I've never grown these. Without your climate zone input may be meaningless. What does well in one area may sulk in another. However I have read very good reports on "Alpenview". This is what an experienced iris grower has to say. I linked to her photo since her images are quite accurate. [This image was added by Margiempv on Jan 28, 2007 10:00 PM "Another view of ALPENVIEW. Great branching, lovely form, good growth and increases. "] The same hybridizer (Keppel) also introduced "Crowned Heads" about 6 years before "Alpenview". I was awestruck by "Crowned Heads". Totally gorgeous deep color in the standards and wonderful contrast. But I have heard it does not perform well in all parts of the country. The other 2 I've not read about. Dave's Garden may have photos of them as well. Here is a link that might be useful: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/139626/

Hello from Ft. Lauderdale, I am the go-to guy in my nursery for ideas, answers to questions, etc. I sell hundreds of both palms each month, and can tell you the basic visual difference. Cat palms are considered understory palms (in nature, grows under the canopy of taller plants) so are conditioned to like shadier areas during the heat of the day. They like LOTS of water, can actually take being overwatered, but no drought. They grow to about 7 or 8 ft. tall in the ground, often shorter in a pot. The stems of a cat palm are rather bulbous towards the bottom as compared to the pencil-thin and pencil-shaped stems of the areca palm. The cat palm has relatively few stems, perhaps a dozen in a 10 inch pot, the areca many, many usually thinner stems. The areca will grow to 18 to 20 ft. tall in the ground with the stems growing correspondently thicker, and by necessity is fine in full sun, and to perhaps 10 or 12 ft. in a large pot. The cat palm will therefore take more shade for a longer time (indoors, for example) as long as adequate food and water are applied. Cat palms can tolerate full sun, but will usually get an overall yellowish appearance in the leaves from too much sun, which will green up again when the hot summer weather turns cooler.

Hello Mike, I do know that with other plants which root readily in water the roots formed are very fibrous and different to soil grown roots.To combat this you gradually add compost to the water little by little until the plant doesn't get a set back. I don't know if this technique would be the same for hard wood stems as I only know it works on soft stems. I was just curious as to why the plumeria stem doesn't rot- perhaps it's because of microbes in the soil are more active in the wet and may not be present in pure water. Maybe? Boom seems to have mastered the art! Hazel.

Bluestar, Miele, Bosch, Wolf/Subzero, ... all of these have a great reputation and if there is a service network in your area you'll probably be happy with them. If you are willing to explore some of the niche players, there are several of those for at least some product categories; and it can pay off to buy these brands, if you have specific requirements. You'll get names such as Perlick, True, Capital, Modern-Aire, ... Lots of the other brands though, might have good brand name recognition, but their product offering is decidedly more hit and miss. If you do a lot of research, you might find the diamond in the rough among these products. And of course, even if you stick with the top-of-the-line brands, you can find a lemon (c.f. Wolf's problem with chipping oven interiors). But as a very rough first approximation, you probably will be extremely happy with the offerings from either of these companies. Of course, as frequently in life, you get what you pay for. None of these brands are known for being cheap bargains.