Thanks, all - I *love* the spider plant idea...and I have a spider to start with too, so thanks!! I did do my repotting this weekened...whew, what a chore! All three Ficus look *much* better for the pruning though, and are already tossing out new leaves (no leaf drop even...they seem to really appreciate the new digs & soil). I'll see if I can't get some pictures to post tonight or tomorrow. For now, I have my Philo. "Brasil" under my plain F. benjamina, with plenty of room for another couple of plants. P. Brasil has been super-fussy with me, and if it doesn't shape up in this nice spot under the Ficus, I'm going to chop the rest of him up and just grow it only in my aquariums (where cuttings of the same seem to do nicely). I think I'll put my spider back there with him for awhile, and maybe get a few other forms of spiders to complement it. Under the varigated Ficus, I decided to try a few different things. I put a Pteris cretica (brake fern), underneath (it will probably need more moisture, but we'll see), an Asparagus plumosis (which should be fine water-wise, but obviously will need to be kept trimmed back once it gets going), a swedish ivy (good suggestion!), and a tiny cutting of a basic goldfish plant (which I know will need to be repotted smaller for blooms, but the foliage will be a nice contrast to the lighter plants for now - $1.50 at the grocery store). I potted the F. elastica in a smaller container to keep it's growth a bit slower, so no room there for "extras"...but it's much happier too, and sending out new shoots like crazy. Thanks again for all the suggestions...I think the spider plants will look really cool underneath for contrast, regardless of what any of the rest of the plants do! :-)

There is a concept called "perched water table" where the size of the pot has no real influence on drainage, here is an excerpt from another post, courtesy of "tapla" from another forum - you can do a search in the GW for more info: Water Movement in Soils Consider this if you will: Soil need fill only a few needs in plant culture. Anchorage - A place for roots to extend, securing the plant and preventing it from toppling. Nutrient Sink - It must retain sufficient nutrients to sustain plant systems. Gas Exchange - It must be sufficiently porous to allow air to the root system. And finally, Water - It must retain water enough in liquid and/or vapor form to sustain plants between waterings. Most plants could be grown without soil as long as we can provide air, nutrients, and water, (witness hydroponics). Here, I will concentrate primarily on the movement of water in soil(s). There are two forces that cause water movement through soil - one is gravity, the other capillary action. Gravity needs little explanation, but for this writing I would like to note: Gravitational flow potential (GFP) is greater for water at the top of the pot than it is for water at the bottom of the pot. I'll return to that later. Capillarity is a function of the natural forces of adhesion and cohesion. Adhesion is water's tendency to stick to solid objects like soil particles and the sides of the pot. Cohesion is the tendency for water to stick to itself. Cohesion is why we often find water in droplet form - because cohesion is at times stronger than adhesion, waters bond to itself can be stronger than the bond to the object it might be in contact with; in this condition it forms a drop. Capillary action is in evidence when we dip a paper towel in water. The water will soak into the towel and rise several inches above the surface of the water. It will not drain back into the source. It will stop rising when the GFP equals the capillary attraction of the fibers in the paper. There is, in every pot, what is called a "perched water table" (PWT). This is water that occupies a layer of soil that is always saturated & will not drain at the bottom of the pot. It can evaporate or be used by the plant, but physical forces will not allow it to drain. It is there because the capillary pull of the soil at some point will equal the GFP; therefore, the water does not drain, it is "perched". If we fill five cylinders of varying heights and diameters with the same soil mix and provide each cylinder with a drainage hole, the PWT will be exactly the same height in each container. This is the area of the pot where roots seldom penetrate & where root problems begin due to a lack of aeration. From this we can draw the conclusion that: Tall growing containers are a superior choice over squat containers when using the same soil mix. The reason: The level of the PWT will be the same in each container, with the taller container providing more usable, air holding soil above the PWT. Physiology dictates that plants must be able to take in air at the roots in order to complete transpiration and photosynthesis. A given volume of large soil particles have less overall surface area in comparison to the same volume of small particles and therefore less overall adhesive attraction to water. So, in soils with large particles, GFP more readily overcomes capillary attraction. They drain better. We all know this, but the reason, often unclear, is that the PWT is lower in coarse soils than in fine soils. The key to good drainage is size and uniformity of soil particles. Large particles mixed with small particles will not improve drainage because the smaller particles fit between the large, increasing surface area which increases the capillary attraction and thus the water holding potential. Water and air cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Contrary to what some hold to be true, sand does not improve drainage. Pumice (aka lava rock), or one of the hi-fired clay products like Turface are good additives which help promote drainage and porosity because of their irregular shape. Now to the main point: When we use a coarse drainage layer under our soil, it does not improve drainage. It does conserve on the volume of soil required to fill a pot and it makes the pot lighter. When we employ this exercise in an attempt to improve drainage, what we are actually doing is moving the level of the PWT higher in the pot. This reduces available soil for roots to colonize, reduces total usable pot space, and limits potential for beneficial gas exchange. Containers with uniform soil particle size from top of container to bottom will yield better drainage and have a lower PWT than containers with drainage layers. The coarser the drainage layer, the more detrimental to drainage it is because water is more (for lack of a better scientific word) reluctant to make the downward transition because the capillary pull of the soil above the drainage layer is stronger than the GFP. The reason for this is there is far more surface area in the soil for water to be attracted to than there is in the drainage layer. I know this goes against what most have thought to be true, but the principle is scientifically sound, and experiments have shown it as so. Many nurserymen are now employing the pot-in-pot or the pot-in-trench method of growing to capitalize on the science. If you discover you need to increase drainage, insert a wick into the pot & allow it to extend from the PWT to several inches below the bottom of the pot. This will successfully eliminate the PWT & give your plants much more soil to grow in as well as allow more, much needed air to the roots. Uniform size particles of fir, hemlock or pine bark are excellent as the primary component of your soils. The lignin contained in bark keeps it rigid and the rigidity provides air-holding pockets in the root zone far longer than peat or compost mixes that rapidly break down to a soup-like consistency. Bark also contains suberin, a lipid sometimes referred to as natureÂs preservative. Suberin is what slows the decomposition of bark-based soils. It contains highly varied hydrocarbon chains and the microorganisms that turn peat to soup have great difficulty cleaving these chains. In simple terms: Plants that expire because of drainage problems either die of thirst because the roots have rotted and can no longer take up water, or they starve to death because they cannot obtain sufficient air at the root zone for the respiratory or photosynthetic processes. To confirm the existence of the PWT and the effectiveness of using a wick to remove it, try this experiment: Fill a soft drink cup nearly full of garden soil. Add enough water to fill to the top, being sure all soil is saturated. Punch a drain hole in the bottom of the cup & allow to drain. When the drainage stops, insert a wick several inches up into the drain hole . Take note of how much additional water drains. This is water that occupied the PWT before being drained by the wick. A greatly simplified explanation of what occurs is: The wick "fools" the water into thinking the pot is deeper, so water begins to move downward seeking the "new" bottom of the pot, pulling the rest of the PWT along with it. Having applied these principles in the culture of my containerized plants, both indoors and out, for many years, the methodology I have adopted has shown to be effective and of great benefit to them. I use many amendments when building my soils, but the basic building process starts with screened bark and perlite. Peat usually plays a very minor role in my container soils because it breaks down rapidly and when it does, it impedes drainage.

rthummer: Most people would consider it complicated, yes. Megapixels is largely marketing hype. Anything above 4mp should do you fine for prints unless you are submitting to magazines. If you have no desire to learn photography (in addition to how a particular camera works) then a DSLR is probably NOT the way to go, as they require a more fundamental understanding of the art than most P&S cameras do. BUT, they are the best way to do the widest variety of photos. As has been mentioned, the shutter lag on most point & shoot cameras is pretty bad. I think some improvement to that has been made in the last few years. Shutter speed and shutter lag are different things. Shutter speed is how log the camera exposes the sensor. Faster is better for stopping motion, but is limited by the amount of light available. Shutter lag is the time it takes from the moment you press the shutter to when it actually takes the picture. That is affected by a number of things. Focus speed, available light to focus by, auto white balance vs pre-set, etc. This has probably only added to your confusion, but every little bit of information helps. What else, besides hummers, do you plan to shoot with it? What are your photographic needs? By the way, just to be clear, the hummingbird photo is a composite of three photos. I managed to get several off as she swooped back and forth at the feeder. Then put them together later. THAT's where digital really shines.

I recommend the Akaso underwater video camera. My favorite place for snorkeling is also the Caribbean (haven't been for a while), and Fiji is second. I found snorkeling in Hawaii (Maui) to be boring by comparison. Here's a video I took while at Mana Island, Fiji, on my birthday with that camera This was before I learned how to turn off the time/date stamp and before I learned that it has an underwater setting that removes some of the blue. If you do get one of those cameras, familiarize yourself with it ahead of time as much as possible. It has lots of great features. The little black and white striped fish were very friendly and would eat dead skin off my legs, which tickled a bit.