hi. I have bought two alocasias zebrinas in one pot, and one amaznica, and all three have been on their way out ever since I bought them. I couldn't for the life of me figure out when to water them, each time I watered them, they would start to cry, so i assumed that meant they want less water, but either way, leaves were yellowing, and all three ended up with no leaves at all. I'm not exaggerating, not a single leaf was left among three of them so I dug them out of the soil, and I got some clay balls, they sort of look like what americans call leca, just smaller and less round, so it may be some other brand of the same thing, or another thing entirely. we don't have leca as such in serbia, and when I bought this, the seller insisted it was not "expanded clay" so, I don't know, I bought it with intention to use it as leca, and it behaves like leca, so I'm sure you can achieve the same thing with leca the important thing with leca to remember, is to use jars with wide opening, no narrowing of any kind, or you'll have to break the container to get them out. and you want to use glass, as it's transparent so, I popped all of the main roots, as well the little bobs of new roots that were growing out of it, and I put them in glass jars, in that pretend leca, and kept watering them. The idea with this method is that you can see how much water there is, and you don't have to guess. you want root to have access to water, but also to have access to air, which is really hard to achieve in soil, but really easy in leca or similar substrate. you just water it to the top, and then wait till all of water is gone to water again. no guessing required. since then, my amazonica grew one leaf, it's not the prettiest leaf ever, it's bent, but it's there, and one zebrina has one leaf, the other one has two, and one of the small roots sprouted a new tiny leaf. so, zebrina looks much better cause both roots are in the same jar, and it has way more leaves than amazonica, but important thing is that they're back to life from having no leaves at all I can also see that most of the little rootlets on amazonica have some growth, but nothing reached the surface yet of course, in my case, roots were healthy and in your not so much, so I'd advise to get them out of the soil and search if there are little baby roots you could use, that may not be rotten. I have seen a guy cut up a rotten part of the root, on tiktok, but I don't remember if he later confirmed if it worked. it does seem like at this point you have very little choice. you could not cut the root (I'm highly suspicious that would work anyway) and just pull it out of soil and clean it with 3% hydrogen and sprinkle with cinnamon, as those might stop the infection, and let the whole thing dry out but not dry up, and then try with leca. if it works great, if it doesn't, it just means you were too late. I know for sure that next time I get an alocasia, it's going straight into clay and no soil for it. I have yet to figure out how to fertilize it tho oh yeah, the leca thing, I saw a girl on youtube talk about starting new plants from those rootlets, and she tried all kinds of things, and had best success with leca, that's why I tried that, I was like "well, it's either dead or I will kill it so I might as well try this" and it worked wonders, so to all who struggle, you can try it, and you can try to find her video, maybe she has some more info I forgot about

Jerome - sorry, but I have never seen Miss Atwood. I have 3 plants of Anna Olivier, however, and that is one of my most favorite roses. Here in the SF Bay Area (we are about 6 blocks from the Bay, but miles from the Ocean) it is very healthy. It blooms continuously, starting its first Spring flush right now, and we had blooms through January. One of my plants is the old old original one - it is in a thicket of large bushes, growing under a huge old privet tree. Nonetheless, it blooms and blooms. So, I would say it is happy in partial shade or direct sun. The one in the sun blooms more, of course. It is a gorgeous color - usually buff with a sort of brick/dark pink reverse on the outer petals. Sometimes the blossoms come out 100% very pale yellow, or pink, but most of them are the buff color. The one I have climbing on our porch is about 9 feet tall, but I think it would get taller if I let it. It grows right next to our driveway, and so I have to prune it to keep it out of the way of the cars, and it does not seem to mind at all. Please let us know how Miss Atwood does when she gets bigger - the pictures of that one on HMF were beautiful. jackie

Ann, thanks so much for the rose wisdom you spread; I've learned so much from your postings. I hope you have a wonderful birthday and as my small contribution, here is perle d'or, one of my favorite roses. Its beauty is displayed through its generosity of bloom and subtlety of color, its toughness and grace of form.

I teach elementary school aged cooking classes--have for over 20 years. I can assure you, you're going to be a very frustrated young woman you combine 5 year olds and 10 year olds. That's just too great a span for a group--especially with the number of kids you plan to invite. I find that a range of K and 1st is about as great as you can manage for little ones, although you can group grades 2-5 pretty well. Go beyond those groupings, though, and the little ones are lost or the older ones are just bored stiff while you do age-appropriate things with the little guys. If do decide to go through with this party as you've outlined, I can only heartily suggest that you basically run it as 2 separate, simultaneous parties and have at least 3 adults running the activities for the little ones, at least 2 for the older kids, with another 2 adults taking care of the food, another 1-2 doing potty runs, at least 2 doing clean-up detail, and another extra person or 2 who can help out where needed. Any less than that and you're going to have complete and utter chaos. Alternatively, could you maybe have the little guys from 12-1:30 (and serve an easy lunch) and the older kids from 2-4? Then the family members could just stay for both parties, but you could send the neighborhood kids/school chums home? Might help keep the numbers more workable. Next on your list, you have to have loads of age-appropriate activities planned. That means that you need one group of activities for the little ones, and another group for the older kids. Figure on changing activities at least every 10 minutes for the little guys, and every 15 for the bigger ones. And assume that you'll need at least twice as many activities as you think will fit into the time alloted--LOL (they always get done way, way faster than you think they will). If you want to do science experiments for the older kids, there are lots of kitchen science books. You might be able to find some in your library. The book Cooking Wizardry for Kids is an exceptional kids' cookbook that combines recipes, food lore and kitchen science. A little pricey, but a great resource to have for your children to use at home. The nice thing about kitchen science experiments is that they usually use inexpensive, common household items, AND that they teach everyday science lessons that are important in daily life. Has your son done the mild experiment? Put about 1/4" of milk in a flat bowl. Drop one drop of red food coloring, one of blue, one of yellow equally spaced around the outside edge of the bowl. Then drop 2-3 drops of dish detergent into the center and watch what happens. I did this for the neighborhood kids for our Harry Potter Party this summer and called it a 'pensieve', but it's really just a science experiment that shows how detergent works--it is fun to watch, though. Whatever you decide, good luck and have fun.