Hi Karin, Some people have trouble growing China Doll's...They like bright light, not necessairly direct s or w sunlight. I used to mist mine daily. Soil should be kept semi moist but never soggy. Since they're not the fastest of growers, an application of fertilizer should be applied 3 times during growing season. They enjoy summer outdoors in shady/bright spot. Actually, I've seen mature CD's growing in full sun w/o the slightest browning or burning..but plants were just shipped from Fl and probably adapted to this light. When older, they bear little tiny white flowers, but this is rare indoors..Good luck, Toni

I live in Pearland, TX on the Texas gulf coast and just brought home a china doll to plant in my yard as a tree. There is a house nearby that has a 5 year old china doll in the yard that is about 25 - 30 feet tall right now. I am wondering about light requirements for china doll. Can I plant it in full sunlight? The best spots with good drainage in my yard are all south-facing very sunny spots. The only partial-shade spots left in my yard are either in low-lying, north-facing water-logged areas or right up against the foundation of my house (the neighbor with the 25 foot tree made the mistake of planting hers too close to the foundation and is now having the beautiful tree destroyed). Any recommendations?

Hi Gracin: I'll work on what you wrote: "WCD is outgrowing the 15 gal. pot ... The sugar sand soil (pH 4.9 - 5.5) will be amended with about 50 - 60% composted cow manure. I guess the cow manure will add Nitrogen, and all I will need is the chelated iron, right? Or do I need bone meal" University of Georgia College of Agriculture stated that "Pine bark have a pH between 4.0 and 5.0 ... with 13% water-retention when fresh, and 21% water-retention when decomposed." Gracin, your soil is already acidic, so pine bark and peatmoss are NOT good choices. NPK of cow manure is: 0.6 / 0.4 / 0.5 ... it's very balanced. You don't need chelated iron, since manure has iron. You don't need bonemeal, if you add lots of manure. Contrary to on-line report that bone meal doesn't break down above neutral... it worked too well in my alkaline clay pH 7.7, when got rained on (pH of rain is 5.6). I dumped bonemeal around geraniums. Their blooms became vibrant deep colors, very pretty. But the plants got dwarfed and leaves got burnt. I put bone meal NPK of 1-13-0 into the planting hole of a white pine ... it burnt my white pine. Phosphorus at 13 was too high for my retentive clay. Bonemeal is great if worked well into sandy soil like Sherry. Kitty litter is granulated clay ... good stuff for sandy soil. I tested the pH of Scott's top soil, it's neutral ... safe to use. Zacklau in CT has acidic soil, he mentioned that his roses were sick, no fertilizer could solve the problem, until he fixed his acid soil with lime. Getting the pH to the neutral zone is more important that adding chemicals. The soil will release all the nutrients plants need when it's at the neutral zone. I would test the pH of the cow manure. Fresh cow manure is reported at pH of 4. If they use lime to deodorize the floor, it will bring the pH up. If they bag the cow manure and add more lime in to keep the odor down, cow manure pH shoots up to 8. I would test the pH of the soil, and the pH of the cow manure load to make sure that the combo is OK. Roses grow best at pH 6.5 to 7. Cow manure and kitty clay would be enough. Cantigny park in zone 5a with 1,200 roses put forth the best display when they fertilized with fresh cow manure in spring. It stank up the park but that was their best: roses with shiny leaves, dark green, tons of blooms. Latter years they use chemical fertilizer high in phosphorus, tons of blooms - but the overall health is never as good as cow manure. Horse manure also have iron. My neighbor ordered a pile of dirt with 1/2 "mushroom compost". I inspected his pile and saw mostly woodchips, the same stuff that I get from the stable. He topdressed his lawn with that, and has the deepest green lawn in the neighborhood. The woodchips that came with the manure made his lawn spotty. If your pile is 100% cow manure, no woodchips bedding like horse stable .... then you have the best stuff possible. Even high phosphorus fertilizer can't beat the amount of blooms when roses are fed with manure. It's best to check the pH of your cow manure to see if it's acidic at 4 like some reported values of fresh cow manure. Here is a link that might be useful: Testing soil pH using red cabbage This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Sat, Feb 23, 13 at 15:53

Hi. It really depends but some pointers: -Echeverias and Sempervivums: need a lot of sun. They can do with full morning sun and indirect at noon but can do all-day full AS LONG AS acclimated. They color up nice too. -Aloes, Gasterias, Haworthias: They can do bright light. But full can still work but will need to acclimate them slowly. They may have brilliant colors when stressed with full sun. -Kalanchoes, Graptoverias, Sedums: Also sun lovers. Full morning sun and indirect at noon. Most can do full sun as long as acclimated. So in general, safest is morning sun and then indirect at noon. However, stressing the plant will produce lots of new color. (Stress is making conditions less favorable like less water, more sun, more heat or cold).