Your exposure sounds about right. Your climate is not ideal but hopefully you are close enough to the Atlantic to buffer temperatures. The vast majority of Fuchsias like mildly cool, humid weather year-round. Hot, humid weather is bad because it breeds diseases that kill them, hot dry weather turns them crisp and dead. Generally, they get sluggish in hot weather; their chemistry is optimized for cool temps. Most of them can stand mild frosts BUT a few can't, and growing in hanging baskets their roots are exposed and if their roots freeze, that kills them. Ideal places are like coastal Oregon and northern California, Madiera, Ireland, west coast of Great Britain, Atlantic coast of France and Spain, much of New Zealand, south-central Chile (where some are native), Tasmania, etc. 1. Watering Fuchsias are NOT particularly fussy about OVER watering. Just make sure that their soil stays reasonably aerated. Because they are in hanging baskets they are unlikely to have standing water at their roots (unless you have one of those types with a saucer under it--which is bad), which would suffocate them. In hot weather you might have to water them DAILY. I would water over misting. They like humidity, but the problem is that fungal spores stick to wet leaves. Misting works better in drier climates like that of California. 2. Fertilizing (chem. breakdown) FEED ME, SEYMOUR! Fuchsias are heavy feeders. They are not picky about brand or type, but liquid fertilizers work well with Fuchsias so that's probably the most common thing to do. Miracle grow works fine for Fuchsias. Besides, in hot weather you'll have to water frequently so you have to fertilize frequently to avoid leaching out all the fertilizer, OR you can use time-release pelleted fertilizers. The usual warning about nitrogen making growth at the expense of blooms doesn't seem to apply to Fuchsias--they bloom on new wood and they NEED some new growth to bloom. A "balanced" all-purpose type is usually OK BUT if they get chlorotic, check if you need fertilizer for acid-loving plants. That's usually only necessary in parts of the country with strongly alkaline water. 3. Dead-heading/'New Arrival Pruning" As for new arrival pruning, I suggest waiting until you can see how the Fuchsia is responding to its new environment, and see how vigorous your particular type is. Highly-bred (overbred) Fuchsias are sometimes lacking in vigor; if yours is one of them go easy on it and only pinch it when it needs it. Wild Fuchsias and some hybrids are rampantly vigorous, and if that is so you can safely prune them fairly severely without worrying. Fuchsias have amazing regenerative abilities and can regrow vigorously from seemingly badly damaged wood. The "pods" are actually berries and by the way they are edible although usually bland (I happen to have the one exception, F. boliviana, which produces mildly sweet and somewhat palatable berries). When ripe they are soft, juicy, and dark reddish-purple. If you get hummingbirds (that would be "Ruby Throated" in your part of the world) then you might actually get berries. Most of the time yours probably won't be pollinated and will fall off on their own. Darker and shiny--hmm, maybe something IS pollinating them! If you do get berries, you can snip them off if you like. Exactly where isn't too critical--you could snip the stem that connects the berry to the branch (ie, just past the berry, before it connects to the branch), but leave the branch alone. The stem that connects the berry to the branch doesn't do anything else and is expendable.

Thanks so much everyone. I don't think it is a price concern as much as it is one of being able to see and enjoy the glass tile, and worrying whether or not it is going to pop off or crack. For example, while I think vicki's pool is very beautiful, the only spots I can really see as the glass tile being very visible is on the elevated spa and spillover (which I do not have). On the waterline, it is kind of hard to see, and you can't really tell that it is iridescent glass tile. Of course, it could be just the photo, or the angle, and it might be stunning in person - which is what matters. That is one of my main concerns... I am meeting with the PB tomorrow and think I will get his thoughts on it. Maybe if he does not have an installer with lots of glass tile experience, I would be better off just using it as accents. All thoughts and opinions are much appreciated!

Wow! I was quoted! I'm so honored. It's true. Your stone is the beautiful frame, your water is the picture, and your tile is the mat. It shouldn't take away from the other two, unless it is a feature. At first I thought, definitely the gray, but as I looked at it, it could also be the color of one of the lighter gray rocks in your stone (I see two of the stones in the second set of pictures under the pvc pipe). That might be more of a gradual transition between the rock and the gray finish and blue water. I LOVE your stone. Our tile would probably be too dark for you, but we used Daltile Continental Slate in Asian Black. Lots of grays and brown it it too. http://www.daltileproducts.com/series.cfm?series=38#608 The tile is great. The only trouble that we had in the beginning (and now again, see below) is that the grout put out calcium. Our pool builder didn't know how to get rid of it, and poured chems. right on the grout and it ate it up. After a while, I tried spraying vinegar on it and scrubbing a little and it came right off. This was on our 360 degree spa that has water running on it everyday. The waterline has had no problems since. We had them come back to regrout the spa, and we do have a couple of areas that show calcium again. I guess it's time to get out the vinegar again. It should stop soon. Now others might want to chime in on this one, but you might want to seal the grout. We didn't, and I don't know if that would have helped. Here's some pictures of our spa and the tile. Good luck with your choices! I think it will look beautiful no matter what. That stone is great! I especially love the slide. I'd love to try it!

You will need to control your PH,CH and ALK. My CH is 400 out the tap so it is hard to control the calcium buildup. Just had someone out yesterday to blast it off. $350 :( Follow the attached table. If you are talking about scum as you say then weekly brushing will help Here is a link that might be useful: langelier saturation index