Agree it's easier to talk about one plant at a time. I'm not a fan of verbal abuse, either, admit it's a cheap, desperate act against a probably innocent plant. Seriously though, I've got the sickness that most plant people have - where one thinks the plants are always thirsty. Assuming the soil is not inappropriate and the roots have room to grow in it, and that light and temp are within acceptable range, gaining control over this compulsion is what enables people to improve most of their plants, or at least not kill them. (A few plants actually like to stay soggy, and not everyone has this defect.) The soil is extremely important and although I'm in complete agreement about texture and moisture, I do things differently than most people (like putting live compost from an open pile in potted plants.) So I encourage people who grow in store-bought ingredients to follow Al's advice. A current thread, What was your 1st houseplant..., is packed with testimonials about plants killed by love in the form of too much water/inappropriate soil. Once you get a good handle on that stuff, almost any plant should thrive in your care. Your only limits would be those out of your control like climate/light level. Ivy and Syngonium (arrowhead vine) can both be grown as dangling trailers, or upright with support of some type. Something fun to think about for plants that have a choice. Do you notice any reddish or pinkish coloring to the veins on your Syngonium. Most I've seen have some. That's all it takes (as if regular green/white variegation isn't already enough) for me to swoon over these. I have one that makes pinkish orange leaves that fade to "plain" green/white as they age. It will be spring before I need to determine if that should be left to hang or given a support to climb. "you'll find yourself concerned with Other people's plants almost as much as your own!" No doubt man! It's terrible when someone gets something interesting going and then disappears. Not only are you worried about them and their issue, you're dying to know what happened. That's rare though. I love watching people's plants grow as they periodically post pics of them. "Again, after repotting, mold will vanish along with gnats." Again, no doubt. And if the new soil is kept too soggy/too often, these problems can return. "...provide the incentive they need to abandon any contrary ways." This cracked me up! How timely, too. A couple weeks ago I got sick of looking at a particularly unhappy potted spider plant and don't really want to unleash more of this thing in the yard, and have given enough of this rampant weed away to start several other infestations already (and I can always dig up more if I find myself with empty pots,) so I put it upside-down on top of a compost pile and kind of pushed it down a bit. Sunday I went to put stuff on that pile and that spider plant had righted itself (although I'd be willing to concede that a squirrel,...

Did i read it well? 300 pots!!! Wow... i'd love to have so much room for plants... it would make it look like a jungle over here ("he" Tarzan and I Jane, hihihi) Sounds fantastic! I wish you lots of fun with your improved place for the hippies and other beauties. I have ordered a little balcony/patio green house. It is light weight and can be easily (so they said) put up and down. At the shop they have also spare sleeves and even winter sleeves that let light go through but isolate from cold. I think this will be my solution to be able to have the hippies outside during spring/summer/autumn. This way i hope to have more control of temperature AND to keep the bulb flies away from MY bulbs...grrrrr.... I will have to buy insect screen as well, in order to place it in front of the door when it's open for ventilation. I've heard that female bulb flies can be VERY persistent when it comes to find a place to lay the eggs :-O I see your plats are outside. Don't you have bulb flies over there? This is the "little green house" i mean ....not quite as big as a "little house on the prairie" :-D.... but it could accomodate a few plants...

Before the GardenWeb gets around to pulling my plug I thought I would point out that one of the greatest, if not the only, benefit of using an Eagle Window is the fact that they will put a different color sash in their aluminum clad window frames as I referenced in my earlier post that was thought to be rude. A black sash can sometimes be an excellent choice in a gray or off-white frame because it gives the windows a more dramatic, deeper, and larger appearance. It was commonly used in older houses and has worked well for me in several historic restorations. But without seeing the rest of the trim colors and materials and the general setting of the house, it would be inappropriate to recommend anything that specific. Making the entire window sash and frame black can be too strong IMHO since subtlety is an important issue in any huse although it can work when the windows are inset in brick openings with no trim. Whatever is decided it should be accurately drawn to scale in color or mocked up. Making the windows all white seems a waste of a design opportunity unless the style of the house demands it (Georgian, etc). But if you like the Craftsman Style you really shouldn't be thinking about white windows or even clapboard siding for that matter. Pick a theme and try to reinforce it with the appropriate materials. There is a reason the Craftsman houses used shingles and earth colors; it was part of a cultural movement protesting the industrial revolution, not just a fashion or a "style". mdev, you apparently thought I was speaking to you about your window color comments but you should not have. I try to only speak to the OP in a thread and often don't read the other posts very thoroughly since I'm working in my office and often don't even see a recent post because it can take me an hour or two to post if a client calls or if I go to lunch. I can't do this full time. If I had something to say to you, I would normally have used your name. Others appear to have understood that and I only just figured out what you had assumed. I believe that responding to other posters comments rarely helps the OP and it often hijacks the thread which is truly a rude thing to do. The original post should always take precedence or AH would just become another chat room like the garden and kitchen forums. People come to BAH for real answers. The late Ben Thompson often told us to never design in a vacuum. It actually took me some time to understand what he meant: never focus on one design element to the exclusion of the others. The first thing you consider when selecting anything is how it will reinforce the central idea or design motif (called a "parti" in design school and you had to have one you could defend or your presentation was over). Only then should you consider the other aspects of the design. (You can learn a bit of this from the "What Not To Wear" TV show.) Focusing on the big ideas first instead of your old favorite ideas actually makes designing easier as well as more powerful. Toward the end things just seem to fall into place. The choice of a window color should fit into the larger "parti" and if you haven't defined that yet or can't describe it to others you can't move forward and get effective help from others. In other words, your're stuck. Know that feeling? It took me 4 years as an engineering and art student in college, 3 1/2 years in graduate school (interrupted by the war) and 10 years in an office to figure how a design process worked. I offer it to you in a 10 minute tutorial for free. Whether you understand it or not, you can't say I didn't try. The photo below is of a Cambridge, MA house restoration finished last year. On a lark I applied to do a another Cambridge house advertised on Craigslist with just my resume and this photo and beat out 250 other architectural proposals from all over New England. What many years of experience teaches you is proportion and balance. I don't know how to teach that in 10 minutes but learning to design a Palladian window would an excellent place to start.

teachbls, I knew you would love Eaglesgal's DR, and the suggestions I made to you are inspired by her. I do think we have a similar quandry. I don't have a resolution yet. As we speak, I'm having picture frame molding installed below my chair rail in the DR, and new drapes are supposed to arrive tomorrow. I thought it best to wait until those things are finished before making a color choice. I haven't given up on the blue yet, but if I do use it it will be a more intense color. I do think that was the bigger problem with mine; the shade just didn't have any oomph to it; especially compared to the rest of the house. The posts by labradoodlelady and segbrown in this thread demonstrate this very well, I think. In their homes, the blue "belongs" because it is of a similar intensity, and looks great, especially with the reds. BTW, in your home, particularly with the dramatic height and gorgeous chandelier, the painted ceiling would be incredible. I'll look forward to seeing more pics of your kitchen and also the sitting room you mentioned. Thanks.