Oh Pug, look at your Palm in the background!! You probably don't think twice about it, like I ignore maples growing here. To be honest, I dislike maple trees, especially the one we have out back. A huge, green, pain in the butt tree, tosses millions of seeds, germinate, roots grow deep, hard to pluck seedlings, then in autumn, hundreds of leaves change color, drop and need raking. Like I said, a Pain. I like Dogwood, Magnolia and a few others. But no tree compares to a mature palm. They're beautiful. Wowee, what a group of fruit trees! How tall is your Pinapple Guava? Does it frut? Also, what size and type are your lemons. I've never seen Mango or Lychee trees. Which Kumquat do you have. Nagami, Meiwa or another? Do you eat fruit? What, no bananas? LOL Are you originally from Fl? Over the years, I've talked to people born and raised in cold climates, moved to Fl, and swore they'd never return to their birth place. Though a few say they miss 4 seasons. Why would anyone miss ice and snow? And shoveling. I tell them, return to your birth place, view the snow, especailly on Christmas, then head back after the holidays. Don a sleeveless shirt, get hold of a shovel, and start hauling 10 lbs of white stuff. LOL..They should stick to viewing Christmas cards or winter scene postcards. LOL Are your house plants indoors or outside? Every so often Home Depot sells Goldfish Plants. Mostly in spring or fall. Living in Fl, I'd imagine nursery's galore. NO? How about asking a nurseryperson to special order? Some places will do so without charging additional fees. Though it depends on the nursery; family owned businesses are more willing to do it. It doesn't hurt to ask, especially if you really want a certain plant. Forget larger places like HD and Lowes, they could care less. www.accentsforhomeandgarden.com sells Goldfish plants. Prices are reasonable, shipping costs not too bad. I also like shopping at www.almostedenplants.com It's so easy to order online. LOL. I don't like paying for shipping either, but Pug, if it wasn't for internet nurseries, I wouldn't have half the plants I do. There's a local nursery, a good 30 miles north, that sells rarer plants, including GF. Their larger plants are EXPENSIVE, but they also have aisle after aisle of 4" potted plants for 3.95. No shipping costs, instead tax. Living in Fl, do your Chistmas Cactus bloom? Is there anything special you have to do to get them to bud? See what I mean about pruning a plant there? You pruned 7 months before the pic was taken. If I had pruned, it might be 7 years before looking like yours. LOL. There's a poster on Tropical forum named Fawnridge. He too lives in Fl. His gardens are beautiful, so serene. Count your blessings, have fun. Toni

I tend to gauge moisture based on how heavy the pot feels, when I'm watering. I've had problems with peat-heavy soil getting hydrophobic before. I guess I can't rule out soil mineral accumulation, but I'd like some extra confirmation that that is, in fact the problem. I really, really doubt overwatering. The only way I'd imagine this could be a problem stemming from underwatering would be that the plant is finally showing stress from getting too dry... sometime back in the middle of August. And, at that, when A. Squarrosa drops leaves because of getting too dry, they typically start getting tip burn which progresses up the leaf about half-way, at which point they usually drop. I'm also doubting it's just regular leaf senescence, as it seems to be some of the upper leaves too. This also seems a bit excessive for just adjusting to a new position. And, in general, it's not a normal sort of yellowing. Delonix Regia I have is dropping a bunch of leaves since I moved it indoors, and my citruses will do the same, eventually. This just looks really peculiar and sickly, which is why I was suspecting some sort of potential virus, as the white flies shouldn't be present in high enough concentrations to cause much damage, unless I'm really underestimating them. Also, these things do, apparently, tend to go into decline after flowering, but primarily only after the blooms start fading. Mine's flowering right now, but I've got a good month or so before I can expect the blooming process to finish.

Ok, so I'm opinionated. Your first grass is a zebra grass... My suggestion is, if you like it because it is a banded grass ( I see many many yards whose only ornamental grass is a zebra grass) I suggest you may be happier in the long run returning the grass and swapping it for a porcupine grass ('strictus' versus 'zebrinus'). Strictus will never flop in rain, and is generally considered a superior candidate in the banded grass arena. Some will surely disagree -- you may be one. Re. planting -- I always plant my grasses with a few shovelfulls of very fine chipped gravel mixed in with the organic material. I also use fine chipped gravel as a top dressing. Do not fertilize! good luck. enjoy!

There is a very hardy bromeliad that has green leaves with simple red blooms that doesn't grow more then a foot high. I can't remember the name of it but both my parents and I have decent sized patches of them and I've never seen any frost damage on them even though we live in a cold spot in zone 9a. You could plant something like that and mix some other plants like jungle gold peacock ginger or purple queen in for some extra summer time color. Here's what the brom looks like when not in bloom. If you're interested I can probably bread off a few starts from one of the larger clumps of plants and mail them to you. Here's another tough variety of brom that I unfortuneatly don't know the name of. The trick to finding cold hardy broms seems to be in how serrated the leaf edges are. It seems like the more teeth a plant has the hardier it is! And here's a variety of brom that I think is related to the painted finger nail. These are growing at the base of a large oak and I've never covered them even in the hardest freeze. Jungle gold peacock ginger and another type that again I can't quite remember the name of. I believe that jungle gold is the largest of the peacock gingers but it still doesn't get over a foot tall. Kara