I was really hoping for more input from a bunch of people on this subject but it appears it is time to wrap this one up. Since most people don't really want to bother with ever watering their plants, many people go into a garden store and a very rich potting soil that stays soggy all the time. As a result you may eventually kill your plant. Many plant species can literally drown in mucky soil! For some unexplained reason many growers believe the rich soil makes a plant grow better! Typical "potting soils" just don't work for the vast majority of tropical plant species since most grow in trees, not in soggy soil. The roots of many tropical plants are designed to*collect rain water during the wet season and suffer through the dry season. But even in the dry season a specimen can collect enough water from the humidity around their exposed roots to survive. * Although house plant growers commonly believe tropical plants do not need water in winter that belief is simply a myth. Tropical plants live in very humid conditions and are capable of gathering water directly from the air even during the drier portions of the year when it doesn't rain on a daily basis. Dew and fog are very important contributors to the water available to a tropical rain forest plant species and homes don't have dew or fog! If we deny the plant the water they crave they only suffer and will never be able to display their natural beauty. In the temperate rain forest the amount of water available from the dew alone is estimated to be between three to five percent of the total annual precipitation! As a result, your tropical plants need water year round but it is wise to reduce the amount offered during the winter. We water every week of the year averaging four days a week in summer and three days per week in winter. As can be seen in the photo the plants love water. Despite the belief of far too many growers, growing plants is not just about the water content of the soil! The advice to water only once a week and keep the top two inches of the soil dry is not always good advice! Many aroids and other plant species grow in very wet soil! Instead it is about the fast flow of water through the soil or the lack thereof which causes a lack of oxygen, anerobic fermentation and saprophytes which turn into pathogens. Saprophytes are organisms including fungus or bacteria that grow on and draw nourishment from dead or decaying organic matter which often includes soggy wet soil. The pathogens attack the roots and cause them to rot so all of the advice to "slow down on the water" is really about how to control the pathogens. Fermentation and saprophytes often occur in muddy soil that will not not allow the roots to breathe but they don't necessarily occur in water which is why we can cause a plant that is about to die to grow new roots in clean water. As a result, it is necessary to use soil mixes that allow the roots to breathe and will not remain soggy. I've attempted in many threads to explain the necessity of mixing proper soil for plants but the advice is often ignored since it requires some "work" on the part of the plant's keeper. The reason plants rot is not the amount of water given to the plant! These are rain forest plants and are literally drowned for months at a time! If you could visit a rain forest you would quickly learn the soil is composed of leaf litter, decaying wood, compost and the charcoal left behind when a part of the forest burns. If we'll just listen to Mother Nature we can all make our plants grow as they should in nature. That is precisely what I attempt to explain when I recommend mixing soil, not just buying a bag at the store. Over time we've developed a soil mixture for most of our aroid and tropical species. We use this mixture on the advice of the aroid keepers at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. The goal of this mix is to allow the roots to freely find places to extend and grow without constantly finding wet places where they will rot. This mix will remain damp but drain quickly. Rather than using a rich, soggy soil and watering only once a week (or less), use a soil that holds moisture well but drains quickly. With the help of botanical garden researchers we've developed a soil mixture*for most of our specimens that works great. People who visit our artificial rain forest are often amazed at the size of many of our specimens which grow much faster and larger than they often do in a home. The exact mixture is not critical but we use*roughly 40% potting mix combined with 20% high quality peat moss, 20% orchid potting media containing charcoal, hard wood and gravel), and the balance cypress mulch mixed, with 10% Perlite and finely shredded pieces of sphagnum moss. We often add extra charcoal such as aquarium charcoal or hardwood charcoal to help purify the soil and sometimes volcanic rock If you are concerned about your soil remaining wet just add more orchid mix, cypress mulch, Perlite and sphagnum moss. We grow many different species in this basic mixture and*some of our specimens have reached their adult or near adult size and regularly produce a spathe and spadix (inflorescence). *The goal of*our mixture is to cause the water to flow through the soil quickly, remain slightly damp, but never soggy. The roots of our plants attach to the bark just as they do in nature*on the side of a tree. Most growers call a mix similar to the one we use a "jungle mix". Again, I welcome your input. We also openly invite anyone living or visiting in MidAmerica to visit our private botanical garden. There is never a charge. You can see photos on the homepage of our website.

lisa0527, I have read through the forum issues and I am not quite scared off from the quartzite quite yet. I am curious if anyone knows how people are able to get their samples to take home and abuse, I mean test to ensure the quartzite is really quartzite and not something in between, or not quite quartzite... pretty sure the yard isn't going to knock a piece off, and it doesn't seem like something they normally carry that they'd have laying around. Feel free to enlighten me, anyone. Majra, maybe you can learn from my glory, or my mistakes! ;) Beekeeperswife, I think I'm with you. The more full kitchens I see with rfg only, the more aggressive it looks to me. I think it's best used as an accent and I sadly do not have an island... it's a stone to fall in love with, but perhaps maybe not to marry? I was reading another post a few nights back about lamenting the loss of color... and while I do like the idea of committing to color and not being all neutrals, I'm not feeling like committing to that much rfg all over my kitchen. lolab, as to the unintentional miss, I am very worried about that. I think I will go back to the yard and take some pics, including more detailed pics of the quartzite so that I can better consider that stone, and the grey/champagne. Truthfully if I can rule it out my husband would be so much happier at a lower $/sqft. On something else. Which would be back to square one. Ugh. Truly appreciate all the input! This forum is a wonderful resource.

Hello, I feel that whilst paranoid and misquoted scientists can hinder relevant discussion, so to can emotive responses from people without any knowledge at all. Rainfall has not increased or decreased along the East Coast, whereas human activity has! Also, landscapes are cultural before they are natural! Homogenous landscapes can't be avoided, especially where people are involved and the linear relationship between deep green conservation and the horticultural industry is slight. Jan, what is important for land management, is identifying objectives and what resources are available. If you were to leave your paddock be, it might take 1000 years for a climax forest community to result? Also, you have to determine if your area was 'originally' rainforest or scrub and if so, to what extent? Did Aborigines live there and what was the fire regime and history? What I would like to impress upon you is however, it might be feasible to put a D3 through your paddock and deep-rip with follow up herbicide spraying (pasture grass is terrible for tree establishment!). Then plant (pioneers) up to 4000 stems/ha and wait for canopy closure... Cheers and Good Luck!

The promised storms started at 1:07AM. I don't know what happened, other than thunder, because I didn't hear a thing after that. This afternoon another torrential downpour, with some interesting clouds in the north-east: And then a gorgeous sunset. I hope that 'red sky at night ...' saying holds true for tomorrow's forecast. Here are some, taken just as the sun dipped below the horizon, centered behind my neighbor's tree: