Fascinating thread. I'm very interested in color theory and have read some about it, but I seem to have a hard time implementing it in a planned way. It's more of a "I know it when I see it" thing for me. Ink, I'll give my input as a relatively new gardener and mostly lurker here. For me it's about the way my yard looks as I'm going out in the morning and coming home in the evening. I don't have much (or really any) leisure time during the day. I love walking past my garden beds on the way to my car and driving away while looking at the fruits of my labor, then returning to it as the first "welcome home" in the evening. Something to consider for the pros out there who are designing for people who work long hours away from home . . . As far as what pleases me visually, I think I'm with Patty in that I prefer things that are more soft or subtle. Not wimpy, just not too tropical or harsh looking. But I have no problem mixing lots of color - - it pleases me immensely. So I have my Nikko Blue hydrangea next to a pink fern-leaf bleeding heart, lime-green creeping jenny (planted my first year and now regretting it for its invasiveness), and purple spiderwort. The colors all seem to have the same value, so I think it works in a smallish space without being shocking. In areas with more space or where I want to make a bold statement without using too many colors I might mix color values.

Hello, mehitabel, and thank you for responding. Perhaps I miscommunicated some things, and will try to clarify. 1. If I "really wanted to let it go or give it away", I wouldn't be here trying to save it, now, would I? :-) 2. Regarding temperature, "about 68" was an estimate. After reading your post, I went to another room and ripped an indoor thermometer off the wall and set it up by the Phal. It's currently 74 degrees right there (and 0 with 20 below windchills outside ... which is another reason the plant is moved 2 feet back from the window). It gets *warmer* at night (to the point that I personally, being a female of middle age , am tossing off sheets and sweating, because other family members crank up the thermostat. I'll stop complaining about the lack of sleep and wasted fuel for the sake of my Phalaenopsis from now on. ::grins::) Everything I've read online and in books, up till this forum, anyway, states that Phal's like normal household temperatures, and I've been trying to follow what the "pros" suggest, honestly. The book I have here in my lap (Orchids for Dummies by Steven A Frowine) states: "Moth orchids do well in medium to low light, similar to other houseplants like African violets. They also thrive in moderate humidity of 50 percent or so and average daytime temparatures of 70* F to 80* F during the day and about 65* F at night". Is none of this true? Even though I was apparently guessing too low at the 68* average temp, it seems that we're actually quite a bit warmer here than what Frowine suggests. And we have more light ... the only thing lacking is the humidity part. 3. It's not a "curtain". It's a "clear gauze" curtain ... more like a veil that filters the sunlight coming in through the *south* window, but it does let in the sun. One of those gauzey things some windows have "underneath" the curtains that filter the sun when you pull the actual curtains back to the side. It's actually the sunniest spot in the house. Outside of moving, I'm not sure how it can get more sunlight. To move it closer to the window would subject it to cold, and when the leaf was sunburned, I'm fairly sure it actually was sunburned ... it felt hot, and developed a clear spot in the center that turned black. We had a very warm December and January, and it was getting quite hot in that spot. The reason it's been "dark" currently is that this is upstate NY and it's early March and most of our days have been overcast. There's some sun today, however, for a change. I've put in my bid for more sunshine with the universe ;-) -- haven't gotten a reply yet. I'll try to set up more artificial light there for it, though, at your suggestion. I've met resistance from the gentleman who shares this room with me on previous suggestions of that course of action, but perhaps hearing that an expert suggested more light will shift the line of thinking. 4. "About twice a week" means that I stick my finger into the growing medium and water when it feels dry -- which in this case turns out to be "about twice a week". I do know that the room is low in humidity ... thus the misting in the mornings, the air's very dry here. There does seem to be a great deal of confusion out there as far as information for beginners. Misting in the mornings was the advice of an orchid care website, on the topic of a room that had very low humidity. Have I been wrong to do this? I honestly don't recall which website at this point ... I've read so many of them in effort to help this one plant. 5. As I said above, I checked the roots this morning, there is no rot. There *was* rot due to the way the florist originally potted the plant, but that was eliminated in December when I repotted in orchid mix. I had it out of the mix this morning (for the first time since repotting) and though there is no new root growth under the surface, there is no rot, and what "old" roots are there are completely dry. The roots that were still living (two halfway decent sized ones) after the thing was first hit by the rot earlier on look pretty much the same as they did back then ... still green/living tissue there, though perhaps not the healthiest roots on the planet. But no rot ... the plant's not being over watered. If anything, it's too dry. 6. As mentioned, there are two tiny buds growing from the base of the plant (see the photos in my blog, above) that I believe are new roots starting, at long last. So, though the leaves are suffering, the roots seem to be trying to make a comeback. Anyway, I'll do my best to implement as many of your suggestions as I can, and I do appreciate that you've taken time to help me. I truly do wish to save this plant, and in fact fell in love with it, despite its problems, and would love to "get good enough at this" to have more Phals in the future. Thank you!

Mere, glad to read the good news. I know you have to be stressed about the whole situation, how could you not be? I doubt you are the 1st to need a cool cloth; anyone having to have a biopsy would be stressed. I would think that anyone with a family history; well all the more stress. To go in for a procedure to see if it registers the "big C" well that in itself would make anyone puke. Now that I can put off the actual surgery I probably will till after that. It depends on what all it involves and recuperation, really. It can't be much, so we'll see. Did you ever get to check out the cure magazine site? I wonder if you have other options. I remember reading about one breast cancer study where they were given a drug that worked. Might be worth the time to look into. The article would have been from the time dad was sick - July 2005 to January 2006. I seem to remember it as a fall issue - so Fall 2005. I might still have it but it's packed in a rubbermade with dad's stuff.

Late to the check-in. Every few years I seem to have gained a "few" pounds and then have an epiphany and get back on track to lose it. This time around I had my epiphany in December instead of January and got started one week when DH was out of town - easier to cut back on eating when he isn't here. I increased exercise, cut back on food and lost about four pounds. I thought it would be a struggle to maintain this through a couple holiday feeding frenzy events but forged ahead anyway. I think I might have done okay - maintained without losing more - but for falling on my knee the Saturday before Christmas on my way to one of the feeding frenzies. I really bruised the underside of my patella and couldn't do anything requiring bending my knee with pressure or weight on it. Since I only have one real leg (and one prosthetic leg) this precluded any of the exercise I usually do. I could barely go up and down the stairs in the house, get up from the floor, etc. I had one more weekend food fest in early January but I'm finally back on track and re-lost the four lbs again. I let the knee heal for four weeks so this weekend is my first time back to exercise and it's great. I thought I didn't like exercise but I really missed it and was very happy to get back to it this weekend so I guess I like it more than I thought. Now my latest healthy improvement is to cut back on sugar free soda which I love. I drink water only at work but all bets are off after that. I really don't like water except for Dasani so I'm substituting that for soda. I think it's ridiculous to buy water but I like the taste of that brand and we have a whole house water softener so I don't really like drinking large volumes of that water with extra sodium. It tastes fine but since I'm prone to HBP I think it best not to consume a lot of it.