I love my window boxes, hanging baskets and containers. Wherever I've lived, my gardens have always been solely perennials so this is my only real chance to splash out on showy annuals. I prefer to use traditional hayracks and wired bowls with either spaghnum moss or replaceable coco liners. My experience has been that plastic inserts may cause dampening off of the root systems - interior trays on the bottom though do help to reduce runoff. Moisture-retentive soil crystals and slow-release fertilizers granules added to the mix at time of planting makes ongoing maintenance a real breeze. Even at the height of summer, I don't usually worry if I miss a day (or even two) of watering :) I've shown some of these photos before...

Wow, Aerangis punctata brings Calvin over to the hoya forum for a visit! Hi Calvin, how's your kirkii doing? Mine is looking good again. I think I burned it a little when my timer spazzed out. I think the lights stayed on 24-7 for over a week. Also, I KNEW there were Aerangis growers out there. Renee, your mooreana is gorgeous. Reminds me a lot of mystacidii. I seem to gravitate heavily toward the Aerangis vs the Angraecum orchids too. There's just something about them. I love that arachnopus, Calvin. They look so delicate. Me, I'm swimming in seedlings as of late. I now have those modesta seedlings still, a bunch of mystacidii seedlings, and Neofinetia falcata Shu Ten Nou seedlings. GG, I think almost all of my orchids will bloom white. Then again, almost all of my orchids are Angraecoids. I'm gonna let Mike do the orchid recommending, because I seem to be the contrary one about orchid growing stereotypes... the ones that are supposed to be easy to grow I do very poorly with, yet the supposedly trickier Angraecoids are much easier for me. I mean, everyone says the best beginner orchids are Phalaenopsis and Paphiopedilums, and I have killed both. Numerous times. Oh, and Oncidiums and Oncidium intergenerics. Percentage wise, I have killed far far fewer Angraecoids. I'm still struggling a bit with Pleurothallids but I love them. One that is doing really well for me even during the time when I felt overwhelmed by life was Chaemangis (or Microterangis) hariotiana. It actually blooms pumpkin orange, but each individual flower is teeny tiny. It has bloomed faithfully in April every single year since I've had it. It is super cute! Here's an early pic of it: Looking at this picture now I realize just how much this guy has grown. Maybe I'll get a new picture of it this weekend.

LauramarieDidn't you think Alexandra Fuller's mother was "flying high" on liquor a lot of the time? - "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight". After reading that book my impression was that her parents lived a very very hard life -- poverty, shack-y houses to live in, little or no electricity, etc. It didn't surprise me when Alexandra and her sister grew up they married and moved faaaaaar away -- one to England, the other to U.S.A. I think "flying high on liquor" is what you call an understatement , she was on the booze a lot of time. Fuller's parents choose to live an hard life, they tried to settle in England in the late 60s, Alexandra was borne there, but couldn't resist civilization and set off south, so they said to their friends , without telling them how far south they were heading for; they were looking for the wild and the wilder the better. Anyway here as I reviewed "Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight: An Africa Childhood by Alexandra Fuller who was born in England but was raised in Rhodesia by an "absented mind" mother, an "always on the go and work to do" father and with an "I mind my own business and you all can go to hell" older sister. The book is about her childhood in Africa. There are witty passages and sad ones and a lot about Africa In "The cocktail hours..." She explains about her mother growing up , the stern way she was raised, we're not whimper we are Scottish and so on. she explains better how much her mother was struck by a miscarriage, by a death of a son of her when he was a few months old, meningitis; but especially by a little girl death who drowned in a puddle aged two or three I read a few A.F.'s interviews and I was surprised to come to know how much she adores her parents and idolizes them , both of them, especially her mother, once she said " a lot of people think "Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight" is a book about Africa, but instead it is an homage to my mother" I guess writing memories is a way to exorcize your pastand to keep a safe distance from it. grelobe

Knives and Ink: Chefs and their Tattoos + Receipts - J Fitzgerald