I think that it's an over-simplification to put most issues causing leaf drop at the feet of watering habits. That's like saying that the cause of most traffic accidents lies at the feet of the driver's use of brakes. It can always be argued that if the driver had only used the brakes earlier, there wouldn't have been an accident; but upon closer examination we often see the contention set aside in favor of a reason that goes deeper and has more qualifications attached. I'm quite certain this issue goes deeper than just watering habits. There is no credible evidence I've seen, and I've chased the issue a considerable distance, that watering with cold water causes leaf loss; and while sudden cold drafts can cause leaf loss, this plant doesn't have the look of the problem having been caused by light issues, cold drafts, warm night temperatures, or the plant being too close to a heat source. The most usual causes of older or lower leaf loss are several. Natural senescence (aging), a N deficiency, tight roots, and low light, are the most common, and deserve equal consideration as the primary cause. There is a difference between repotting and potting up. While potting up can be undertaken at any time with little in the way of ill effects, as long as you are careful about over-watering until roots have colonized the entire soil mass, repotting is BEST undertaken in the summer months - in most cases between Father's Day and July 4th would be considered ideal. No plant likes it's roots 'compact' or congested. The grower may at times use the stress associated with tight roots to bend the plant to the grower's will in any of several ways, but its a surety that the organism as a whole will not appreciate the stress associated with root congestion. Al

Nancy, I love those clever shoe-storing ottomans; I wish I had the need for yet another ottoman. I confess to having an out-of-hand shoe situation, and I really need to address it before DH throws them (and ME!) out on the driveway. Fact is, I like shoes. A lot. My problem is I don't have one of those humongous walk-in closets with dedicated shoe storage, it is smaller, and I have had to improvise- with tiered racks, with those hanging shoe thingies, and just shoving them here and there. Mostly they end up in various places after I wear them. I am fooling myself if I think that I will dutifully bring the ones I wear the most back upstairs. I told DH the other day that I was going to address this situation, and I will. I am thinking about sticking a little tiered wired rack into our front hall closet, and will line up some of the most often used shoes there. That is the closet he throws them in when they assault his visual space. OR maybe I will install shelves, low to the floor, where I can make the most of the space. I will need to ponder this. I also want to see ML's kitchen reveal!

In the March 2018 Show Us Your Gardens thread I posted about the damage caused by a late winter nor'easter that dumped heavy wet snow on everything in southeast MA. A major casualty was pitch pines which were snapped off with limbs and trunks landing all over the place. In my yard, large pieces of pine landed on an American holly and an osmanthus as well as other plants (pictures in the March thread linked above). The holly was bent over 90 degrees with the trunk snapped but not completely severed. After a lot of work I cleared the pieces of pine off the holly but left a major piece of trunk in place to act as a scaffold. I had to cut about 4 to 5 feet off the top of the holly before I could raise it up and lash it to the pine piece, hoping the splint would recover and feed the remaining holly. Many people offered encouragement and suggestions and I was asked to report back on the fate of the splinted holly. I'm happy to report substantial recovery! This is the other of two Ilex opaca 'Goldie' that I have in my yard. This one was a bit fuller than the damaged one and sustained minor damage with a few branches knocked off. Two pictures from today: 'Goldie' with minimal damage: Berries on the above holly. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ And here is the splinted section from the severely damaged holly with new growth coming up from the bottom.. As expected, the holly sprouted from basal buds. There's some leaf miner damage but I'm not worried about that. The holly also sprouted from below the top section that I had to lop off. Some of the remaining branches on the trunk above the splint survived and have good healthy leaves. And a few of these branches have berries! This holly is a long way from regaining the beauty it had before the nor'easter damage, but it's made a good start. The fallen pine pieces will remain in place for the foreseeable future and the other plants will just grow around them. Oh, and I had removed the other pine branches from the osmanthus and it bloomed this fall. Claire edit note: I just checked the March thread and I realized I had referred to the holly as 'Goldy', but it should have been 'Goldie'.

The extracellular cuticle that covers leaf surfaces is composed of an insoluble polymer (cutin) and soluble cuticular lipids (wax), which work in concert to form a particularly effective barrier to transpirational water loss in F elastic. While there would be no reason to look for radiators to place your rubber tree in front of, radiators don't have the same inherent potential to stress plants that forced air heat vents have, unless you set your plants on or directly above the radiator. A radiator heats air that rises, as it rises, it creates a negative pressure that pulls the coldest air in the room, which is at floor level, toward it. As the air passes over/through the radiator, it warms and rises. This creates a gentle convective current that actually bathes the plant in cooler air. If you sit in front a radiator, you can't feel the warmth from the radiator, but you can feel a cool draft moving across the floor toward the radiator. I wouldn't recommend watering from the bottom. It's much less effective at eliminating excess salts from the soil, and it doesn't force unwanted soil gases (CO2, methane, ....) and pull oxygen into the soil as it flows downward. Once water moves through the soil and makes it's way into a collection saucer, there should be no pathway by which the effluent can make its way back into the pot. Plus, not all soils are suitable for wick watering. For instance, I grow nearly all my plants in the gritty mix, and if I depended on wicking to moisten the soil, I'd be in deep trouble. Most off the shelf soils hold an excessive amount of water, such that when the top 2-3" of the soil feels completely dry, the bottom 3-6" or more can be 100% saturated. Rather than use a digital moisture detector (a finger), you might try using a 24" piece of wood dowel rod as a 'tell', to help you get a better feel for what watering interval is right. You can buy one for a buck or less at any hardware. They're usually 48" long - cut it in half and sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and they'll last a long time. You'll be surprised at what you discover about how often you'll need to water. I'll leave something I wrote about using a tell below. There's a thread about growing Ficus in pots that you might find interesting; and, if you want to read about long term care of plants in pots, which includes information about repotting and root pruning, this thread about long term care of trees in containers will provide a lot of info. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support good root health, which is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to a build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al