The round tags that the "big guys" generally use represent licensing fees paid for propagation rights for exactly the number of tags purchased. In other words, if Certified Roses wants to grow and sell 1000 bushes of "Easy Does It," it pays the licensing fee for 1000 plants to Weeks (who owns the rights in the U.S), gets propagation materials for that quantity and 1000 tags indicating that the licensing fees were paid for each such newly propagated plant. Those round metal tags are how the "big guys" make sure they've been paid their licensing fees. Namely, if a plant they are due licensing fees on shows up in a market without those tags, the propagators can be tracked down and made to pay the fees. Kathy p.s. They were selling the tags in your link for $.99 at the 99 Cents Only stores, i.e. 50 tags for a buck, last year. I bought a whole bunch of packages of those, and that's what I use now.

Here's a little geology for anyone interested--more in-depth than necessary, but kind of neat I think: The group of minerals to which vermiculite and the various micas belong, the phyllosilicates (or clay minerals), is interesting. There are two basic components: the SiOâ tetrahedra (T) and the XOâ or X(OH)â octahedra (O), in which X is a cation, usually Al or Mg. In a mica, two T layers surround an O layer, forming a sandwich, and multiple sandwiches are bonded by interlayer cations. I think it's reasonable to think of micas and chlorites (very similar structure) as "complete" phyllosilicates, composed of repetitions of the entire T-O-T/interlayer cation sequence. They form in metamorphic and cooler igneous environments, and are moderately unstable at surface conditions, so they weather into other clay minerals. Clay minerals can sort of be lined up according to how much of the T-O-T/interlayer cation sequence is still intact; some minerals are T-O-T with no interlayer cations; some are T-O; some are just O. Depending on the exact structure remaining, it is possible for some of these minerals to capture water molecules and expand, or to hold onto varying amounts of nutrients in the form of cations. Contrary to what demeter said above, vermiculite does not break into sheets of mica; mica weathers to vermiculite. Vermiculite can bond to water, whether it has been flaked into smaller pieces or not, because the bonding takes place at the molecular level. The people who said mica are probably correct. It's not just that it's shiny, but also that if it's a phyllosilicate and you can see individual grains of it easily, there is a good chance it's mica, because when it weathers to other minerals, the grain size tends to get microscopically small. Someone above also mentioned shale particles: shale is composed largely of clay minerals, including some micas, but in my experience, the micas flake off of the rest of the rock very easily so any shiny flakes in the soil may be mica that came out of a shale, but are probably not technically fragments of shale.

Hi Atelier! The horus samples arrived today!! Wow are they gorgeous!!! Both DH and I loved the cristalli the most. Love the uneven lines and the gorgeous crackle. Unfortunately, the lightest of the whites isn't white enough. It's practically identical to my soft white shiloh cabinets, and i dont expect that will change even when they are up on the walls. I think we will likely go with the Horus broadway in latte. The color is perfect. Will still have to track down a Cobsa in a soft white but I think it will be hard to beat $7.50/sq ft Any other suggestions to check out? Cannot thank you enough for your help!!!

Fabulous paintings! Whenever I have to hang several pieces, I cut out large pieces of paper in the exact size and tape them up. I can re-arrange them w/o damaging the walls. When I get the placement right, if I'm still not sure, I take a photo and Photoshop the artwork in just to be sure. (If you don't have good photoshop skills, come back to us and somebody will probably jump in and do it for you -- maybe me, if I happen to be around at the time.) Once I'm really sure about placement, I stick a tack through the paper were the wall hook should go, and tear the paper down.