Ok, Well My apologies, I am a noob at gardening, basic or whatnot, so forgive me when i ask if you can clarify my potting medium. If i can guess right, then i think you are talking about the soil? If so, then From the day i brought the plant home, i re-potted it a day after in this pot you see in the pic with Miracle grow soil, along with some of the soil that it came with in the pot. As i stated earlier, the pot it is in now is about 20% bigger than the pot it came in. Also I read that it is wise to place pebbles at the base of the pot, to allow excess water to drain, so the soil won't sit in water. So i added a thin layer of pebbles to account for this. Otherwise from what i read, I have been watering the plant daily, keeping the soil 'moist'. This to me is so very vague, so i have watered about 1/4 to a 1/2 a cup a day, maybe a little more, trying my very best to now overwater it. In the pic you see here, i felt that i may have been overwatering it, and so i cut back.... apparently not the case. As i read online, i get the water from the tap, and allow it to sit for a day, to deal with the lime that may be present (again, i am unaware of exactly what this means, so if anyone can clarify) Otherwise, for the first 2-3 weeks everything was dandy. The plant was growing, the blooms were great looking, and i had one healthy plant. But shortly after, the edges of the plants at the base began to brown a bit, and the midrange of my flowers began dying. So i removed the dead foilage from the plant, and discarded them as so. As far as sunlight, the plant gets a good 8 hours of sun a day. My room faces the western sun, and so around noon or so, i open the curtains, and put the plant on my desk next to the window. Not until about 5 or 6 PM, does the plant get any DIRECT sunlight, and it seems to only occur off and on. Who knows, but the way the plant is positioned, and the way the sun faces the room, at times it is indirectly, and directly shining on the plant. Attached are links to my plant that i took, hopefully the quality is good enough. http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w388/Fonce2387/0527122136b.jpg http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w388/Fonce2387/0527122136a.jpg http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w388/Fonce2387/0527122136.jpg http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w388/Fonce2387/0527122136c.jpg O, and in one of the pics, you will see a plant that has a stem removed. Don't know why but this is how the plant came.... Thanks for the help, my only hope is that even with all the damage done, that this plant won't die.... i would hate to have obliterated my first plant! O and PS, the room these pictures are taken in is merely for lighting purposes to take pictures.... i don't keep my plant in the bathroom :)

Caroline, arranging pots is a matter of personal taste. I can only offer what *I* would do in your situation, this does not mean it is the right way to do it, or whether there is such a thing as a right way. It's just the way it would look pleasing to my eye. I would start placing one of the largest pots in front of each of the pillars on the wall - one pot per pillar. These would get the taller plants, such as the oleandr you describe. Then I would select two other of the largest pots and would place one on each side of the windows on the side. One to the left of the left window, another to the right of the right window. Again, with a taller plant. Then I would arrange 2 or 4 of the smaller pots together with each one of these last two pots. I would not use all pots of the same size, but I would make sure they are symetrical on both sides of the windows. You would end up with two groups of 3 or 5 pots on each side of the windows, to cover that expanse of wall. Between the two windows in the middle, and right below them, I would make another set of 3 or 5 pots to act as the central focal point. Here you could use plants like lavenders and hibiscus. Beware not to make straight lines with the pots, instead stagger them and use the different heights to give interest to the area. I would not paint the windows green. I think you need to tie in that area to the pool, not to the windows in the house. I would use a shade of blue that matches the one in the pool. If your DH does not want to paint the wall, then the windows should be painted instead, IMO. Hope this helps and was not too confusing. Easier done than explained, I'm afraid. Wish I could come and help you out in person. Eduarda

Thanks! That's good to know. I'll just leave them alone and let nature do the work. It seems like almost every bud is developing at this point, and I see some kind of very tiny bee, about the size of a grain of rice, all over the flowers all the time -- must be something about it they find very attractive. It's kind of interesting to me that a bee species native to Michigan would be so attracted to a tree native to S. Asia that it's never encountered before.

I think i have the exact set-up you're contemplating. I have the 36" 6 burner RNB under a 36" bluestar pyramid hood with 1200 cfm. First, the range is spectacular. You will love it. The hood is great too. It does an excellent job of removing smoke and grease. Cleaning it isn't too hard either. I just throw the baffles in the dishwasher and wipe the interior of the good with some 409 and paper towels. Depending on usage, I'd say I'd do this about once a month. I love the looks of it and the fact that unlike other hoods, it has infinite variable controls for both the vent speed and lights. As for loudness, well that's subjective. But mine is in my kitchen in an open layout house and the living room is about 20 feet away. I can cook with the vent on full blast and people can still hear the tv just fine in the other room. If not cooking something that creates too much smoke, I just use the vent on a variable lower setting. I'd say anything less than about 3/4 full power results in very little noise at all. It's just at full power is loud, but still not loud enough to distract people in the adjacent room.