Hi Karen_a_2007! Welcome to Garden Web. I suggest you go to the bottom of any page here and click on 'Member Pages'. then Edit Preferences. Then using the drop down box, set it to show your email addy to Members only. then check the box to allow others to email you via the forms here at GW. That will place a link on your member page so folks can then get your addy from the GW email form, since the GW email is often not reliable. You might also want to (while you are there) fill in your gardening zone...in the same box as your state abbreviation. Anyway, I emailed you privately (non GW) for you to send me a pic if you like. Sue

Hi Al, I was adding the perlite to the MG Moisture Control Potting Mix that was trying to drown my new babies. I'm going to use it to pot the herbs and want to make it looser and I found some pine bark mulch, not fines, and will add that also. Wish I'd found that before I repotted the babies last Tuesday, but they're staying put for now. I noticed the pulverized perlite and wondered if I should be sifting it out. I was surprised to see something that says coarse on the bag that has so much powder in it. If I were using perlite for cuttings I would sift out the very fine powder, thanks. For now, I'm having enough trouble keeping the plants I have from drowning, never mind working with cuttings! :) Although, I did stick the tip that was bent on the Hunt tree, in transit, into the pot with the Hunt tree and when I repotted "Mom" I put the tip into a clay pot with soil and it's growing. I have no idea if there are any roots and I'm not going to disturb it to find out. I'll leave it be for now because it's got two actual leaves that are growing and more buds coming along. So far, so good, so we'll see with that one, as well. I've got the wicks and the lighter potting soil and this next week, they will have more sun to see how they do, but it will be only morning sun for the next week. I did give them a weak liquid fertilizer, but only a short drink of that into the damp soil and over the leaves. Should have waited for that for another week, but didn't. I didn't ad the perlite to the Fafard Professional Potting Mix because it looks like it has plenty of that already. I wish I'd have found the pinebark mulch to ad in, but I guess they were out of it when I was at the nursery. Some of the young trees will go into the ground when they're older, but since they are more sensitive to the cold, I'll keep them in pots for the first few years. Thanks, Vivian

If the stalks themselves are gone, it's deer. If the bare stalks are still there (except perhaps the last few inches of the growing tip), but the leaves are missing, and only the stems that support the leaves remain (technically not stems or branches but petioles -- each petiole supports a single compound leaf), you probably have hornworms. They will eat blossoms and fruit as well. Hornworms have some of the best camouflage in the world: you can look right at them but not see them. They are active 24 hours a day. They leave distinctive droppings shaped like 1/4" dark-green blackberries. The droppings can be found under the damaged area (on leaves or on the ground). hornworms and their damage

Anthuriums are epiphytic (meaning they grow up in the canopies of the rainforests on the sides of trees), just like orchids, and they grow in the same habitats as orchids as well. Tho they can adapt to growing in a fast draining soil mixture that's blended with orchid bark, perlite, and charcoal. They are closely related to Peace lilies. Peace lilies also prefer a fast draining soil mixture that doesn't stay soggy either. So as long as the roots can breathe and have access to plenty of oxygen, you'll never have to worry about "overwatering" them. Both of these plants live in the rainforests, where they can get rained on on an almost daily basis. So they're no strangers to water. It's a common misconception that overwatering a plant is about giving them too much water, when it's not. It's when the soil mix holds on to too much water, cutting off the supply of fresh air to your plants' roots, causing them to suffocate. For my plants, I don't ever let them dry out. But I also use a proper soil mix that doesn't hold on to too much water either, no matter how much I water them. With it being wintertime, I don't water them as often as I do throughout the rest of the year. I have a similar sized plastic bucket that I sit my plants in and fill it up to the soil line with water, and I let them soak for about half an hour. Then I'll remove the pots and let the excess water drain away. You notice how the runoff will have a slightly brownish tinge to it from all of the dissolved solids in it. That's when I'll flush the pot out with some fresh water, until it starts to run out clear from the bottom. This helps to get rid of any excess mineral deposits and fertilizers that would otherwise buildup in the soil over time. These plants come from the rainforest, and they absolutely love water. But they also need for their roots to breathe as well. And I don't worry about spraying them either. They'll do just fine without it. Here's a couple of links to the Exotic Rainforest's website for properly caring for these plants. It offers a wealth of accurate information on these wonderful plants: Caring for Spathiphyllum & Growing the Tropical Anthurium As for the old spathes, you can just let them naturally die back completely on their own. They don't expend energy from doing this. In fact, letting them die back on their own gives them a chance to reabsorb any nutrients and/or chlorophyll from the spathes, which they can reuse in other areas of the plants. This is why they turn yellow beforehand. Once the old spathes have completely turned brown, they'll easily separate from the plant when you go to gently pull on them. This is no different than when the leaves of deciduous trees change color before the trees shed them in Autumn. Because they're reabsorbing all of the nutrients and green chlorophyll to reuse again in the Spring, rather than having to make them from scratch all over again.