A. - My cats do not eat my plants - and I have too many plants (and 2 cats) - so some reduction wouldn't hurt. We have a Show in 2 weeks - I am dreaming on selling everything that blooms and leaving myself only starters and leaves and most of the trailers - because it takes long time to get them to the size. The cat damage is mechanichal - fly in the window - all bets are out - everything is flying. Or they decide to walk through the lower light shelf. Regarding names and unnamed - and to show or not to show - you probably have green fingers, you can grow plants so they are looking great and blooming great - at some point you will want to try more elaborate varieties, something different - so going to the Shows, seeing what other people grow and may be bringing a starter or 2 is part of developing your hobby. Association with people with the same interests is enjoyable and useful - so joining the club can be attractive at some point. And how did it start - you got a NOID violet or 2 - and they did great for you. Regarding the lamp - you can get a skinny fluorescent fixture to fit your growing place - and you can hang it from the ceiling above your violets - and turn it on in the evenings. Depends how handy you are - you can figure out some inconspicuous support for T8 or T5 fixture - like they sell for above the kitchen counters - light stick or some similar name. Good Luck Irina

I hope your wish comes true and these are the roses and not the rootstock, Beth. Water is certainly a miraculous thing, and maybe there are more surprises in store. When we enhanced our drip system by adding tiny sprinklers to the drip lines a few years ago, I had several perennials come up that I thought had died out years before. Also some rootstock that seemed to be long gone, too (not so good, but nothing disastrous either). Diane

Your plants all look happy and healthy. In a few years that fence will be stunning, and even now it looks like it's a great improvement over the fence without clematis. Also, glad to hear that the Venus dogwood has done well. I've been thinking about doing a bit of zone pushing with one of the kousa hybrids.

That orange one sounds pretty! Is it one with spots inside the flowers? You're right about their toughness. Just put those there in June and when I dug out a piece for trade a couple weeks ago, it put up a fight. Duh, now I understand why these are usually by themselves, away from the house somewhere. Of course it's going to creep into the Gardenia, and there's a gas line a couple feet behind them that nobody should dig around. That's why I leave that yellow flag there, to remind me to dig with hand shovel only near that. Thanks for the encouragement, this is definitely a mistake I need to fix this spring. Daggone it, they were hiding some of those ugly wires, and looked great from inside that window...