pk93 the bloom on your paph is typical of one just beginning to open, not declining. When they decline, they just fall off and still are plump and pretty. If it is going to blast early, the stem holding the bloom starts to shrivel right in the area just below the bud. A paph wants to be damp all the time but not soggy and they do need air around the roots so good drainage is important. The healthy roots do take on the color of the media and if actively growing, the tips are white. If the tips aren't white but still firm, they are still good roots and feed the plant. Paph roots will not divide and are naturally "hairy". Hopefully your leaves will rehydrate and the bloom will continue. If you lose the first bloom, the second bloom could still survive. If this happens, you should be arrested for stealing from Lowes but we won't tell :>) Brooke

My digital camera has low resolution, but i can set it to take various sized shots. I take very large pictures, then I use the photo program to compress them by taking them down in size. For example, the photo in the camera may say 1600 pixels but I bring it down to 300 pixels. That gives excellent photo quality on my little old thing. Happy Christmas Vera. Sorry you've gotta wait until spring now to snap photos of your garden!! Santa came to me today. He brought a new computer, new (refurbished) lap top, new scanner, TWO extra hard drives (I use up a lotta space with all this garden stuff), extra speed, DSL and wireless to be hooked up hopefully next weekend thanks to Santa's elf! I can't wait to be zooming around the gardening stratophere at the speed of light. NO MORE DIAL-UP!! GGG

Thanks for the nice comments, everyone, lots of my friends and friends-to-be (I hope) showed up here. It made me sad to pick those last flowers. I named my photo Late Fall Flowers from a Chekhov short story that had a very sad ending, but the title grabbed me. Thanks for the reassurance that that echinacea will come back. There are several more volunteers out there. The yellow bloomed well enough but bugs chewed the petals this year so they were a wash this summer. For yellow, Bluestone has a prettier version with what looks like wider petals. Harvest Moon is skinny, and I didn't like it, but it makes for some variation and looks well with C. Rooguchi nearby. A few words about Charlotte. It's an Austin rose, it's one of a pair I have way in front with lots of sun, grafted if you know how it works with roses, got it from Pickering in Canada. I've had very poor luck with most of the others. Charlotte blooms nearly nonstop from as soon as they start in early June until past the first frost, beautiful cup shaped blooms, first flush loaded with clusters is the best. Roses just take more fussing than I have patience for so I'm getting rid of them except for Char and a couple others. The Jap beetles ruin it all for me, had to keep Char disbudded during that whole time, a darn shame, and they stayed late this year, and I still had to pick them off the leaves. But when they swarm in those blooms, it makes me sick to my stomach to see it so cut all the buds off to spare myself any more of that. Some they don't bother much at all. The only downside of Char is the blooms fade in a couple days then shatter quickly. This year with all the rain, it got some kind of blight on the leaves, otherwise has been clean with no spraying. One more word about roses, I prefer own root from now on, but the grafting gives them a kick start, and it takes the own root a couple more years to catch up if they're going to. The ones that are hardy here die back to the ground, but Char makes a fast comeback in the spring once pruned, tidied up and fed. Perennials (and some scattered annuals) require far less fussing and are more satisfying overall, maybe a little Bloom Booster now and then and water when too dry. Nasturtiums are the only ones I won't grow because of aphids. We had a late September frost but most roses can tolerate the mild ones and just the most tender plants were taken by that. The ones that hug the ground are still warmed from that, and some are a little tougher. It's very weird for here to have anything blooming by yesterday, Dec 3, and I did nothing special except cover all my new delph plants with soda bottles, caps off. The other perennials some just seem to settle in and die back for winter without a frost. And the alyssum are prettier as ever this am, was supposed to get down to 27 last nite. It's kind of cheery as I need to go get some oil for the gas mix for the snowblower and be ready. Ugh. Not looking forward to it. Sorry I rambled. Again.

gibsona, I'm glad the pig arrived in one piece. I'm also glad my friend cathy's lovely little box arrived at its destination too - she is off on vacation in CA and we'll post her bank when she gets home. She's led our local art camp for about 12 years now, so doing it with the camp tile was a perfect choice for her. I got back from Italy in the wee hours of the morning and I just dropped in to see if it got to you --- now I'm off to the post office and pick up my bank!!