Orchid126 Thanks. This photo was taken in April when it bloomed for me for the first time. I have bought it with two young spikes along with "complimentary" bottle of fertilizer  about 5ml big of some blue stuff. The instruction said feed it until the first bud is formed then stop. So it did bloom and then I stopped feeding it until I saw a new young spike appeared in September. As a newbie I started checking on what to do with it now and realized that I missed about 4 months of feeding! :(( My dilemma now is that I have started feeding it "weekly and weakly" with high N fert. Then I have read that thereÂs a "bloom boost" one available and I got confused on what to actually feed it. get more growth with N or more flowers with P Sweetcicely I think there was more confusion with my reply than with your answer =)) The "bloom booster" supposed to be used after 6 months of feegin with high N fertilizer, until the first bud is formed. Then stop feeding phal until it finished flowering and start all over again after that. That might work ok providing that phal is flowering once a year when mine obviously spikes with no food at all for the 2nd time already! Thanks for the compliment  I love elegant white flowers. At the moment IÂm looking for a couple yellow and orange color phals to grow on the N window in the kitchen under artificial light. I was hoping to pot them later in one long pot. But thatÂs a different story =) thanks Kate

I see a few near the coast on google. I was told they were planted large fronting a nice and big Hotel. They have the "coconut juuuuust making it look" like what you see in the California desert. Interesting that those Coconuts had tall Howea palms next to them. But,yes,I would trade for the Brisbane climate. Ironic that here in the bay area we also have a city named Brisbane. Its a very cool ,mild climate..not Brisbane like in summer!

Dirr was first. Was he the best? Until a better one comes along, he is. He also established a market for a book that before him didn't exist, yet a market (nationally) where there is only room for one. However, he's done. His Manual will most likely never again be revised. He's opinionated. This one trait made him both revered and reviled. The people that don't like him...tend to be the ones who have strong opinions of their own. Imagine that...people who deal with something a lot tend to have strong opinions about what they work with on a regular basis. Shocking. Do I hold everything he says as Gospel? Lord no, I'm the first to tell you I have crammed the margins with notes and addendums, to the point that I'm going to have to buy a new copy of the last edition (my current one is held together by rubber bands...I can't decide if it would the ultimate insult to ask him to autograph it, or if it would the greatest compliment to offer a book to be signed that has been so often opened). In every part of the country but the NW, Jacobsen is a lightweight. It's a little surprising I even know about him, despite his personality cult in certain area(s). There are other authors specific to NE, the MW, or the SW tht while they are dominant in their market...they will never be more than a footnote elsewhere. Jacobsen's biggest problem is Dirr's...he's just a opinionated, but tries to take himself so seriously. Dirr embraced the opinions, and phrases them in ways that take you by surprise, and in doing so, either thrill you or repulse you. I'd say most people kinda like it. ACJ takes himself soo seriously, yet he's just as opinionated. Again, someone who deals with something alot develops opinions about it? Could we be on to something? As for Whitcomb, his books sit on the shelf, collecting dust. Every once in a while I'll take them down, peruse them a bit, then put them back for another rainy day somehwere down the road. If I wanted to buy into all of his ancillary products, great, I'd be hooked. Actually not, I'd by into Forrest Keeling RPM, but that's a container of a different root hair. But where everyone else gets condemned for selling out for something as base as money, he gets praised? He gets quoted because he put into words all those things no one else did. For that, he fully deserves to sell all the copies he can. Beyond that, what I find of anyone's work means little beyond what value I find in it. I have something over 200 books covering nearly every facet of plants, particularly those woody, you could imagine. Some should probably be utilized more fully than they are. I'd rather use the Diseases of Trees and Shrubs and the Insects that Feed on Trees and Shrub and Insect Pests of Forest Trees, but most people just want to know what's in the Ortho Problem Solver. Do I need to bury them with info, or answer their question?

nancy_east -- thanks for your nice words! How exciting about your kitchen -- this will be fun to watch develop! The widest walkway we have is 36 1/2" (countertop to countertop), with it going down to 34 1/2" where our apron front sink "jumps" out. From our cooktop to the widest point of the bowed island countertop is 35 3/4". The only times (or rather, areas) our aisles feel tight are when the dishwasher door is open and there's only 12" of clearance (between the open door and the island cabinetry). But so far, no barked shins! We're careful and aware. The other area is our refrigerator (which is 30" wide, all refrigerator so it's a wide door): when it's open the only one who can sidle by (and then it's just barely) is our two year-old. But neither of those conditions are permanent (meaning, the dishwasher is mostly closed and the refrigerator door is mostly closed as well). While 36" for an aisle isn't "ideal," for us it's working out fine. Our only alternative would've been to give up the island and that wasn't an option! We need the storage space. Your aisles will work out fine; if it there's an impediment in the 36" aisle (like a dishwasher), then you all will learn the same careful two-step we and many others have as well! Good luck with your kitchen-in-progress! (and whole house, too!)