The original plant might well have only been one plant: Marantas use subterranean runners to produce new shoots above ground, so three shoots in a pot might (or might not) all be connected below the soil. For what it's worth. Miracle Gro soil is too heavy to use for most houseplants. It holds water for a long time, and then turns into an unwettable brick if it gets dried out; both extremes are bad for the plant. (Too wet and it rots, too dry and it can't easily be watered again.) If you have to use it, mix it with perlite or vermiculite, but it's better to get a bagged potting soil which is mostly composted bark. Ball makes one I like a lot, but there are others. Avoid anything that says or includes topsoil: it will have the same bad qualities as Miracle Gro. Also, yes, moving a plant from 2" to 8" in one go is too much. You probably actually want a 4" plastic one. Too big of a pot will prevent oxygen from getting to the roots when they need it, and lead to root rot. The faded color on the couple leaves is probably due to sunburn. It's not really reversible, but I wouldn't cut them off yet either. The browned leaves and leaf edges is most likely because of too much heat or not enough humidity. I doubt there was any actual disease going on; it sounds like a fairly straightforward case of too hot / too bright / too dry. I would repot the plant as soon as possible into a better soil mix and a smaller pot. Your instincts are right about the humidity, though I've tried placing plants close to a fish tank for humidity before and not had it work out particularly well. (It's still better than nothing.) I'm not a huge fan of misting, either; I don't think it lasts long enough to be terribly useful. A humidifier might be less trouble in the long run, or you could try moving the plant to a bright (no sun) spot in a humid room, like a bathroom or near a kitchen sink. I've had good luck with raising some humidity-loving plants (including Maranta) in a bathroom, with a fluorescent light as the only source of light. It's a little extra trouble, but if you move your plant to the shower or to a kitchen sink sprayer when you water, you won't have to worry about fluoride or chlorine. Most people water with a watering can and don't dump out any water that flows out of the pot. This means that when the water evaporates or is taken up by the plant, any minerals dissolved in the water stay behind, including fluoride. Over time, this build up can harm plants. If you're watering thoroughly from overhead every time and don't make the plant stand in its drainage water, the minerals can flow through the soil, and don't get a chance to build up. Jeannie is correct that you don't want to use softened water, which contains enough sodium to cause problems even if it doesn't build up in the soil.

Been there and done that with my daughter when she was nine. She developed a tummy ache in school. We didn't have a car available, so she had to walk the 1/2 mile home in pain. I really didn't think it was anything more than something she ate, but it just kept getting worse. I wasn't able to get her into a doctor till that evening, when their emergency clinic was open. He had her jump up and down and tell him if it hurt. That was how he decided she needed to go to the hospital. They actually had her do that there, too. She was in so much pain I had to carry her, and they had her jumping up and down. Turned out her appendix was ruptured, also. The luckiest thing about this was it happened a few weeks after my DH was laid off, but before his insurance ran out, so we were covered. A month later, and we would have been in real trouble. She recovered nicely, but had to take some huge antibiotic pills that they said had to be taken whole. No way. They were bigger than she was. (She's always been very, very tiny) We had to break them in half, and still they were big for her. Bobbi, you and your son are in my thoughts and prayers. He'll be out of there in no time, and feelling much better, I'm sure. Hang in there. Sally

Again, thank you everyone for all the prayers and positive thoughts. Yesterday we spent the day salvaging as much as possible. Lots of photos, my mom seems to have a gazillion, and we're not throwing out any. All the furniture has been trashed as well as the carpeting. We'll try and save the washer and dryer but the other appliances are all gone. The beds, couches, tv's, small kitchen appliances, just too much to remember everything although we are trying to keep inventory. Today was spent pulling out the last of the carpets, sweeping mud out of all the rooms, washing most of the stuff in the kitchen and doing a million loads of laundry at the laundromat. We've got some contractors in who will work through the night to pull out dry wall up to a foot above the water line which was at about 4 feet. They'll be removing all the insulation from the walls as well. Cleanup has been reasonable easy because we were lucky enough to have a lot of help from the local South African and Jewish communities as well as from total strangers. I can't thank enough the people who are helping total strangers, the 10 yr old who gave lunch (an apple, bag of chips, sandwich and homemade cookie) to anyone who wanted one and she had about 100 sandwiches she'd made, the adults who walked up to you and asked what they could do to help or the elderly couple handing out ice water from their grandchild's wagon. My mom's car has been officially written off and it's covered by insurance which is a good thing because almost no-one here, including my family, has flood insurance. FEMA is coming in tomorrow to do an assessment. Laurie, thanks for the links. Thanks to all of you I think we got in early on that one. We're staying with friends n Horseshoe bend which is upriver a bit. Here's a link to see the floods both in Horseshoe bend and River Plantation: http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/category.asp?C=125220&clipId=4751432&flvUri=&partnerclipid=&topVideoCatNo=0amp;autoStart=true&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=flv When you see River Plantation, look how high the water came up, almost to the carport roofs. The lower houses in Horseshoe bend were almost half way up the first floor. There are dumpsters everywhere in HSB and driving down Sawyer Brown Rd is like driving between two trash levees 10 ft high and 15 feet wide all made of trash...furniture, lumber, carpets, dry wall, insulation, toys, clothing. It is the saddest thing I have ever seen. These are my pictures: http://s140.photobucket.com/albums/r26/LaniKaye221/Nashville%20floods/ Please continue to pray.

I hope she continues to improve. As a vet, I am very careful to give every patient a thorough risk assessment and vaccinate only for those diseases that show high risk. Even so, I still have had a few vaccine reactions. The risk of reaction needs to be less than the risk of actually contracting the disease. I never vaccinate indoor only cats for FeLV, and after a year of age I don't even vaccinate the outdoor kitties for it either. OTOH, any dog who gets groomed or boarded on a regular basis keeps the bordetella vaccine updated every 6 months. Which rabies vaccine was used in Bindi? The recombinant rabies vaccine is considered safer than the killed vaccine because of the addition of adjuvents in the killed vaccine. I am just curious because currently the hospital where I work has only the killed rabies vaccine, and I am pushing to get the recombinant one for cats.