Hi Julianna - Of COURSE I'm interested in what you're growing! This "bright shade" situation is most interesting and will require experimenting. I started this thread LESS than a month ago and already I see a difference in the number of hours the back of my balconies get sun. On the same token, the sun spots for the items hanging off the balcony are also lengthening. Right now, due to the containers I used for most of my succulents being bulky, they've been placed to the back of my patio where they get a brightness all day long (bright shade, as you called it) but direct sun is for but an hour plus a day? I have to wait and see how these do moving forward... This is balcony 1 -- the one with full sun up front. I bought a bunch of those white balcony pot hanging thingamagics -- and it's pretty useful. It's smaller than balcony 2, but deeper. What's not shown is that further in to the left, you have two shelves full of plants--where most of the succulents are as well as my infamous gardenia, which Purple has been helping me with, haha. This was taken moments ago and today is a bit stormy and cloudy but it's still bright out there at 3:30 pm. This is balcony 2. It's significantly wider with about 3-4 feet MORE to the left than is shown here; that part is obviously full shade. The remainder is all less full sun than balcony 1 and in the afternoon, it quickly goes into no sun as to the right of this balcony, the building juts out with an overhang to the lobby area below. That seems to block out the sun instantly. Unlike you, my area requires me to bring in virtually nothing as we rarely hit 40* and if a plant's lowest tolerance is 50* (which is basically our entire winter) -- then either I don't get it, or it evolves quickly, haha. Thank God, because my house is full enough with houseplants -- I need outside plants to come in like I need a hole in the head. I was browsing some ferns yesterday! Are they hard to grow? I have a Venus Maidenhair here inside, but I don't believe I've ever had ferns in my yard. In the past when I had homes, I've usually had full sun and have much, much less experience with shade plants. I'm messing with the idea of hostas and I'm definitely getting some coleus and begonias, but on balcony 2 - where most of my shade gardening would be -- you can see that the depth of the balcony is minimal; putting large pots out there means no walking area. This puts a damper in my idea of creating cascading containers w/ spillers, etc. I might have room for... uh, ONE. After all of this, I'm of the mindset to move back to a house, haha. I find myself driving around town and looking at homes to figure out, "Is that yard facing south? No, wait...east?" It's sad, really!! Your post is missing photos. I'd love to see!!!!!!!!!!!! -Grace.

Well we are starting to get into our late summer weather pattern where it can be cool one day and scorching the next. We had a cold front push through last night and brought a good rain to my area. today we are having what I call a "california day" 60's in the morning and mid 80's during the day. Ive never been to CA but I imagine thats what its like, LOL The next 7 days are forecasted to be like this. Its such a welcome relief but also a reminder that I need to get the greenhouse ready and start making plans for overwintering. Our first frost isnt until October so I have time. Our weather here can be so crazy that it made me think of a few things. Those who live or lived here may relate and those who may visit might take this advice. You really have to be like a boy scout to live here. In the middle of winter we will have days in the 80's and then the next day it can snow 6-8 inches. The opposite is also true, snow in the morning and mid 50's to 60's by afternoon. In the summer it will get to 110 and the next morning it can be in the 60's. I have left for work in the morning and it was colder by 20-30 degrees when i left in the afternoon. anyways it keeps you on you toes. Mike

Very happy to find "Ace Hardware pine bark mulch", which are well-composted this Oct, and have plenty of pine-fines inside. I make my rooting-area in advance for next spring .. by that time the pine-mulch/pine-fines will be more decomposed & less acidic. The rooting powder that Bluegirl mentioned helped TREMENDOUSLY. Things take roots much faster. Do you make a slit at the side of the lower cane like Connie of Hartwood? Or do you slice a piece of outer-layer off like Kitty of California? I'm too lazy, so I do it California way, scrape a vertical piece off from the end, with my paring knife. For indoor & winter: I still don't like covering the plant with a plastic dome, it goes against my logic: cover anything up, and it will surely rot & get moldy !! My kid sprouted some mung-bean in a plastic cup, she covered it, and within a few days white mold grew on it, so gross !! This winter I plan NOT to cover with plastic, and simply squirt the soil lightly with a hand-mister. My neighbor kept a geranium through the entire winter. In freezing March I visited her: she kept the geranium on the window-sill (morning sun), and squirt it twice a day. And it was blooming tons !! I kept house-plants indoor in the winter and was foolish to water it, that was messy: water dripped on carpet, then whiteflies, then rotted stem (too wet). Hand-mist lightly is so much better, since leaves do take up water & nutrients .. same with stem I also put hydrogen peroxide inside my hand-mister to prevent rot. Bluegirl shared how Josh in TX put a paper towel on top of the rooting area to hold in moisture, great idea !! I'm convinced that hard-wood and thick cuttings NEEDS MUCH LESS MOISTURE. Versus the "greener & thinner" stems which dry out faster, thus need more moisture. The "alfalfa sprouts" type of root need constant moisture ... folks do keep alfalfa sprouts in a plastic pouch at grocery store. But the woody & chunky Dr.Huey-rootstock rots easily in poor-drainage clay. As own-root matures from "alfalfa sprouts" to hard and woody roots, they become more sensitive to standing-water and acidity.

We had a short thunderstorm last evening. Hooray! No need to drag hoses around this morning. Here's POINT GAME Part 2 This one is based on our Bingo word bilingual, relating to two languages. The items numbered are colors in a foreign language. The items with letters are types of flowers. Your task is to match the numbers and letters so each pair is written in the same language. Each of the letters and numbers will be used only once in your answers. (I hope the same word is not used in more than one language, but I will check that in awarding points.) Send your guesses to me through Message or email. Simply post here on the thread that you sent answers so I will be sure to look for them. Example. If these were in English and #8 was “gold” and the only other English word on the list was h. “daylily”, you would give that as one answer: 8h. Send me all 7 guesses for #1-7. You are matching the items under numbers and under letters so they are written in the same language. The person(s) with the most answers right will get 5 points. For 2 extra points you can list which language each pair is. 2 more points if you correctly translate all the words into English. The last 2 parts are not required as part of the game --- just a bonus if you want to try for it --- and all 7 must be correct for you to get bonus points. Please send your answers to me by the end of the day Saturday. I'll announce the winner on Sunday. Once again, I hope this makes sense. I'm “creating” these games as I go along so I always wonder if my instructions make sense. czerwona blanc amarillo oranssi bílý flavo blau a. nelke b. gardénie c. lys d. tulppaani e. helianthus f. crisantemo g. róża Remember, this is the last day to send in your Bingo words if you are interested. Tomorrow is the last day to sign up for the swap. Enjoy! Jeanne