Ok everyone! I had a quick sec to stop by and post a couple of pictures and what I think I found out for myself with my growing conditions and your guidance. I will be back with more pics. I was at an Orchid store yesterday and was talking to a girl who just so happens to grow the same 'Siam Jade" I have and told me she never has trouble with hers. In fact she has been able to get it to bloom twice. I went back and showed her the roots to one of mine and she told me to do emergency treatment now@!lol She said she uses just fine and medium Coco husk chips, something I have always been against,lol. Ok I thought I would give it a try since I had nothing to loose anyhow. It just so happens I had a block of it from previous years. I soaked it good and rinsed several time even though it was the original 'Sri Lanka' one and did an emergency pot on just one. Look at the difference today on it. This is what they both looked like before I started. I did rinse them off before this pic was taken so they look wet, but anyone who knows the roots of orchids real well can only imagine what they looked like dry! Notice the roots barely alive and very dehydrated. This is what they both looked like. This is what my orchid looks like after just one day of a better mix! Notice how the roots filled out and look hydrated. I have not seen this plant look this good since I have owned it. Now I need to repot the other before I loose it. Here is an extra seemingly doing better than it was in just one day:-) Ok, gotta go, but I will be back Thanks all Mike This one's roots plumped right up after one day and the leaves feel fantastic after days of trying to get them to look good!

I've been enjoying these posts. Naturally I'm one of the "population" as well. Usually I don't work with graph paper and ruler, but rather go out in the zone I'm planning, with stakes and possibly flagging tape, and perhaps a measuring tape if it's a really big job. Smaller areas just get the eyeball and sometimes a good deal of thought. I think a garden designer, professional or not, can be defined as a person who understands that whether a plant is in one spot, or else a foot away, makes a difference. Makes THE difference. We are finally enjoying gorgeous sunny weather and I've been out digging in the big garden, amending the gray clay with copious amounts of old hay, and planting. It's a slow job: today I got one rose ('Mme. Jules Bouche'), one rosemary, one lavender, a white iris, a "mentuccia"--some kind of catmint?--in the ground in my five hours of labor, but still, this is what is going to turn this former steep weedy field into a garden one day. I had one little area I was trying to make sense of. It was a short, wedge-shaped strip with the garden road above and a narrow path below, bounded on one end by a thriving young 'Cl. Maman Cochet' on a pergola entrance, and on the other end by a young Italian pine with Artemisia abrotanum growing around it. I had amended this ground and planted various things there last fall and the year before that. Two roses, 'Camelia Rose' and a lovely Tea, perhaps 'Dr. Grill'; a common privet above, a rosemary, a pink, some odds and ends. The roses both died. A couple of stakes mark plants that are no longer there. The rosemary, pinks, and privet made it. The privet is too low below the road for comfort. There's nothing at the corner of the pergola entrance, so I planted another rosemary there. In spite of earlier amendment, the ground looks unprosperous, and I think the roses' deaths are partly due to stress from the bad soil, so I dug and amended generously, not being yet finished. I decided that there was room only for one rose, but want to add a shrub honeysuckle, L. fragrantissima, to the green border above, joining the privet, which I won't move, and rosemary. I need a couple more green shrubs for the border besides the honeysuckle. I may have to move the pink, perhaps on the slope of the rose hole once I've re-dug it. All the amendment raises the ground a bit above the path, which is pleasant, but my plans leave a low open area beside 'Cl. Maman Cochet' that I don't know what to do with. It's too small for a rose, but something choice needs to go there. It feels sheltered. It sits at a curve in the path. Actually I think it might be just the right place for a bench. I love this kind of problem solving, and it seems a very reasonable activity to me. I consider I'm spending my time fruitfully. And, even though DH and I appear to be the only people on earth who enjoy my garden, still I'm improving the soil and helping prevent slides, and giving a home to a good variety of roses, some of them uncommon. Melissa

Hello! I finally subscribed so that I could do some posting. This whole Garden Web deal is just fantastic. So many neat forums to read, Ill be years catching up. Im single, divorced actually. To be totally truthful, Im at the stage in my life where I really like being single. I work hard and play hard. I dont have to answer to anyone, I do what I want to do, am financially responsible and no one can mess that up (but me, of course!). I enjoy friends and going out and doing stuff, but when I go home I want my solitude. I have a 10 acre farm, and thoroughly enjoy gardening (which is what got me to Garden Web in the first place). Oh sure, theres some nights when I get lonely, but I can either call a friend to go out, or get on a forum and gab away. Thats not to say if a special man came along that I wouldnt grab him, but its not a high priority in my life. I know so few relationships that are actually working, and so many that have broken up, that Im really in no hurry to jump into the fire myself. Im having too much fun to let someone else spoil it right now. Selfish? You bet. But Im responsible for my own happiness, and if I cant make myself happy, no one else can. And this forum is probably slow right now because everyone is out having fun!

How fun! Can't wait to see pictures of your new little one when she/he arrives. So you decided to be with family yesterday, after all? Sounds like it was meant to be! Great that you met another dog from the same breeder.