Yay! You have a 30 foot tree in your front yard - perfect! "Underneath is shady and covered in needles, though" - do not worry about that! I am in the No SF Bay area, so very similar climate to yours. I planted one of my MACs in FULL shade at the bottom of a large tree which was surrounded by at least 6 other trees, making a sort of small forest. All we did was plant the MAC about 3 feet away from the trunk (you will have to dig it a hole), and fed and watered it while it was still a baby. We just put some cord between it and the trunk of the tree. Within a few months it got the idea (in FULL shade still), and grew toward the tree. By the time it actually touched the tree, it sped up, and in another year had achieved the top of the tree. So, if you grow it on that tree you will NOT have to cut it back at all, or spray it either. Just make sure it gets water in our hot dry Summers, and it will take care of itself otherwise. Jackie

Cactus & Keiko, thanks, you have all reassured me that things are alright with my big baby. Cactus, I tried to not let it get below 55 on the cold nights, it usually stayed more like 68. I built a frame and double layered it with plastic dropcloths, then tucked a digital thermostatic control electric heater under there with it. I just had to be careful to turn off the heater and open the plastic on sunny days. I can tell my family thinks I'm a bit nuts to baby this plant like I do. They're more of a farming mentality than a gardening bunch. But this plant gives me so much joy in the summer that I think its worth it. When I got it from NSE, I was also skeptical about its small size. But I practically shoveled heat, light, and fertilizer down its 'throat' and it couldn't help but grow. My hubby would make comments related to that big plant from Little Shop of Horrors. "Feed Me!" I have a small koi pond. When I do water changes and filter cleaning, I water my plants with that water. All the sludge from the bottom of the filter box would go directly on top of the borneo's soil. Yum-Yum! Keiko, I hope its trying to make a baby! It made 2 babies last year, one of which I traded to another gardening friend. I hope it will get even bigger this year because its starting with a huge bulb, wheras last spring there was hardly a bulb at all. I'll go right now and mound up some yummy stuff around the bulb. I was a little worried about the effects of bright direct sunlight on it. Again, thanks!

Interesting question! We need to find someone with a copy of the Combined Rose List to check on the "official" spelling for you. As far as the liquor itself is concerned, he general rule is that whiskies from Scotland and Canada are spelled "whisky," while those from Ireland are spelled "whiskey." Whiskies from the United States generally carry the "e" also, but not always. Since the cocktail known as a Whisky Mac uses Scotch, it probably SHOULD be spelled without the "e." Then again, the rose is German (bred by Tantau), so the original name might be completely different!

I agree with homepro01 regarding Geek Squad. Years ago Best Buy had a really good computer repair department. However, with the establishment of the Geek Squad, all of their good repairmen were left without a job at Best Geek Squad employees are barely knowledgeable. Don't take a good computer to them. Don't even take a bad computer to them. Sheeisback, Apple does occasionally have a virus; but few and far between. My granddaughters have had Apple laptops and iPhones for years and have never had a virus. I finally just got a MacBook Pro laptop. The main reason is the practically virus-free aspect. I have lost everything on Window computers three times due to viruses and decided No More. So, I am learning the Apple, too. I am also keeping my Windows 10 desktop, but will put all of my important stuff on the Apple. Also plan on purchasing an external drive for the Apple to put items on. That way if there is a virus and the external drive is not connected, material will not be lost. I do have an external drive for my desktop, but when this last virus hit, it was connected via USB, so the virus hit the external drive, too. Learned a valuable lesson. Good luck with your new computer. Here is a link with a forum concerning the Mac OS: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/ Thought I had another good link, but can't locate it right now.