Hi Jen, I didn't know you wanted to grow slipper gloxes. I have had them on and off for years. The best way to get them is to grow them from seed. That was how I started with gloxinias back in the early 70's. My mom got a packet of Tigrida strain gloxinias as the free packet with an order from Parks. She grew them and had about 70 pots (these weren't slipper types though). So, after the summer, she boxed up the tubers from Chicago and mailed them to me in Berkeley. At the time I had greenhouse access at the university, so I, quite the neophyte, potted them up and put them on the benches to sell. They sprouted from the tubers and also grew very well from broken leaves or crowns. So, I did sell a few, driving around to a few plant stores, but mostly I grew them and eventually took them home. I don't have any of those originals now, though I think I might have some plants that still have some tigrida in them. Anyway, the slipper form is the orginal species form of speciosa. Sometime in the late 19th century, the peloric form was discovered and hybrids have emphasized this form ever since. But, all along, there were slipper gloxinias still being grown. They just sort of died out in the trade. AGGS does have quite a few different strains of Florist Gloxinias or natural collections of Sinningia speciosa that are slipper form. All of the natural forms of speciosa are slipper types and then there are the ones Komi mentioned. Plus the 'California Mini's' are a dwarf strain that contains both slippers, semi-pelorics and peloric small growing gloxinias. One of the parents of this strain is a very nice mini slipper with very dark purple flowers, called 'Elvira', which I still have. In fact I just found the plant outside on Friday. It is quite small, having survived outdoors all winter. But, I will put down leaves pronto! I have been doing a poor job with my speciosas for a long time. But, I will look around and see what's still alive and get cuttings down for you. From seed, you can have blooming plants in as little as six months. All parts of the plant will propagate from cuttings very easily, and seed is very easy to set. They are propagating fools. Jon

The problem is nobody has to spend their money with you, attracting the favor of their custom might be impacted adversely. Ornamental plants is a frivolous expenditure. With taxes, insurance and other obligations seeming unavoidable shoppers aren't likely to appreciate encountering an attitude from nurseries. There are methods being used to identify those who bounce checks etc. When you open for business you have to deal with everybody who pops up and what they might be about, that's just the way it is. The alternative is you are mostly ignored and go out of business - a common experience. A big part of it is a lack of general interest in specialty or unfamiliar goods, for instance I drive by a small Greek "bistro" and a pizza joint next to each other as part of my regular travels. Saturday night the parking lot at the pizza place was bursting, next door there was not one car. Especially if you want to appeal to a niche market you have to shout you are there and may have to bend over backwards to serve those who do respond, rather than try to attach red flags to some of them.

Ken: Just forgot to mention that the price we are paying also includes a full landscape design (his wife, conveniently, is a landscape designer). My architect is also helping with color and materials and is designing some of the interior spaces (at least anything that is attached to the house surfaces). He built us a full model of the house so we could see it when we came to see him in August. So all of the above is reflected in the total price. We started in January with him from scratch. We had no idea what we wanted other than an active solar home with European styling. It has been a rather long process as the architect we are using lives near our new home rather than here. (12 hour drive away) So a lot of this design process has had to take place by phone and email. When we did visit with him several times, we ended up being there half a day to cover everything. I will say that he really listens to everything we like and has incorporated it into our design trying to remain with in certain restraints. I am very happy with what he has come up with. Just hope it works as well as it looks on paper! My DH didn't really look at plans well until mid summer after several drafts and we had to do additional changes in August before our last visit. I could have killed him for waiting so long to really look at everything. I am sure that bumped our price up as our architect had to redo a good portion of the design. We are at the point now where our architect has submitted our plans to one builder for an approximate estimate. We asked him to wait until we get the estimate before sending the plans out to a structural engineer who will be finishing them up to blue print format. At this point we are waiting to see how much we will need to spend to build our dream home. In the meantime, I am getting this house ready to go on the market this coming spring. We hope to sell this house first, if possible, move down there and rent another one while it is being built. That way we will have a better idea of how much money we will have to build it. DH may still have to travel back and forth here for a year until he retires. Just hoping our real estate market doesn't tank before then. We have a certain amount that we would like on this home. If not, we will wait until the market gets better and build a few years from now. We already own the land and do not have to build in any frame of time.

Susie the bathroom does not exist yet lol! It will be rather small though, which is actually a good thing because I’d rather buy less tile & get something of high quality. It will be going on our second floor once we finish dormering our cape. All I know for sure is: * I’m planning on a larger shower in lieu of a tub. Unless UTIs suddenly become less terrible, I won’t be taking any baths anyway. Plus we have one downstairs. * I’m planning on floor to ceiling glass doors in the shower. * I kind of want a skylight? Is that crazy? * No subway tile (unless it barely resembles subway tile like in the examples below). Typical subway tile is too uniform for my taste. I think I prefer my tile to have more individual character. * I’d like some natural stone because I think it’s pretty & timeless. However somebody here mentioned it’s hard to take care of and that is a totally legitimate concern that I haven‘t considered. * I’m really trying to avoid anything trendy but I also really dig zellige tiles so I guess I’m planning on breaking my own rules. * Ideally I’d like to stay with “natural” colors. Warmer whites, maybe black?, stone, maybe like a light sage green (used sparingly) * None of that ”all grey farmhouse” nonsense that’s taken over New Jersey. I’ve incorporated a lot of warmth into my home in protest of this dying trend. * I don’t have the guts to use a patterned tile : / and perhaps most importantly: * I like mixing texture & finish- hence the interest in zellige tile