When I first started I'd but 2 or 3 blooming plants very month. The goal of having something in bloom year around. That worked. Then space became a premium so I added more slowly and carefully. Source of purchase has been mostly at our society meeting. We bring in speakers that have plants for sale. I always would buy something from the speaker. In fairness they traveled great distance to speak to us so I liked reciprocating. And the quality of plants from these specialists is very good. Far better than the big box plants. Our annual show provides the best opportunities for more plants and I like to support their efforts for showing up. Then there are gift orchids. Some are from divisions I made. Many I would go out and purchase. For another grower it would be from my collection only. Otherwise I would buy plants in full bloom. The non growers are easily wowed by commercial phals and that is what they get. Great prices from 7 to 15.v And no emotional attachment to the plant for me. If any recipients have success with the plants I will give them more. But if they kill them sorry, no more. I explain that in advance to avoid hurt feelings and to provide motivation.

Hi Elmire, I've thought about this some too, and as I've looked through various pictures I've tried to define what I do and don't like. I tend to like flowers, period. What I like best probably depends on the distance I'm looking at the plant from. Up close, a frilly picotee edge is the greatest thing... but from a distance, a simple single flower probably has the greatest impact. I like big yellow centers and no visible centers, both. I like both singles and doubles, but overall I'd rather have more semi-doubles than anything else, and I like them even better if their petals have some waviness to them. A rose with a subtle color blend to a darker or lighter color on the edge appeals to me hugely... though if the entire yard were composed of those kinds of flowers, there would be too much competition between them. So just a few Mrs. Dudley Cross roses (or roses of those types), sitting perhaps right next to Duchesse De Brabant to help point out the sublime in Mrs. Dudley Cross. I have always liked roses, but less so the hybrid tea forms than their smell. The brief amount of time I had Belinda's Dream with the same form, though, I liked it plenty. It looks especially nice with roses of other forms in a vase. I liked the effects of the tiny Rose Rosette to add variety to a vase of flowers, too. Overall, if I had to name just one favorite flower form, I'd probably go with a rhododendron, especially those with a bit of a frilly and/or picotee edging to the individual flowers within the truss. I love rhododendrons, huge trusses and small ones both. Rhododendrons don't withstand drought well, however, so I wouldn't suggest getting started with them if you can't give them plenty of water during a drought. Oh, no, maybe I should have said the one favorite was a camellia, all kinds of camellias... And daffodils! The Ice Follies variety is pretty much a perfect flower. But peonies (of all kinds) can't be bested by any other flower! Oh, I forgot to say how wonderful the tiny-leaved karume azaleas look when they are covered in a blanket of tiny flowers. They make for spectacular arrangements in a vase too. I like flowers, period. In a mood to really look and appreciate, I can get excited with just a single bloom from a native woods violet. And at that moment, it seems that nothing could best the simple woods violet. I guess the real luxury is in having a good variety of flowering forms, and especially in having them at various times of the year, which roses and camellias are both good at. Though I do have one rhododendron that blooms a bit every fall. I can't think of any flowers I actually don't like, though irises are probably fairly low on the list. I have stronger opinions on garden design than on the flowers themselves. (I'm not into geometrical/formal gardens so much as very informal ones.) Mary

Definitely mistletoe! I thought they only grew in oaks. (I assume the "gall" is a result of the mistletoe's presence.) ange2006, there have been different theories about the picture-orientation issue; I don't know if this thread is correct -- and I don't have an iphone -- but it looks interesting: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/citrus/msg052322327093.html [Interestingly, when I click on the your photo, the result is rotated 180* -- still not right-side-up!]

Hi again everybody, sorry for the delay-- I thought I had email notifications set up, but apparently not. Anyway, there's no real reason for wanting to grow a plant in my car. I suppose I just would like to see a bit of green in the corner of my eye when I'm driving. Aside from that, I've got an interest in exotic plants, and I know I'd need something pretty exotic to survive in an environment like this. I suppose I could grow it on the console between the two front seats. The dash just seemed like the best place, far as plant-growing real estate is concerned inside an economy car from the early nineties. I guess it's just the appeal of something so unusual as seeing a plant living inside a car in Texas. What I'd really like is to find something flowering. As much as I tend to avoid growing flowers for flowers, I think it'd be really cool to have a single flower growing in, say, an old glass Mexican soda bottle in my car.