Hi Norma, This IS the Sans. forum, maybe you've been posting in several other different places? (I've sometimes mistaken which forum I was on at the time after making multiple posts in different places in a short time span.) Mike, W/ her illness, maybe she's not up for anything fancier or more demanding than the basics. I'd stick to basic Sans. first & see how she does w/ them. Just cause they're not fancy or 'unique' doesn't mean they can't be beautiful. I collect any & all that I run across. Some basic, some fancy, but I hate the yellow stripe of the common one, so of the 10+ different Sans. I have, NONE have a yellow stripe. Perhaps start out easy & try to collect any & all you can find locally first. The short, squat Hahnii types can be tricker, I find them to be more sensitive to overwatering than the regular & I have stopped trying to grow these after killing a few. Why not start by giving her just a couple of them & see how she does w/ them? Hi Penguin, Perhaps consider starting a separate thread asking info. on importing Sans. from Thailand, the Cytes/permits info. you'd likely need, etc. Am guessing the International Sans. Society would be a good place to ask about this; they likely already have some knowledge/experience about it.

I am surprised 'Ploughmen's' lunches are so popular in London, especially when you consider the lack of agriculture in the area . . . although my late Mother could remember sheep grazing in Hyde Park and it is possible to see horses being exercised in Rotten Row. Mary, a TV ad. claimes that more cider is being drunk in the UK these days, but it's from an Irish co. that produces the stuff. In this neck-of-the-woods they make a local 'rip-gut' variety; powerful strong. There should be a better choice of beer/ale about these days, other than the dreaded Watney's Red Barrel that used to dominate the market some years ago. Britrail passes are still available but you may need a second mortgage to travel by train. Travellers are in the ridiculous situation of using trains to get away from the over-crowded roads, only to find there are not nearly enough seats, especially for peak-time journeys. The rail co's increase the fares partly to put people off from this method of travelling, plus general greed and claims to spend the extra cash on 'upgrading' the service. Still the best way of seeing the country IMO. An elderly US Aunt always uses the train when over her . . .often going in totally the wrong direction . . . and has made endless 'friends' on these journeys. Here is a link that might be useful: Britrail passes

Not really. Most of mine were in their default peat, or some low quality mix. I had haworthia blooming on a regular basis. Gave them away though. Some aloes too. Even have the atttenuata in flower spike as we speak(i kept that one).... Some aloes bloomed as well, but mostly small species... Crassulaceae (echeverias) also bloomed a lot. A few sedums and crassulas as well. But now, i have more semps blooming outside. They like the shadier, cooler balcony better...

@lyfia that is is an important question. But the real alternative to roots would be concrete settling. That has a much different cracking pattern. The concrete tends to collapse down at the cracking point because the ground underneath has settled. In my case, the concrete is rising on either side of the cracks. If you follow rising earth throughout the garden, it really looks like a surface-level root that is only within two feet of the soil surface, traveling its way across the patio. A key question for me is do Redwood tree roots rise up to a water source or do they stay at five to six feet and let gravity bring the water down to the roots? I am starting to think I need to look at other trees in the garden and look for a tree whose rooting habit has very shallow roots. One thing that might be going on here is that the concrete patio might be trapping water underneath. The patio might, therefore, be a real target for tree roots. Perhaps replacing the concrete with a paver design would allow that area to dry out much better.