Pls8xx, "One thing that has been on my mind the last few weeks is how important it is to me that a zinnia have a short compact plant form. I grow in a sand/clay mix rather than topsoil. It will hold plants upright fine when dry, but when wet the soil looses its strength and the tall plants become vulnerable to wind knocking them over." You have made a good case that you do need zinnias with a more compact plant habit. Last year, we had a very violent storm with high winds of 50mph and it blew down literally dozens of my zinnias. I had concrete re-bar tomato cages around a few of my more critical "breeders" and they were protected. But many of my big zinnia plants snapped off at the ground and many more lost their basal branches and some lateral branches. Interestingly, some of my big bushy scabiosa flowered zinnias and most of those F1s with a "scabi" parent came through just fine, with amazing resistance to the high winds. As is usual in a high wind storm here, for a period of hours we lost our electrical power, our telephone land line, and our cable connection. I studied the wreckage in my zinnia patch to see "what went wrong" structurally with my zinnias. As is usual for me, there were some surprises. I plan to apply what I learned from my "crash investigation" to make better decisions about plant structure this year. For one thing, I had planted a lot of Burpeeanas, from both Burpee and from Stokes. I had a lot of "out of the seed packet" Burpeeanas and some F1 hybrids from crosses that I made between Burpeeanas. (Incidentally, your picture of the "original" red Burpeeanas shows just how nice that Burpeeana bushy look can be.) To my amazement, some of the most disastrous structural failures were in my Burpeeanas. They have what I refer to as a "candelabra" stem structure, with basal branches coming out from the main stem at a 90 degree angle. Even though the stems look thick and strong, there is a kind of "joint" at the attachment point. Some of the basal branches that were in contact with the soil had actually sprouted roots and were apparently in the process of becoming independent plants. It's almost as if the stem joint was "willing" to detach from the main stem. But even higher up, those branches that cantilevered out from the main stem at a 90-degree angle seemed inherently weak. In almost all cases, the branches broke at their attachment points to the main stem. The plants that seemed resistant to branches breaking off had their branches leaving the main stem at a much more acute angle, like 45 or even 30°. So their branches were headed upward at the attachment point. For whatever reason, those branches seemed much better attached, even if the plant habit was more generally upward than outward. Despite the fragility of the Burpeeana plants in high winds, I plan to continue growing them and selecting the best flowers and plants. I will just be looking for stronger attachment points for their branches. If you want to emphasize compactness in your zinnia breeding, you can start with some strains that are already compact and cross some other zinnias with them. I personally have quit crossing the lower growing zinnias because I don't like kneeling and bending over to do my cross pollinating. I've always had a tendency toward lower back pain from my gardening, and a lot of bending over just aggravates it. However, short zinnias are interesting looking and fascinating in crosses, so I am thinking about constructing some really high raised beds that might bring those short zinnias up to a more comfortable working distance. There are some short zinnias that you can cross with tall zinnias that will produce some intermediate compact F1 hybrids, and the F2s from them should sort out into a wide range of plants that you could pick from for further breeding. Three of the shortest are the Thumbelina zinnia, the Zinnita zinnia, and Zinnia Short Stuff. Here is another view of Short Stuff and here is another seed source: Short Stuff at New England seed. Some taller but still very compact zinnias are Zinnia Swizzle cherry and ivory, Zinnia Swizzle scarlet and yellow, Zinnia Dreamland hybrids, Zinnia Magellan mix, and I just found that Zinnia Peter Pan mix is apparently still available. By crossing some of those compact zinnias with other zinnias you should have the basis for creating several new strains of compact zinnias, with various degrees of compactness. MM

Rosewitch, England was definitely one of my favorite places I have ever visited. My folks took me there when I was 14, and I remember bits and pieces the Crown jewels, walking amongst the Stonehenge stones (roped off now, vandalism), Stratford upon Avon. Time for me to take my own 14YO. Im trying to think how I can get over there for a whole summer, LOL. Dlynn, I could have worked so much more. I didnt really look at night time stuff and there was loads to do. Greece: cant help you, but shoot Yasou a line, she went a few years ago. LOL Annie! Teresa, well go together. I wanted to explore more cooking and food shops/stores but didnt get to. Terri, here is more a link to Pictures of England, a website pointed out to me by Denise. I started it on Bourton on the Water, where we stayed for a few days. Thanks Sharon, I was actually thinking how can I even come close to posting her quality of travel guides, I dont do the pictures she does LOL. We might have sat at the same table in the Cheshire Cheeses dining room! Sawdust still there, but we didnt make it to the cellar. I missed a lot of the British Museum. It has changed.check out the new atrium. I couldnt keep up with DH and DS16. Afternoons, when I planned museums, I crashed. Next time! Pam, lots of people did more than we did per day! Theater every night, more attractions, I cant imagine. Gina heh heh yeah I need another vacation like a hole in my head. Speaking of whichDH has another week off in August. Nooooooooo! Kathleen, DH says he took an average of 200 pictures a day. Yup. Me, I just buy the post cards or Google the images, same thing (DARFC from the photo bugs here) Cathy, thanks for giving me the War and Peace moniker heh heh. Next time I go with CF friends! LindaC, I know. Im still exhausted. Speaking of the V&A, did you know there was a Dale Chihuly chandelier in the entrance room?

Nik - Glad to see your other thread got some traction and hopefully results! If you haven't cut off the distorted growth on your cacti, I would do so. The pests really like to hide in the crevices and even inside growth masses (often they have internal folds). Stush - Thanks for your input. Many mites are host-specific as you say. Eriophyid (Aloe mites) are probably the scariest thing I've ever dealt with. There don't really seem to be many success stories or solid advice out there, other than destroy/discard the plant immediately. Plantspace - Yay, thanks! It does appear very grim online and these plants were so hard to get. I couldn't give up on them so I did a crazy amount of research instead. Here is my Ultrasonic Cleaner. It's capacity is 600mL, which is a decent size for small plants. You can get bigger ones, but they cost more than $40. If you are curious, there was a really good study by the Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture: Ultrasonic Treaments to Control Surface Pests of Fruit. The reason I went for ultrasonic miticide application are as follows: Ultrasound destroys mite tissues and kill them (10 minutes+ bath). Ultrasound knocks the mites off the plant and many of the eggs too. Full immersion of the plant in miticide ensures full coverage. Ultrasonic agitation enables the miticide to penetrate deeper into crevices where mites like to hide. Ultrasound cleans debris from the plant, making further close inspection easy. My ultrasonic miticide application method: Bare-root the affected plant. Put the plant upside-down in a small glass jar or beaker. This saves the amount of miticide necessary and keeps the main bath clean for other things (jewelery, etc.) Mix the miticide of choice in a separate container. Warm water is better along with a little surfactant or insecticidal soap. This improves cavitation significantly. Place the small jar with plant in the ultrasonic cleaner. Fill the small jar with miticide up to the bath fill line. Try to not have any bubbles in the leaves. Use a metal chopstick or similar to move the plant around. Fill the main bath portion with warm water. Make sure you don't fill too high or else the jar and plant will float up. Run the ultrasonic cleaner for 10 minutes for maximum effectiveness. Once done, set the plant to air-dry and then repot. Leave out of bright light for a week and then reinspect. The biggest risk that I was worried about was phytotoxic damage from the ultrasound to the plant. It was a non-issue. Based on scientific studies, the ultrasound does not penetrate deeply into the plant tissues so they are not damaged. In practicality, some of the finer root hairs are probably destroyed in the process, but overall I saw very little difference. The leaves all looked and grew fine after the ultrasonic treatments so I don't think there is much to worry about. The miticides I used were Avid, Bayer 3-in-1, and Schultz Insect Spray (Insecticidal Soap plus Pyrethrin). This was extremely effective. For future mite treatments, I would also consider Floramite and Sevin for rotational purposes. I have more import buys currently on their way. =) My biggest frustration with these plants is that I paid for phytosanitary inspection and certificate, yet the plants never came with the certificate and were not clean. So I am doubtful it was done properly. For any new additions, I always inspect carefully with a loupe (sometimes microscope) and quarantine if I am suspicious of anything. A watchful eye has been the most important asset of mine.

Indoors Spider mites and Mealy bugs thrive on opposite ends of the humidity scale. High humidity slows spider mites down but high humidity helps mealy bugs thrive. Misting the leaves will control the mites but will encourage the mealy bugs. If you go to my idea book you will see a blue battery operated spray bottle. This is very good for washing away mealy bugs which get into tight corners. Put the plant inside an extra large tote and rinse away. Nothing beats taking them out to the garage and using the garden hose. Have tried, neem oil, safer soap, Safers insecticide and alcohol this winter but nothing has been a one two punch. From Safers website, "Soaps of all kinds are cleaning agents made from oils and salts. Many products you might think of as "soap" are actually detergents, made with synthetic chemicals called surfactants, as well as phosphates, bleach, dyes, fragrances and rinsing aids. Detergents can be harmful to plants and are not formulated to kill pests. True soaps are made by blending salts, such as sodium or potassium, with fats. Soaps containing potassium, listed on labels as potassium salts of fatty acids, are milder and softer than sodium-based soaps. Potassium-based soaps are formed from long-chain fatty acids, which are target pests (while not endangering people, pets, or plants) in ways that the short-chains of sodium-based soaps do not. The active ingredient in Safer® Brand Insecticidal Soap is potassium salts of fatty acids."