Heee Heeee, shhhhh don't tell anyone, but YES!!! I am already making my list of wants and must haves and things I am giving up on growing and either I am going to trade some plants with neighbors or oh my I can't believe I am saying this go buy the plant. My collection of seeds for next year is standing pretty still but yes I have already started collecting seeds. Also I have been scoping out what my family members are growing so I can snatch their seeds along with my own to trade with come this fall. LOL I am an addict!! I need help!!

Medha, I do still have the plants (I'd left a message for erin007, but I think messages on this website don't go through?). But I don't want to ship them, and I don't want to drive to drop them off. And they probably aren't really worth the gas for a special drive for you. When I posted this, I was thinking that maybe someone would take it for whom it's a couple stops by subway. But if you are ever in center city area (or university city) anyway, not just for this, let me know, you can have the plants. Your profile doesn't list your e-mail though, and for some reason I don't see a link "send me an e-mail" there either (but I think these links don't work anyway?). So if you do want them, let me know what your e-mail is. But yeah, either way, don't make a special trip -- if you want to drive somewhere to pick up a begonia, Meadowbrook farm near Philly has a good selection (http://www.meadowbrookfarm.org/index.html) -- they have many varieties, all just $7, I bought mine there, and this way you would pick exactly what you want, not just my leftover plant :)

Adam, orchids, unfortunately, are expensive, in most people's opinion. I've always loved houseplants, but when I bought my first orchid two years ago, I was an instant believer! Home Depot and Lowe's sell them for an average of $19.99 for a 4-6 inch pot. But. . . when they bloom, they are well worth it! I have rebloomed approximately a third of my 40 plants, and had to wait over a year and a half for the first rebloom, but when it happened I was turning cartwheels with joy! They are just awesome, and there are so many different varieties - 40,000 or so and this doesn't include hybrids! So its easy to get carried away, because you can never have them all, and it drives you crazy! I guarantee you'll get addicted the minute you buy one plant! Don't even do it if you don't want to be hooked for life. I have one Strep (Joker) and it hasn't bloomed for me yet. Its getting big though. I love streps. Syngonium also goes by the name Nephytis (sp) or Arrowhead plant. They are really easy, and you'd know one instantly if you saw it. They are common - but I love the new colors they are coming in now. Alocasias are in the aroid family. So are colocasias, etc. Really fascinating plants. My waxes are doing great indoors. Growing and blooming all the time. They made me fall in love with begonias! I like the bronze leaves the best. I don't do anything special with them - just mist them every morning and let them dry out between waterings, and fertilize once a month with Peters 20-20-20, half strength. How are you doing with your episcia? I haven't tried those yet - I'm chicken since I heard they are tricky, and I don't have enough humidity, I don't believe. I've ordered from Rob's Violets before, but for some reason I can't keep AVs alive, and I finally gave up on them. Didn't matter if I got them from a grower or ebay or a friend - they always end up croaking on me. Especially the minis. I do still have a couple of standards currently, but I know its just a matter of time before they wilt and die. They even bloom beautifully, but then all of a sudden, its curtains. :( So I no longer let myself get excited about them. Do you like bulbs, and do you grow any? I have some Ledebourias that are just toooooooo cute. (Also known as Scillas). They aren't real common in culture yet, but can be treated much like cactus, and I think they're the neatest little things. Mine are miniatures. I could go on about plants all day! Will look for your new thread. And come on over to the orchid board! Randi

Linda (opnjmprs, You got the bug before we did! We've been so busy for so long that reading/posting on any boards has been minimal. Yes ours are started and growing...around 800 again this year. My belief on getting 1st year bloom in our zone 6a area involves the plant being atleast 8 months old (preferably 9 months old) in August. That means they need to be growing in first couple of weeks of December. Seems they also don't like pulling apart and basically making a bare root transplant (we tried that last year with a few crosses), so we have 1 plant per 16oz plastic cold cup/stryofoam hot cup. They have an awesome root system in these and using a bulb planter they plop rather quickly from cup to the bed. We find it best to get them into the seedling bed before May. I know some like plain soil beds and that's their way of doing things, but we are all different. We have a pretty heavy clay type soil here, so we add Mushroom Compost, some coase sand (concrete sand) and fallen leaves and till it early Fall to around 8" deep. Give them the nutrients they need and they will bloom beginning the last of August for us. The combination the age and husbandry seems the ticket. Maybe the quanity/quality of the lighting helps also..we don't know. We now get over 50% 1st year bloom now; atleast the past 2 years have been this way. Here's a few shots of our grow room last year. It's actually so bright it bothers your eyes to look at them. Seedlings at 4 weeks Our low tech grow room Cheers, Bruce and Tanya Here is a link that might be useful: Our Website updated with a link to the grow room