Mark, The question of what makes a "good" houseplant is an interesting question, am curious to see peoples' responses. Maybe is we give folks a little time, at least a day or two, they'll start weighing in w/ some considered responses. [don't be surprised if someone first suggests we might have to define the term "good" for this question]. I believe we'll have to disagree completely about Exchange restrictions. I know what I read & just to be sure, I went back & read it again. I don't know how to invoke bold or underline in here so am quoting the entire text where I suggested you go to the area marked "Special Instructions for Exchanges." I draw your particular attention to the SECOND & PENULTIMATE items. I've highlighted those several items by using BLOCK CAPITALS (Copy & pasting it in here lost the bullets as in the original, I've inserted paragraph breaks in here from memory, my apologies in advance to GW/IVillage). "Special Instructions for Exchanges: This area is for the purpose of exchanging seeds or plants of the type covered by this forum. The exchanges were created to facilitate the arranging of trades of plants and seeds between members. PLEASE DO NOT use them to solicit donations, ask for free plants or seeds, or ASK FOR ITEMS IN EXCHANGE FOR POSTAGE. ALL REQUESTS MUST BE IN THE CONTEXT OF ARRANGING A TRADE. If you have nothing to offer at this time, please wait until you do. All exchanges are restricted to users from a particular country, region or state. If it isn't indicated otherwise, the exchange is restricted to residents of the U.S. To find an exchange for your location, check the the exchange index. Each post must have a type of trade, subject and a message. Trading is done at users' discretion. GardenWeb has no control or responsibility over trades arranged here. Keep in mind some traders may let you down, so it might be wise to keep your initial trade with someone limited to smaller items. Messages addressed to or meant for particular users should be sent via email and are not allowed in the exchanges. If you have trouble with another person coming through with their end of a trade, you must deal with it privately. It is the consensus of the forum users that this type of thing be kept out of our forums. Any public accusation in this forum, or elsewhere at GardenWeb, will result in the accuser being banned. To avoid problems when shipping across borders and some state lines, it is best to ship plants bare-rooted and to label the container as such. It is up to the users involved to determine what is legal and what is not. THIS FORUM IS FOR THE PURPOSE OF EXCHANGING MATERIAL, THERE SHOULD BE NO NEED TO MENTION MONEY IN ANY POSTINGS. IF MONEY IS MENTIONED, THE POSTING WILL BE CONSIDERED AN ADVERTISEMENT AND THE POSTER WILL BE BANNED. Trading of patented material is unlawful and is strictly forbidden."

I have thought about this often lately because we are trying to plan a new section for the backyard that includes a path through the garden. I love exploring/discovering new things so a path that curves around and is surrounded by beautiful and fun things (garden statues, water fixture, etc...) is very appealing to me. I haven't quite figured out the design yet as I want to include a climbing rose on an arbor as well. I'm more of a planter, not a planner! Planning kind of takes the fun out of it for me. I like to move things around. If it's true "All gardens are a form of autobiography" then you would look at mine and say OCD! LOL I got addicted to daylilies and bought 88 in 2 years. Now I am down to 75 but idealy, for my small space, I need to further bring down my collection to 50 which will be very hard to do. I also deadhead EVERY day so yeh, a bit OCD. I getting addicted to roses now. :)

I did a few dozen cuttings a couple of weeks ago (a couple of weeks early) and so far they are mostly doing well. I used a mixture of peat and perlite. I placed the small pots in a large open-top plastic container and covered them with a plastic covered frame. I did a lot of cuttings last year with low sucess rate but the ones that survived are ready to plant now but I'll wait till the weather gets cooler. Thanks for the tips everyone. Marshall

I'd love to see more of your posts in your site.. I love gardening and I love putting it in my blog.. Here is a link that might be useful: Phillip Murray Blog