Thank you stonesriver and everyone else for the kind welcome. Yes, I think I may have been a bit bitten by the "gardening" germ. Granted, I am nowhere close to where most people on this forum probably are. I am mainly a "decorator" who feels that a house without any indoor plants is sad, dry and too much of a sign of our rushed times. So I decided I HAVE TO get some reasonably elegant indoors plants established. The only thing close to caring for a plant I've done before were some geraniums. They did OK, I managed not to kill them and they bloomed quite a bit over the winter even if they did get leggy. Oh, well. Now I took them outside and I decided that they will go in the basemenent for wintering when times comes. I will no longer keep them in the house because they are not really elegant, gracious plants. I like their bright colors outside in the summer but that's that for now. So I decided it was time for something finer and elegant to go with our classic/traditional living room as well as my busy schedule. I also knew this was going to be harder than a geranium which are quite hard to kill anyway. So off I went to Pikes and I grabbed some plants I had heard were not hard to care for and would do well on our Eastern bay window. A Peace Lily, four AV-s and two yellow begonias. (I did kill a begonia last year but later, after more reading, I realized I was making mistakes with it). A real gardener I will never be - not with a full-time academic career and two small children; but By God, these few plants must stay alive, do well, and even bloom nicely - this is all I hope for. I don't plan to do any complicated wick watering (at least it sounds complicated to me) or much propagation or anything - I just want to keep my living room looking as pretty as it is now, with lots of healthy blooms, if this is not too much to ask. Since I've heard so much about how important the soil is, I think I am going to change the soil the plants came in pretty soon; at least for the AV-s, I don't know whether I should do the same thing for the begonias, but probably should. Having a month between waterings sounds like a lot to me. These are small pots (4" I believe) and I think all moisture would evaporate altogether from such a small pot well before the 1 month mark; especially if I change the soil to something more airy. I did fertilize the AV-s when I watered them the first time - with some 5-7 drops of liquid fertilizer from MIracle-Gro, as indicated on the package. I am a super novice so I just did the novice thing. I guess changing the soil will also change the present routine. Some of the flowers on my AV-s are starting to fade now- they are starting to have little burnt patches on the petals, but I assume this is the natural cycle of the flower - as I bought them with quite a few blooms from the nursery and it might just be their time to go. I am just hoping they will continue to bloom for a while. Thank you again for the kind welcome, I wil certainly be around because I have been clearly "bitten". :-)

has any one tried using praetor nematodes and praetor mites to control spider mite, broad mites and thrips. They are like little lions feeding on the pests, praetor nematodes live in the ground killing any thing they find and most of the pest live part of their live there. Thrips spend the first part of there live under ground. The praetor nematodes come in a little sponge that you cut 1/3 of put in a spray bottle of water and let it sit for a 1/2 hour, shake it up and spray the surface potting mixe and then water them in good. It cost $18.00and the 2/3 that you have not used put in the cooler and treat you plants ever 2 weeks till it is gone. They will live on the sponge in the cooler for 6 weeks. I also treat my plants with praetor mites at the same time , they like to find the bad mites and lay their egg among the spider mites and broad mites eggs . When the praetor mites they are hunger an the love to eat mite eggs. they come in several different ways praetor mites"NEOSEIULUS CUCUMERIS" come in quick release packets $1.99 and it is enough to treat 1-2 plant racks 4 shelves 48 in. long. You springily the product which looks (it is ) wood saw dust over the plants It is import to do these after dark. sun light kills praetor mites nematodes & praetor mites mites!!!! Praetor mites"NEOSEIULUS CUCUMERIS"also come in slow release pack $1.99, you but pack on each shelve and as they hatch they leave the pack ove 6 week periodAs a Added protection !!! They best thing is they very best Insecticides /Miticides likeForbid 4F Miticide, Avid EC Miticide and Marathon a systemic insecticides do not kill the praetor nematodes and praetor mites so you can still use them!!!! YOU CAN NOT USE NEEM OIL Why because it kills every thing even the good praetor bugs then you have nothing to keep spider mite, broad mites and thrips under control!!! The day beforetaking your plants to a show put NEOSEIULUS CUCUMERIS mites "in the slow release pack in your box with your warping- material and leave it there for the whole trip with your plants

This topic of pot size comes up often with new growers. It has been talked about in great detail in older posts, which can be found by typing in "3 times the diameter" in the search feature. Or a similar query, such as "pot size." Here is a portion of an older post from Irina, one of the experts who grew and showed lots of violets and posted here for many year: ... this 1:3 ratio is for balanced look and show judging. It is only if you have way too big of a pot, heavy soil and water it too much - it gets detrimental to the plant. If you have a plant which is more than 3 times a pot - and we all do - eventually roots will take all the space and it will feel better in a bigger pot. Or if you do not want to grow a huge one - you are supposed to repot your plant every 6 months or so, remove the lower leaves, cut off the bottom of the root ball and pot it in a fresh pot of the same size. And again - if you have suckers all around your plant - it is not harmful. Just not very orderly and you loose the symmetry of the plant. Your plants look very happy and fresh for now - but you would need to take the suckers out and pot them separately - otherwise they would look very unruly together." In the same thread, another person noted that plants in too large a pot will risk getting root rot or sour soil. In my experience, when I used to over-pot, not knowing any better, the plants never bloomed, they spent all their time growing roots and leaves. If the plant looked "too tight" I moved to a bigger pot and got even bigger leaves and fewer blooms. Then once I started reading the forum and back threads and followed the advice, the plants all bloomed. I used to post photos on the Gallery of 15 or 20 or more plants all blooming at the same time in smaller pots. Great advice, Anne. What might be convincing to a new grower is to take the plant out of the pot and see how tiny the roots are in comparison with the leaves. Which means they do not need much pot space. Part of the culture of raising AVs is to learn what they like and try it out. Also, because they don't need a whole lot of pot and potting mix relative to the size of their foliage, they make pleasing displays and don't take up too much space. While sometimes people will start a leaf out in a slightly too-large pot, the leaf might develop 3 or 4 or more babies. Once those are separated, they should go into their own very small individual containers. The plants bloom seasonally. If they bloomed in the winter, then they take a rest of a few months before they will bloom again in late spring. Although this is a long post, maybe one of the other newer growers on the forum might also find it useful. Because when I first started growing AVs, it just seemed counter-intuitive to cramp them and not water too often. The exact opposite of what I would do with other types of flowering plants.

One more question for you. The window in the former kitchen is already framed in and I am getting ready to place the order for the windows. It was framed at 72" wide by 54" high to make room for the counter. Now that we are moving the kitchen, do you think I should make that window 72" wide by 72" high instead. It is an easy fix. Windows are set at 8'2" with 10 foot ceilings. Just curious of your thoughts. If we put a counter and cabinets on that dining wall, it would make sense to have a window that height. But if we don't, I am worried that it will look weird. What do you guys think?