easily be among the world's best. I wish that everyone on this forum could experience a show, but between geography and climate, it just isn't possible. For those of you lucky enough to be able to participate in a local club or show, it is an opportunity you shouldn't pass up. For everyone else, all I can do is post pictures!

Firefox ... another quick way also (for many things); 1.Enter about:config into the address bar and hit Enter. 2.Press the "I"ll be carefull." button. 3.Enter browser.urlbar.maxRichResults in the Filter field. Right click and edit. 4.Set it to any number of suggestions.

Yes. When using Firefox (the one I just updated to), if I type http://www.google.com I now get directed to igoogle...always. In my version of Firefox (3.6.17) it is no longer possible to get the the plain old, cleaner-looking Google.com homepage anymore. Raven, the links you sent did not help to remedy this. Even the mentioned http://www.google.com/ncr sends me to the same page, iGoogle (personalizable page). I guess that's how it has to be with this version of Firefox. On the other hand, IE still let's me go to http://www.google.com. Although I'm not a Mac user, I read a thread on a Mac forum that mentions this iGoogle redirect as far back as 2005.

It's not bad, really, but you do have several issues. Let's go through step by step. Exchange Capacity: 7 is fine, and indicates a sandier soil with silt--and very little clay. You can increase your organic matter levels to slowly raise this a bit. Organic Matter: 2.17% is low but not abysmal. Feed organically when you can to slowly raise this. It'll also make your pH matter less. Bermuda's demanding, and this year will include a lot of starter fertilizer. Still, you can add in an extra organic feeding whenever you like to increase this. The grass won't mind the extra nitrogen. Sulfur 27: Right in the normal range, with plenty of margin for soil amendments (which tend to be sulfur based). Phosphorus 65: And right on cue, here's an issue. Phosphorus should be around 200 for a normal pH and for Bermuda. This is severely impacting grass quality. My recommendations are below. Calcium 54%: Low, we'll want this in the 65% range for Bermuda. Because magnesium levels are normal, we'll need to use a calcitic lime like Mir-A-Cal or Encap. Cheap lime is going to destroy the calcium-magnesium ratio. Magnesium 12%: Exactly where it should be, no adjustment required. Potassium 3.4%: While a touch trim, it's nothing to worry about. With all the other adjustments, I'm content to let this ride another year. Most Minor Elements: Fine except boron... Boron <0.2: Deficient, and this is also impacting your grass quality. While I wouldn't normally adjust the minor elements while also doing two major ones, this is an exception to that rule. To adjust boron, mix the recommended number of tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax (available in the laundry section of your supermarket) in 1 bag of Milorganite (Home Depot or other retailer) in a wheelbarrow. Keep mixing until fully distributed, then put in your spreader and apply at exactly the recommended rate. One bag of Milo covers 2,500 square feet. Don't overapply; boron can be an issue if amounts go too high, although the levels I have you set at will be fine at any reasonable error level. Iron 123: While this is certainly not deficient, you may notice the color of your lawn fades a bit as the calcium works in and the pH rises (higher pH levels block iron absorption). If that's disappointing, you can slip in extra feeding with Milorganite whenever you want to add more iron and deepen the color. Recommendations: I'm guessing for Georgia and Bermuda that the grass is back and functional around mid-April. That might be wrong, so if so, just shift the feeding with starter fertilizer around appropriately. Just keep 2 weeks between any feeding and a soil amendment, so this schedule has a great deal of flexibility in it. I'm also guessing last feeding will be around October 15. April 1: Apply 4 pounds per thousand square feet Encap or Mir-A-Cal calcitic limestone. April 15: Feed with any off the shelf starter fertilizer at bag rate. May 1: Apply 7.5 tablespoons borax in Milorganite per 2,500 square feet. May 15: Starter at bag rate. June 15: Starter at bag rate. July 15: Feed with a high-nitrogen fertilizer. August 15: Feed with a high-nitrogen fertilizer. September 1: Apply 4 pounds per thousand square feet Encap or Mir-A-Cal calcitic limestone. September 15: Starter at bag rate. October 1: Apply 7.5 tablespoons borax in Milorganite per 2,500 square feet. October 15: Starter at bag rate.