Thanks for the info. Here's the scoop and the list of what came home with me today - there may be more coming in the future since the lady who is giving them away had second thoughts on a few. Her garden is TO DIE FOR! These were some of the happiest roses I have ever seen living the live of luxury in 3 foot deep beds of loose loamy rich soil. Seriously - it was rose heaven! Unfortunately, she is going through a divorce and doesn;t know what the future will hold, so she decided she wants zero maintenance plants since her soon to be ex may end up with the house and will promptly kill all the roses anyway. She decided it was better to give them away to good homes (she did a little interview first to see if I knew anything about roses) rather than have them die of neglect. Fortunately, I passed the interview and was gifted the following: Ambridge Rose '08 Baronne Prevost '08 Cottage Rose '08 Tuscany Superb '08 Orange Mothersday '08 Jude the Obscure '08 Gene Boerner '08 The Herbalist '08 She had several people there yesterday to dig and more were coming after I left. I probably could have asked for a few more, but I didn;t want to seem piggish about it. If she decides to part with the following, I am first in line to get: Distant Drums OLOG In return, I am going to give her divisions of 20 or so daylilys, several hostas (I have over 150 named hostas for her to choose from), some heucheras and some iris. They will all be pretty and won't break her heart if she has to ignore them. I am truly sorry for her current situation, but I think a new gardening friendship has blossomed and she will be welcome to come visit her babies at my house whenever she wants. All of them have already broken dormancy so I did pot up a couple of them, and some of them are just going to have to spend one night sitting in trash bags, I am exhausted from digging the new bed where they will live! LOL! They will be planted tomorrow... if I can move! LOLOLOL! Thanks again for the advice! Alexa

Well . . . if the plant has no chloroplasts (bodies which contain the chlorophyll) at all in it then it can't make its own food. You could potentially keep it growing for a few years, but eventually it will become impossible. If you put a portion of the plant into tissue culture media and supply it with nutrients it will theoretically live and grow. It is rather technical to post the details here, but "Plants from Test Tubes" by Kyte and Kleyn has very detailed instructions. It's worth checking out from the l;ibrary or on inter-library loan to find out.

I recommend window film for plant lovers instead of closing the drapes. It will block heat and UV. You can get film with very little tinting so it blocks little useful visible light. You can either DIY with film from the hardware store or get a pro to do it. It is a lot easier for a homeowner to do than ot was 30 years ago, but a pro will be faster and cleaner. I installed some on our house and the amount of heat gain from the sun has been drastically reduced while at the same time the amount of available light has been greatly increased because of open curtains.

I would not cut up the moss until you have seen it growing. Use a tray that is at least 2 to 3 inches deep and pour in the pumice and lay the moss on top. Water with either distilled water or reverse osmosis water. No tap water. No fertilizer. Be sure the tray has holes in the bottom or along the sides or use an ice pick and make them so the water will drain through. I would let it only get 4 hours of direct sunlight and no more. Probably best to water heavy in the morning before the sun falls on it. And even at night especially if you get drying winds. Good luck.