At 10.6-4.4-1.7 NPK %s its pretty high in P and quite low in K for houseplants, but it's still a so-so fertilizer and a better choice than any of the fertilizers with P (the middle number) as the highest %. How you fertilize to get the most out of your plants depends on your soil and watering habits. If you water in sips, you might fertilize at low doses infrequently - like maybe every month or so. If you flush the soil regularly when you water, it would be more appropriate to fertilize more frequently at higher doses. W/o some knowledge of the type of soil you're using and some knowledge of how you water, no one can really give you any meaningful advice. It took quite a bit of looking to determine the NPK %s of the fertilizer, but I have no idea what other nutrients it contains. It's important that your plant gets all the nutrients essential to growth - do you have any information that points to its complete nutrient content? It's NPK %s indicate it would be ok for any of your plants, but for the slow growers you might want to cut back on the concentration. It's just another soluble fertilizer, cut from the same cloth as Miracle-Gro, Peters, Schultz, and others. Tell me how you water and I should be able to give you a dosage that will work. Al

Some flowers are very hard to start from seed and others are easy. I start most of my flowers from seed inside under lights in about the same way I start veggie seed. Unlike most veggie seeds, though, flower seeds vary widely in conditions needed to induce germination. Some are easy to grow from seed but many are challenging. Some flower seeds are exceptionally tiny and must be surface sown and this includes begonia, coleus and penta seed. Also, some of these--like begonias and pentas sprout into very tiny plants that can take up to 5 months to get large enough to transplant outside. (sigh) With seeds which are that tiny and which take so long to grow to a manageable size, I tend to just buy transplants instead of dealing with them. Then there are a the flower varieties whose seed require cold scarification--exposure to cold temperatures for a certain period of time (which varies per type) before they will sprout. Cleome, Kiss-Me-Over-The-Garden-Gate and echinacea are examples of this type of seed. For them, I usually put the seed packets inside zip-lock bags and write the date on the bag, so I can keep track of how long the seeds have been inside the fridge. Some of these WILL eventually sprout without cold scarification, but at low rates. Then there are the seeds whose seed coats are VERY hard, like bluebonnets and moonvine flowers, for example. For many of these, you can have trouble getting them to germinate unless you use one of several methods to break through that seed coat. Sometimes all you have to do is pre-soak the seed. For others, though, you have to cut through the seed coat with a knife or sandpaper or a nail file. And, for a few, pre-soaking them in a specific form of acid is the preferred way to break through that seed coat. Some flowers are exceptionally easy to start from seed, including zinnias, cosmos, salvias, nasturiums, sunflowers, salvias, black-eyed Susan vine, cypress vine, morning glories, cardinal climber vine, Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia), celosias, globe amaranth and hollyhocks. There are some seeds that do best when direct-sown, mostly because they dislike being transplanted OR need alternating periods of cold and hot temperatures to induce germination. These include poppies, Calfornia poppies, larkspur and most wildflowers. This year I have started many flowers from seed and most of these plants are either already in the ground or are being transplanted into the ground this week. These include "Queeny Purple", "Queeny Mix", "Summer Carnival" and "Old-Fashioned Single" hollyhocks, agastache, "Red Shield" Hibiscus, Dahlia "Bishop's Children", "Summer Pastels" and "Summer Berries" yarrow, Salvia "Whopper Lighthouse", and several other red-flower salvias (for the hummers) whose varieties I don't remember, rose mallow, gazania daisies, QIS mix globe amaranth, "Caribbean Crush" and "Caribbean Cocktail" nasturtiums, cassia alata, butterfly weed, ipomopsis, ipomoea palmata, a red-flowered Texas Bluebonnet called "Alamo Fire", the heat-loving "Laura Bush" and "Laura Bush Pink" petunias, and several kinds of daturas, including white-flowered single and double flowered ones, double yellow, double lavender and a single pink one that I think is not actually a datura but a brugmansia. There are probably others but I can't think of them at the moment. I still need to start others from seed, probably this week or next--zinnias, cosmos, Mexican sunflowers, morning glories, moonvine, purple hyacinth bean vine, and some plants that are grown for their foliage, like striped ornamental corn and castor beans. I keep raising flowers from seed and transplanting them outside over a long period of time. I usually get the last ones in the ground just before Memorial Day. (When you grow as many as I do, it can take a long time to get them all "done" and in the ground.) A lot of the flowers I have grown to transplant outside this year are either perennials or self-sowing annuals that reseed very reliably. I have grown a lot more than usual this year because the last 3 years have been hard on my exising flowers.....last year's rainy weather got a lot of them, and prior to that, the 2 years of severe drought were hard on them....so I have planted tons of stuff to revitalize several beds. Some flowers reseed so reliably, like poppies, larkspur, verbena bonariensis, daura metel and 4 o'clocks, that once you have them, you'll have them forever. Some herbs--chamomile is one that comes to mind and chives is another--reseed so freely they can become "weedy". As you can tell, I love raising flowers from seed--I just don't talk about them as much as I talk about veggies--because each one is different from the others--and I'd have to write forever to discuss each one's unique germination needs and growing methods. Sometimes you have to start your own from seed to have them at the right planting time in our climate. For me, this is especially true of cool-season flowers that I can start from seed in the summer and transplant into the ground in late summer for fall and winter blooms. This includes pansies, snapdragons and ornamental cabbage and kale. And, sometimes, you have to start your own flowers from seed in order to get something that is regionally adapted, weather-wise, and which is shunned by the nursery industry in general. The "Laura Bush" petunia varieties fall into this category. They are heat-loving varieties that often bloom, on and off, all summer long. They outlast the more commonly grown Wave petunias by a mile. Yet, they are almost impossible to find. So, I grow my own. I think it can be much harder to start flowers from seed, as opposed to how easy it is to start veggies. It has been trial-and-error for me over a couple of decades. I love doing it, though, as it gives me many flowers you can't even find as transplants. Do I still buy transplants? A few. When we bought our first home in Texas in 1984, I planted virtually everything from purchased transplants. Nowadays, it is the opposite--I grow almost everything from seed, but it took me a long time to get from buying all my flower transplants to growing them instead, and it evolved from my desire to have flowers I couldn't find as transplants. If, for example, you want to grow cosmos from transplants, you'll usually only find a limited number of varieties as transplants--Sonata and Double Click are two that come to mind. Last year, I purchased a Cosmos collection from Wildseed Farms that had 16 packets of different cosmos varieties in it. So, that's one example of how growing your own from seed gives you more options. Zinnias are the same way. There must be 40 to 50 types of zinnias you can grow from seed, but when you purchase transplants, you are limited to less than a double different varieties. If you have questions about specific varieties, let me know, and I'll try to answer them. Dawn

Terri, I *could* tell you the cupcakes were made with magic, no wheat at all! And I *could* tell you that no sugar was involved--just the sweetness of more magic! Yeah, I could tell ya that. But, hey, good for you in your efforts to avoid wheat and refined sugar! I try to avoid white rice, white bread, and potatoes, just to name a few, and I also try to not eat things with sugar in them (okay, that doesn't always work! LOLAM). Cupcakes, cookies, cake--most of the time, I don't have them in the house. Another really GOOD thing about being a retired teacher is that I don't get "exposed" to all the goodies in the faculty room, the donuts every Friday (right next door to my room!!!!!), or the special yummy things from the students! Thanks for the compliments! They encourage me to keep on trying to improve! Smiles, Sooz

I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression. DH is great. He isn't turning a blind eye to SS's behavior. He realizes there's at minimum an "attitude problem" going on. SS's behavior got worse after his biomom left (again) last fall. She tends to come (after being gone for years at a time), promise to be a real mom, hang around just long enough to make SS think maybe she really will this time, and then disappear which is where I think the majority of SS's behavior is coming from, especially the unconscious behavior aimed at women. The physical incident between the 16 and SS happened after the 16 yo didn't shut the van right and in SS's mind if something wasn't perfect, I might leave just like his bio mom so all his anger at biomom came out backwards at the 16 yo. There's only been one physical incident but in a household with austistic spectrum kids, it just takes one incident and they think there's the pattern. I really don't want to make excuses for SS but I do understand why he's acting the way he is. I'm just not sure how to help him, try to keep things fair in the meantime, and not walk around being constantly ticked off at him. I"m thinking this is going to be my plan of action. Let me know what you think 1- SS starts seeing a counselor - as soon as one can be found- period - I"m not his biomom and shouldn't be punished for what she did. I would never ever treat him or anyone that way. and most siblings of children with disabilities have problems adjusting or relating to them, why wouldn't a teenager thrust into the situation, especially with not just one sibling but 3? 2 - Anytime SS doesn't do his 15 min daily chore he will not leave the room the chore was to be in (even if I have to sit on him and he misses his baseball game, pees his pants, or I'm late for work) until he does (making DH enforce the rules isn't adding much to my credibility with SS - It's almost like SS wants me to be the one to punish him) 3- If SS doesn't mow the yard properly with the riding lawn mower, he will use the push mower, even if I or DH have to follow behind him the entire time and make sure he does it all. 4 - the attitude will stop. If he can't see that we all have to work together, I just might try the strike thing and see how much he likes doing his own laundry, own dishes, making is own meals (probably just sandwiches since he can't cook and I"m not buying special groceries for him to eat alone and he wont' eat leftovers). Maybe then he might come to the conclusion, that even if he doesn't realize it, we all work together and people are doing things for him. 4 - the lying, "storytelling, "smart alec comments", whatever you want to call them - I'll just immediately call him on it. NO more games, no more him trying to outsmart me, no more trying to catch him in the lie, just quietly, and simply state "that's bs and you know it" and move on 5 - any attitude directed at the other kids will become immediate and lengthy family discussion and we all know how much teenagers love those, most likely followed by a grounding where he's required to be around the other kids and has to get along - no going to his room, no going to friends, etc (I'm in the office only 3 days a week so this should be able to be closely supervised). 6 - as for unfairness in material possessions, they'll each just have a dollar limit for school clothes, etc. IF SS wants to blow all his on one pair of shoes and one pair of shorts, so be it - he doesn't then get to complain that he has nothing to wear. 7 - as for the homework, DH and I discussed at the end of the school year, that we can check on the computer for finished homework - if the homework shows as not turned in on Friday (too bad if the teacher forgot to update it), the TV from his room is gone (no more cable, no more video games, etc) and he spends each night until bedtime at the dining room table doing homework and has to physically show us the homework (the exact missing assignment and any current assignments emailed to me from the teacher) is completed before being excused - if he says he forgot it at school the principal has kindly volunteered to go open up the school for him (the principal just doens't want it to become a daily thing, but I think we'll only have to call this bluff a couple times) - this one is going to take a lot of time, but again I don't think it'll be something that will always require as much time, just follow up, once he sees we mean it ok what does everyone think?