Carolyn, really appreciate your detail explanation on your old tank setup. The fan I have only has one setting -- ON or OFF. It is about the size of computer fan, but more industrial heavy duty in comparison. It sure churns the air a heck lot harder. I haven't really try my hands on rigging a computer fan to a DC adaptor but I'll see if I can get my father-in-law, who is a electrical wiz, to help me when we visit him during summer. In the meantime, I will try moving the fan outside on the top of the hood blowing down thru one of filter openings (it currently sits on the bottom of tank, blowing up,) and see how that goes. >>If this setup is in your home, use a very small fan that barely moves the air so that it is just enough to pull the hot air out from the top & allow the humidity levels to stay up.Ray,thank you for explaining about the air movement expected within an aquarium. My poor plants have been exposed to hurricane!! KC

Well...I'm not Mr. B either...oh wait, yes I am! *ahem* Clara is right. -the end- j/k She basically is though. I cannot quibble with anything she said. One thing the esteemed Mr. P from OHG will tell you is that air flow is overrated. He visited our OS last year and went to some of our member's greenhouses I think. Anyway he said that the air where many of the plants we grow live, is quite stagnant. I visted their greenhouses earlier this year and the air is very buoyant but doesn't have nearly the 'wind' that my main grow area has with the oscillating fan. Consequently, I've tried to use the fan less. Problem for me is that I use the fan to blow mist from the nozzles and vapor from the humidifier, so they cover more plants. Perhaps that's a digression... Stewart says that fastuosa lives from 100-1500m in the SW of Madagascar, up to the highlands. 1500m is really fairly high, thus cool/intermediate; and 100m is really quite low, thus warm. Since there is a range, the plant ought to be fairly adaptable. But still, I would move it a little out from the window. Stewart also says the leaves are leathery. Honestly, I've noticed quite a few of my plants leaves have that leathery look. The problem is that it *could* be from temperature or lack of humidity issues. Or it *could* be from no/poor roots. Or it *could* be from mites or other 'pests'. Oh, yes, that is most likely a spike nub just starting. Its too soon to tell for sure but it would make sense if your plant bloomed in March. In fact, I'd wager that it will bloom at nearly if not exactly, the same time as before. Interesting side note: I had two, one from the southern hemisphere, Madagascar, and one from California. They both bloomed at exactly the same time. So I think the bloom time for them is pretty well hard-wired into the dna. Lastly, I would not dismount it and pot it. The one I killed, was potted. The other one began to languish, and I mounted it, and so far so good. You seem to be able to give mounts what they need, so I wouldn't change anything. Why take it from growing in a fairly natural way to trying to force it to grow in a way that is alien to it? Too risky. IMO. Can't wait to see the flowers! -MB

I found my own surprise this week - I'd pulled two little clumps of germinating seedlings from my hellebores, thinking they were strange, definitely not hellebores. Hmmmm, what kind of pod could have blown in there that all those '???' seeds had germinated almost on top of each other. Pod? Fruit? Berry? Duh. Clump three and closer examination, they're sunflowers. Little stashes of sunflowers. We don't have squirrels, but occasionally a chipmunk. I suspect it was Chippy :)

I had a female cardinal that wouldn't leave a truck's side view mirror alone one year. The main thing is to block them from seeing their reflection. Once she settles down to nesting, you should be able to remove the window cover.