Yes, I think your right, at most I think the phal I took back just needed more light. I read a post that said you could spray 70% rubbing rubbing alcohol on the leaves and 35% (one to one dilution) on the flowers. I've checked daily and haven't seen any more, but I have the alcohol ready just in case! Also, I noticed that the new one I bought has a smaller crown under the bigger crown with a stem and flowers. I'm assuming that this is 2 plants in one container? (I'm really not observant!) It looks healthy so I guess it will be ok for a few months until the flowers die and its time to repot. So today at a study break, I went to a local garden store and was surprised to see 6 or 7 pathetic looking phals. Only 2 had tags which sucked because the one I wanted had dead dark purple flowers but I didn't know what it was!!! They did have a phal wedding promenade a/tags that needed to be rescued. It was in soaking wet moss and had spots on the flowers from some type of bug. I also saw a spider one one of the phals. They wanted $8 for one, but for all the work and supplies that I would need and don't have yet, I think I'll just save my $8. Plus I should probably work on keeping my 2 healthy phals alive before branching out and saving one! still tempting...... and I might be able to be talked into buying it if the roots haven't rotted away

There are several factors that determine how fast your mulch, no matter what is used, will be digested starting with how healthy your soil is. If you have a good, active Soil Food Web they will digest your mulch (provided it is not stone or rubber) fairly quickly, but that then depends on the type of material and wood chips can take longer then would shredded leaves. Thickness is also a factor, because the more there is to digest the longer it will take, but in some of my beds wood chips 4 to 6 inches thick get digested in 2 years. Shredded leaves are an excellent mulch, although in my soil the shredded leaf mulch I applied last fall is now gone leaving the soil now bare and exposed to the ravages of the sun, wind, and rain. There is no need to remove a mulch from a planting bed, unless your soil is in such bad condition that the plants have a difficult time growing. I would put shredded leaves on top of the wood chips. I find that the soil bacteria apparently work on the easier to digest leaves because after spring I see few, if any, leaves and only see the wood chips. Leaves, left whole on grass, can keep the grass from gettng access to the sunlight all plants need to grow so whole leaves could kill the grass they cover. You can mulch mow those leaves into your turf and the soil bacteria will move them into the soil for you feeding your grass so it grows better next year. Joe Vargas turf grass students, back in the 1980's, mulch mowed leaves into a turf plot at MSU and found the grass in that plot (nothing else was done except normal watering) grew greener, thicker, faster than any other grass plot they had.

Well, Joe, you may not be an idiot but I have to ask-- was this thing blooming when you bought it? I can see how, to the unititiated, a Guzmania or Vriesesa without a bloom could be confused with a Zygopetalum or Miltonia, but with a flower.... The fact that you know what a Zygopetalum is makes me think you have at least some familiarity with what the flowers look like, and I can't imagine HD trying to sell a Guz. or Vr. without a bloom, but you say they were marked down, so if the old inflorescence had been removed already I'll cut you some slack. If that is the case and the thing is bloomed out already, you're not going to see any more growth on the main plant, but you should see some pups forming around the base, or in amongst the lower leaves. If it did have a flower, what did it look like?

natalie every piece of equipment including the Trane Brand has a model number and size. you have asked a question that can not be properly answered without this information. for instance, is the furnace an XV80 mdl or XL80 mdl? what size? same is true for the outside condenser. this makes a big difference whether quote is reasonable. also, you will need to provide the evap coil mdl number. this information should be on your quote. If it's not, then request it. check the Trane residential website area. TD Here is a link that might be useful: Trane Residential