Just to clarify, I do agree with Esther Opal--it you start with a bad plant, all the tender loving care in the world won't turn it into a good plant. There have indeed been quite a number of just plain rotten GEs on the market, but the bad ones I've seen were obviously bad plants right from the start--small, stunted looking little things with almost no root system. And believe me, before I buy a hosta, if I have any doubt at all about the root system, I ask the seller to unpot the plant so I can see the roots. I guarantee to buy the plant if the roots are good, and most reputable sellers will oblige, since it won't hurt the hosta. A seller that is reluctant to allow a buyer to check a root system does not get high marks in my book. If a plant is obviously healthy with good leaf growth, it's not necessary to see the roots, but on small or new varieties that aren't showing good leaf growth yet, I want to see what's underneath supporting the plant. Also, my earlier post mentioned quite a lot of sun, not full sun. GE will grow very well in full sun, but mine are all under a mature oak tree, and get dappled shade/sun all day, plus some early morning sun. Either light shade or a couple of hours of sun every day will be enough. The lovely picture of the hosta at Winter Nursery near Hayward was delightful to see. I have been to that nursery a number of times, and admired this plant. It does get a fair bit of sun (look closely at the picture) as well as a couple of hours a day of full sun. They do water their landscaped areas, and if you are in the area of Hayward, a trip there is an excellent opportunity to see beautiful landscaping, with gorgeous mature hostas and truly outstanding companion plants. Their pond area is also wonderful, and their commercial selling area is outstanding. This is the nursery that found Praying Hands in a group of unmarked hostas that they overwintered.

FPE-lore...her goes!! What makes a "Great" paint: 1) Extremely fine pigment grinding. - I've been told they use an old-style ball-mill, and grind pigments for 3 WEEKS...instead of the U.S.'s "hours", or a day or so. - This leads to VERY DENSE/OPAQUE film-builds. - The Gloss-levels of their Brilliant lines are near mirror-like because of this. - Details like this are discussed on their DVD. 2) 2 Colorant types..."Pastes"... - VERY important here! - The U.S. uses Glycol-based Universal-Tint-Colorants (UTC's), because these mix into BOTH Latex AND Oil binders. - Instead of the LIQUID Glycol-based colorants 99% of mfr's. use, FPE's are VERY finely ground/dense PASTES. - This makes a deep FPE color MUCH more opaque than the typical U.S. "loads-of-liquid colorant" built colors. - So...instead of dumping a boat-load of liquid Glycol-based colorant into a sheer dark tint-base, FPE uses pastes. - Another HUGE difference...FPE uses SEPARATE Acrylic and Alkyd colorant-pastes! So....Latexes and Oils each have their own colorants! CHEAP...No. Effective...Very. - Bottom-line...the FACTORY and the stores use THE SAME COLORANT! In a way, an FPE store IS a "factory" of sorts... 3) Friendly Ingredients: - Low VOC's in the Latexes. - Only light odors too, and dissipate quickly. 4) My own tests: - I've described my "Wine Red" test on the Paint forum. ONE COAT...pulled thin...COMPLETE OPACITY...NOT normal! - I did a pop-and-water rub test on this too. - Using the Oil glosses...Uffda. You can SEE yourself clearly! And I used a foam brush... - Same thing with the Low-VOC ECO. Beautiful, bright, clean gloss! - Because of this, I ordered some for my downstairs bath. VERY pleased...I left it as one coat! Very tough film. - The Eurolux Matte I used seems totally impervious to water. It's more of an Eggshell look though... Soooo...to ME...this stuff is the Four-Seasons of Paint! Faron

I have the Orca and 3 grids, one bottom, one half way up for both sides. I will use the bottom and right side grids the most, probably. The bottom one means you can pile in dishes and water still runs and drains freely plus protecting the sink as others have noted, but since I found SS to be pretty ruged that was less of a concern to me. The right one half way up is great for draining what you what you just washed on the left and in that sense lets you use a single sink like a double, and the one half way up on left lets me elevate that side to put a bowl or whatever so it is at a comfortable working height. So far, I put most dishes in the dw, all three grids have stayed in the sink, and having both grids half way up gives me a large work area at a comfortable height for washing, rinsing, preparing veggies, etc. I don't have a prep sink. Sue

I've been researching two of those trees. Beech are in my opinion one of the most beautiful and elegant trees...I prefer them to oaks. Totally play well with others. Unfortunately they can be difficult to get established, and I hear don't like being street trees. (Although I have seen some old ones fairly close to a road doing fine...this might be more an issue with trees in sidewalks?) Young ones keep their leaves after they turn brown in the fall...which looks kind of odd. Very tolerant of shade. Look at American Beech and tricolor beech. Black Gum are a very trouble-free and "Earth friendly" tree...a North American native bees love. One of the few trees I've never heard anyone call a pest or weed. Unlike beech or oak they have great fall color. Slightly tolerant of road salt and soggy soil. Unfortunately, I hear they are also a bit hard to get established, and when it isn't fall they kind of look like a generic tree. Not very familiar with katsura. Sugar maple, gingkos and basswood are the other obvious elegant shade trees. You might want to start another thread describing the growing conditions, so we can tell you what grows well there. One mistake a lot of people make is trying to mimic a look that just doesn't work in their climate, soil conditions, etc. Is your ground soggy or dry? Is road salt an issue? Is the spot shaded?