I'm actually surprised, and maybe others can fill me in on this, how 10 minutes per zone is sufficient. Unless it's much different temp wise where you are, in MA, the top of my soil doesn't get sufficiently damp and stay damp for a decent amount of time without being watered for 30 minutes with my irrigation system. Even then, there is still a 1 1/2 - 2 hour period where the top feels barely damp or completely dry before it is watered again, only in mid morning and in the afternoon. I water from 3:30am - 6am and it's good until about 9 or 9:30 and then it starts feeling like it's drying out and I have to really concentrate on feeling dampness on the top of the soil. Then it goes off again at 11am, and by 2:00 or so, I can barely feel dampness. Then 4:00 it goes off and it stays damp right on through until the next watering at 3:30am.

Hello all, Plumie.... I am the one who is now looking forward to seeing your photos this time! I think if we just remember to write a few lines about our plumies in the threads, we wont get into bother as we seem to get a bit side tracked, oh well, it's all very interesting stuff and its to do with gardening I guess. Shane....Good luck with your Yellow Hawaii cutting also, keep us posted? I will do the same. Glad you liked the pics! The white/yellow centre plumie is a 'Celadine', it is the only one I have apart from the cutting. It was one of five from Oz...6" sticks in planted in April 2005, the others rotted, but had I known about this forum, I could have saved them. I have learnt such a lot from here. John...So you have a Red then? We will have to turn this into a competition to see who can get roots first, bet I will be last! I forgot to put perlite around the stem (thanks for reminder) although I did mix it 50/50 with compost. Will have to tip out and re-do it tomorrow. I put a cut off lemonade bottle over the top of the pot to make a little greenhouse, as that is how I got my Celadine to 'get a move on' this spring, but I noticed a bit of grey fuzz on the leaf scars as I guess it was too humid, so I have taken the cover off and am letting the stick dry out more. Hopefully it will not go mouldy again. I am toying with the idea of making heat-box...cardboard box lined with 1cm thick polystyrene sheets, then lined again with aluminium foil, into which a low rated light bulb will be placed. A lid of polystyrene with a hole cut in to slip the plant pot down into the box as far as the 'collar' of the pot. The heat from the light bulb should then be contained in the box and give it constant bottom heat as I fear we are fast approaching autumn over here (outside temps at night have already been below 10deg)and I dont want to loose my cuttting...I tried placing it on top of the lid of the tropical fish tank, over the transformer, but the heat didnt penetrate, (especially when the lights went out at night!!!)do you think this will work? Greenclaws.

Just read the other updates to this thread. redroze - the floors are white oak - natural - with a coat of poly on them in that photo - they'll get at least 2 more coats before all is said and done. the backsplash is only going to be painted - i did not want tile. the jazzed curves were to be the interest with just a plain or glazed paint to bring out the beauty of the granite. we have pendants now installed over the peninsula - will post photos soon - they are pretty similar to socabeths = they are black down rods and white alabaster-ish shades. socabeth - gorgeous!!!!! i love seeing more seafoam!!! funny to see your saddle stools since i have been obsessing about stools today and thet are high on the list. :) where did you get yours???? sail-away - thanks! :) yes - we ARE fully functional! it's wonderful. today painters were here. the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to blind me!! i, too, had my eyes opened to the real beauty of granite when i visited one of our fabricators fave places and saw all of the exotic stones. at first i thought i wanted something very uniform and the more i looked, the more i was drawn to stones like seafoam that, i think, are such true works of art. :) Today's update: 2/18/08 MOnday - carpenters finished the crown moulding at the top of cabinets and put in toe kicks. Painters came and started painting of interior doors (we are in midst of almost whole-house remodel and they started with door painting - kitchen painting is tomorrow or Wednesday). Cabinet hardware arrived via UPS from CCBRASS.COM - carpenter will install tomorrow. I'm still in shock that this is really MINE. Dorothy

hey lychee! wow the spirea sounds awesome! holliswood, queens. r u in brooklyn? an older, humble/starter cape with not enuf windows at all, the house can badly use a total renovation but i don't have the dinero nor the need for regalness right now. to top it off the previous owner had nothing but GRASS and weeds growing all over, not a single tree on the whole property. last yr i planted blue atlas cedar, var. leyland, carolina/arizona cypress, arborvitae, juniper, jew, var. eunymous, roses all around but if only they would hurry up and grow tall! so its taking ages to get rids of weeds that keep coming up, the place looks a hot mess still =( i put down 30 bags pine mulch last fall becuz the color matches the brick walls i put up, but that type sucks as it dries out to a pale white color and blows around all over the place, will def never use pine mulch again! ur mulch looks heaps better, yeah will look for a landscaper once i get around to pulling out more of the perpetually sprouting weeds that used to be the previous owner's entire "lawn". the only grace to the yard is from the container bananas, monstera, etc i just put out and it gets so cold at night and so sunny during the day, their foliage is looking a real wreck.... and i've never seen new york so perpetually windy since fall, is this el ninyo la ninya pinta santa maria weather or what?!?! pics r from december, not now. will probably have to take update pics soon, yard IS looking a better than these pics, but not much!!! still a looooong way to go to even be a somewhat presentable garden =L