I love reading these types of posts, it is really cool to see what everyone is growing or fighting...lol 1. What is your current favorite houseplant? Always & forever, my hoya's, any of them, even the ones without the flowers, though I have three that just flowered, and another in the process. 2. What is your least favorite houseplant? Why? I have a couple sanseveria, snake plants, and I really just don't like them. I just don't see the appeal. I have one (the hahnii **sp.) in a four inch pot that I tried to kill over the winter by not watering at all, and to my surprise, it is still alive, and has a new healthy pup. 3. What plant are you thinking of burning? A couple of mini roses......they are just too picky for inside the house, and since I am not much of an outdoor gardener, I wouldn't mind throwing them into the fire.....lol 4. What plant is number one on your wish list? Why? I have quite a few plants, mostly hoya's and gessie's on my wish list. Hoya's would be my number one plant on my wish list though. 5. What plant can't you get enough of? Why? Mine would have to be hoya's. I just took part in my first D. Liddle order, and my first hoya round robin (hoya swap), and I still want more. I won't be satisfied until I have them all. My whole life goal.....lol.....is to own every species of hoya. Whether or not they have flowers, these are my number one favorite plant!! Everyone should have one. tracy www.damnplants.blogspot.com Here is a link that might be useful: My plant blog

I'm just a beginner, but here's the rundown: -1 Chamaedorea Elegans, doing REALLY well although I bought it from IKEA and it didnt look the best, but now its all happy and perky. It's on top of my radiator in the bathroom and I water it every other day, it pops out fronds like its nobody's business, it also doesn't mind the dry air when I'm not showering, what a plus! it gets whatever extra fert i have left over from doing my other plants. This houseplant deserves more recognition because I give it a 5 star rating. -1 Musa Basjoo banana.its in pretty good shape, its down to 1 LEAF now because one of them burnt for a reason i still don't know why?,its putting out another one with more on the way. It puts out 1 leaf per week. I fert it once a month. This one is another great plant of mine. -1 Aechmea Fasciata. This one has had a love-hate relationship with me, but now its produced 2 pups and is powering along nicely. The pink bloom is gone, but the fountain-look and whiteness of the foliage always mesmerizes me. It takes dry air now, didnt use to. Likes tons of sun also. This one goes to the garden with the banana in the summer, because I've tipped it over as far back as I can fathom, its very top heavy so beware! But anyways now here's the list of what I've killed: -2 Sabal Palmetto seedlings. These were never ment for my house, but unknowingly I got them in November and babied them for 5 months before they bid farewell. After that I stuck em outside and let Mother Nature take over. -1 WodXVeitchia seedling. I bought this for $20 on ebay in september and It only survived until December. I think it died due to pink rot on the crownshaft. -1 Guzmania Bromeliad. I bought this at Home Depot in a 16in pot for $15 in October and it died in March. The unusual thing is that one of the old stems where the old plants were(they produced pups before this) had fell off and was missing. The plant also stopped growing and died, so again I let Mother Nature take care of it, well I can always go back to Home Depot and buy another! Thanks Home Depot!

I was visiting my in-laws in Florida and found a GREAT book called Florida's Fabulous Butterflies. It also has a section on some beautiful moths too. It gives details about the common butterflies (and ones less so) and gives much information about their life cycles and what their caterpillars eat. So many beautiful pictures too. It makes me want to live there. So much land is being lost to development too--it's great that you want to help out the butterflies! Purple Hairstreak caterpillars eat Mistletoes. (I am now going through the book.) Malachite caterpillars eat blechum, ruellia, and plantago. White Peacocks eat blechum, ruellia, and lippia. Then you get butterflies familiar to many of us-- Pearl Crescents, Red Admirals, all kinds of swallowtails. Some pictures showed butterflies nectaring on Ixora flowers, Pentas, Spanish needles, I would imagine that planting native plants is the best and easiest way to go. Coontie is a great one to plant since it supports the beautiful Atala butterfly. I saw Zebra Longwings too--they use Passion-flower Vine--the FAQ has the exact species of Passion flower that you can use. (The book talks about how they do external digestion--they take up pollen and let it soak on their curled up proboscis! Fascinating.) Julias also use Passion Flower too. So fun! Keep us posted on what visits your yard.

Hi, This is my first posting. Last week my husband cut down a black walnut tree because we had 3 beautiful young trees and several perennials die last year that were very close to the black walnut. I don't know if it is related, but the walnut had a major branch fall off during a summer storm. Would that stress have caused the BW to send out more juglone? Unfortunately when I had planted those trees & perennials, I did not know about this website! Consequently, I had planted all the wrong species very close to the walnut. Now that the walnut has been reduced to a 1 foot tall stump, will my new plantings survive? I did choose species listed in this forum as being BW tolerant. I have not been able to find anything that lists tolerant annuals I could plant while waiting for these perennials to fill out. Could anyone tell me if Coleus is safe? If not, are there any other annuals that could thrive and block our view of the stump? It is the first thing you notice when coming down our driveway! Any advice would be much appreciated. We do have a younger BW 25 feet away that I have never planted anything around it. Should we cut it down now as a preventative measure? I'd like to spend the rest of my life creating beautiful gardens on our 2 acre property. I have learned so much from this forum in the past month. I wish I had known about it a few years ago when I started gardening. I would not have made so many costly mistakes. I'd really like to thank all of you generous gardeners for the time and energy you invest helping us newbie gardeners. Jennifer