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!

Pam, I've been a bit worried about the cypresses regarding the drought. Do you think they'll be all right? Carol, the "studio" is a 900 square-foot structure with a bathroom that's filled with furniture and other stuff that didn't fit in our home when we combined households. Originally it was meant as a studio, but my husband has given up painting, although we do have quite a few of his things in the house. It's easier to call it the studio than "the small house filled with all our junk" and sounds just a bit classier. I'm thrilled that I turned you on to pink roses. There are so many different shades, not to mention differing shapes, that I at least never tire of pink roses. They also blend happily with many other colors, even my bright yellow irises. Ingrid

Mike when we first moved here in 1965 the front lawn had lots of the native yellow violets throughout but they've disappeared, now a little white violet has appeared, where the seed blew in from I don't know, possibly V. canadensis, I'll have to have a closer look in the spring. My neighbor up the street has a wild light bright pink violet in her lawn. I brought some home but they don't stay that light bright pink here, some are now purple, some halfway in between purple and pink, maybe the PH in my soil has something to do with it. Whatever they are I love them, they have a nice fragrance too. I do have a fairly large patch of 'White Czar' under the Robinia tree. My son has lots of the yellow native growing throughout his lawn in Victoria, I tried once to establish his here but they just wouldn't take, Maybe I should try again :) Annette

where zre you.. big city name.. they are year around perennials for you .. you said: My head is telling me to cut my losses, take a few cuttings of the variegated foliage and start over ==>> of course.. why not ... but why do you have to get rid of the other.. while these spend a year maturing.. perhaps in pots .... though i am wondering.. if it might not be time to cut bait.. back in the day i grew all kinds of very cool plants.. but i eventually weeded them out.. because they became to problematic int he garden .. you will probably .. eventually.. come to the same conclusion ... you can only beat your head against the side of the house for so long.. before you realize... its kinda counter productive to having a happy .. headache free day .. lol .. ken