FPT. It's too bad your marginata had/s Scale. Unless your other plants have bugs, scale/eggs were probably on the plant when purchased. BTW, did you isolate your marginata? I don't know if you want to spend time ridding scale, return or replace with variegated marginata. ???? People here have different methods ridding insects. Some work, some do not. There are two things I do to prevent/kill insects. I dislike chemicals, avoid using as much as possible. Therefore, my plants are sprayed w/a home-made insecticide. Since your plant has scale, I'll explain what I do to rid and avoid those brats! lol Did you ever hear of Fish Emulsion? FE is an organic fertilizer, high in N. It also works, as an insecticide, by spraying foliage. Kills Scale, big time. The owner of a Citrus Nursery in FL once told me they spray their trees w/FE as a Scale preventative. Because my plants never had scale, I half-listened. lol. Then, in 1999, I ordered an Olive Tree. On Day 2 while misting plants, I noticed a brown bump on an olive leaf. I approached the Olive, and discovered, not one, but hundreds of brown bumps. That's when it hit me...SCALE! I immediately phoned the Citrus nursery owner, asking the proper dossage of FE and water. (BTW, olive was purchased elsewhere.) She said, one capful of FE to approximately 16oz water. I mixed FE and water in a 16oz spray bottle, shook thoroughly and sprayed away. 1-2 days later, all signs of scale were gone. A week or two later, 'can't recall,' I applied a second application. FPT, I swear to God, since that day, my plants never contrated scale again. Ever. 2. Every 2-wks during winter, my plants are sprayed w/natural ingredients such as garlic, hot pepper, citrus rind and a few other things. Once a month FE is added to other ingredients, then sprayed. Works like a charm. Forgot to mention. The Olive tree sat between two Citrus trees. Citrus closest branches were loaded w/scale. The morning I sprayed olive tree, neighboring plants were entirely sprayed, too. Can't hurt, right? And, while spraying leaves to rid insects, the plant is also foliar fertilized. The only con about FE is an odor. It has a fishy smell that lasts 2-3 days indoors. There is an odor-less type, but I've never used it so can't comment. Fish Emulsion cost is about 7.99 for a 32oz bottle. Good luck, Toni

I have attempted to allow all to come and speak civily. If I have done nothing else. Yes I can send out what I recieve and I can even take from everyone else the information they give because it dose make for my benefit as well as dose my information for some. If I held every answer in the book I would not have come to this forum or to any other forum to ask questions or to simply make a statement of my experiance, be it with tomatoes or with a tree. As to those un named who simply can not see past thier own actions in conversations. I post for those who want to try and work as a community here through the true exchange of ideas not through arrogance . that hostility towards new or old ideas and methods makes any thread of knowledge mute to others. I have seen over my fifty years thousands of crops and gardens lost to blights late freezes or other factors including droughts. so Is it a gamble every year you plant? you bet ya. but as gardeners and farmers we go out every year and plant our gardens and fields. and we wait and we harvest from our toils. Is my way the only way out there as we can plainly see it is not. dose it make me a better gardener or farmer if I make no effort to allow others to give to me knowledge of some kind towards a different idea in gardening no it dose not. But to jump up and treat people the way I have been treated by some in this post may amuse some but with it comes the loss to others who really are thirsting for knowledge. to that end for those who really want a civil conversation please feel free to have one. and please do use the almanac to get if not just the basics for those new to gardening but to those here who truely have the ability to give thier views with out malice. because the only thing I learned from most of you here is you have grown too set in your ways to let in information even if it was just part of what was given in total. I was asked to introduce my self several times and did so including where i live and my experiances including in many of the areas of you here in this post. but instead I recieve a continual out pouring of arrogance from those just wanting to see just how far they can push some one. I can bark back or I can set back and listen to ideas and pick up some new methods including those that may infact make me wonder. If the way you grow your crop works for you by all means share it. it may make some one else actually have a crop or garden that has exceptional yields we as gardeners and farmers pray for three things an early spring with out a freeze, plenty of water, and a great harvest season- long and fruitful. We as a group need to stop the nonsence and try to reach for those goals instead.

Glad to hear the good news. I totally get the heart-stopping feeling. When my now 4 1/2 year old twin grandsons were born at 36 weeks, one spent 1 week in the NICU then another week in the step-down unit. The other twin had blood and bilirubin issues and spent 2 weeks in the NICU, where they performed a total blood transfusion at 8 days old, then 2 weeks in the step-down and then we spent the next year running back and forth to hematologists and pulmonologists. The poor baby was a pincushion. Thank goodness that's behind us and they're both getting ready to start kindergarten this fall. Helene

Hey Love! It's good to hear from you and I'm really happy that overall things have been going so well. You must have been working very hard to get to the 95% disengaged and that is just great news. UGH to the storms. SS is terrified of tornadoes too, and they are not that much of a threat here because of the terrain. (We do have them, but they generally only hit four or five houses at a time, hop back up into the clouds, back down again - not like the areas where they leave a path of destruction for a mile.) We had one here about a month ago; I set SS a task of calming and explaining to one of the pets what was going on (pets all being in the cellar with us). So SS (as I'd hoped) told the pet all of the stuff I've told him - even if funnel cloud comes down it doesn't mean it's going to hit our house, even if it does it's likely to just take off roof or something and we'll fix it, even if it destroys most of the house we'll be safe in the cellar and we have insurance for everything else. It really seemed to help calm him - the more he repeated it to the pet the more he seemed to believe it himself. (We were fine- we had hail larger than golf balls so I was a bit concerned myself that time!) I think some parents do that because they don't have any friends. If I heard a scary noise, if I were hiding in the cellar because of a tornado warning, I'd call or text a friend for encouragement - not a kid! Great, kid can worry about me, but I'd prefer an adult who can see on the news that tornado hit my area and if I don't answer, can drive over to check on me. Does DH get along well with the teacher? Maybe they can both tag-team BM - teacher can tell BM that she's really hoping to be able to talk reason to her since DH doesn't seem to "get it", how important summer school is for SS, how teacher is optimistic that the child's mother (unlike his father) can understand that.....if BM thinks she's putting something over on DH she'll do it in a heartbeat. :-)