I did the subject line that way so y'all would be surprised by the letter. All of y'all have been cheering from the sidelines, so I was so excited to share. Natalie, you are right. When I saw the return address, I was like Flower...now what? Annie, I am so thrilled your phlox have done so well. Not only are they a pretty bloom, they smell great too. And you are certainly welcome, and your mom too.

The trouble with LTC insurance is that it is like health or auto insurance - carriers enter the market, and some of them price poorly and end up leaving the market. A good carrier may close a book of business (e.g., stop selling a particular type of policy) and come out with a slightly different policy calculated to provide a better profit margin or improved mortality. This is the way insurance works, it's just good business to them. LTC is not a new product at all. Met Life has been selling LTC insurance for 25 years. Lincoln Benefit (I think I accidentally listed it above as Lincoln National, which is a different company) has a huge block of LTC business and for many years was the low-cost carrier. They are owned by Allstate and are in no danger of going under. They closed their current book of business to bring out a completely new LTC product, one of the new hybrid LTC/annuity policies. None of their existing policyholders will see any raise in premiums or adjustment to the terms of their current policies; the "book" is merely closed for new business. That's how a GOOD carrier works, as opposed to a bad one. Where do you find a good carrier? That's the difficulty, you need to find a good agent, not just a "friend who works in the insurance business." Hard to find, just like trying to find a good car mechanic, LOL! Nursing homes around here vary from $3500 to $6000 month. Even if our policy does not cover all the costs, a drain of $1000/mo is a lot better than $72,000 per year, I'm sure you'd agree. The reason I don't rely on the statistic about nursing home care only being needed for an average of 2 years is that as the Boomer population ages, I believe that length of stay average will rise rapidly. And in fact, the largest growing age group in the US is the group over age 80. Since our policy pays for at home care as well as convalescent or nursing care, we feel we have done what we can to MINIMIZE risk. You cannot eliminate all risk; it's impossible. A recent article in the WSJournal calculated that someone with a net worth of at least $5M wouldn't need LTC insurance. Remember that these days, being worth $1M or $2M is so commonplace that the government statistics don't even track it any longer; the bar is now at $100M+. There is no way my DH and I could afford long-term care without insurance. Even though our net worth is well over $1M we simply don't have that kind of liquidity without having to sell the house. My DH had a minor stroke at 50 -- not only is he virtually uninsurable now, but his mortality got halved right there. His chances of being disabled as he ages are considerably higher. Had we waited to obtain LTC insurance for even a few years, we would never have been able to afford it even if we could have found a carrier willing to write a policy on him. I agree that not having health insurance is foolish; on the other hand, if you can stagger along until age 65 (and assuming that somewhere along the line your employer or spouse's employer paid the Medicare A costs) a Medigap policy with zero-doughnut drug benefit is available at a relatively reasonable cost, certainly a lot less than the $900/mo cost (for an individual; $1200/mo for a couple) for my husband's current employer HMO plan. But it is almost a certainty that somewhere down the line, if you and/or your spouse live long enough, one of you will need LTC. And right now, nobody will pay for that except you. With all the disadvantages of private insurance, the fact remains, waiting for the government to take care of your LTC needs is a very dicey proposition indeed. What I point out to most younger people I know is that if they are going to buy a home and have children, they really need term life insurance. Nowadays with most couples dependent upon two incomes to make it, it is disastrous to consider burdening your lives with debt and obligations without buying life insurance. As mortality has improved, the premiums for term life have dropped substantially in the last couple of years. $40/mo will buy a $500K level premium term for 20 years on a 40-yr old in good health. When I worked at a financial planner's office for a while, it was interesting to see that there were quite a few clients who were widows, from ages 50-75. Their major assets were the home and insurance proceeds. Without the latter, some of them would have been in serious financial difficulties. My apologies for seeming to get OT here, but my point is that if you are going to own a home, there is not just health insurance but other insurance issues which are just as important for long term financial planning. To ignore them is being penny-wise and possibly pound-foolish. Thinking that "the odds are it won't happen to me" is taking a big risk. Nothing wrong with that, but I often wonder why people are willing to take such huge risks with their personal retirement finances when they are so often vociferous in proclaiming they want minimal risk when investing in the stock market.

It disables the "right-click save" when the photos are posted on a site or forum (like here). At least I thought it did. I have tried right clicking on some photos posted in messages here and sure enough I could (if I had wanted to - or if I got permission from the OP)save their photo into my files. Then I would be able to post it anywhere I wanted to until the OP deletes it from her Photobucket album. OP must still share from Photobucket to post on other sites or save the photo to her files and share via however she chooses.

@Embothrium "Pictures above show too small clay pots filled with coarse soil less potting medium. This combination will guarantee chronic problems with quick drying out and with recurring nutrient deficiencies." that's how I grow my michelia alba as well. I use 511 mix in small clay pot. it does save my plant from root rot. however, it has serious iron deficiency. I wonder if I should fertilize it often or even use iron suphate. my m.alba did had root rot twice and had been repoted 3 to 4 times within a few months. the iron deficiency maybe related to stress as well.