Just curious, because I live in Zone 7 as well, but did you specifically ask for water soluble house plant fertilizer, or just "fertilizer". All of the Lowe's, Home Depots, and Wal - Marts in my area carry both the outside garden and lawn fertilizers which are usually applied with a push spreader and they carry 10-10-10. However, in a different part of the store they usually also carry a big selection of water soluble house plant fertilizers. Finding a 20-20-20 or other combination water soluble house plant fertilizer should be no problem at any of these stores. Although finding a water soluble fertilizer that does not contain a high percentage of urea based nitrogen might be difficult at these places. Could it be that you were in the wrong section of the store or possibly asked a new employee that did not know the difference between the two types of fertilizer? Curtis

It may depend on the species. The germination websites seem to have some differing information - Tom Clothier's website says that A. syriaca doesn't need cold stratification and A purpurascens needs 12 weeks, but the Prairie Moon website says they both need 30 days. Not sure? We have at least another month of "refrigerator" cold or colder, especially at night. The fluctuating temperatures outside may help move the stratification process along. Whichever, I'll find out since I winter-sowed 5 species of Ascelpias this winter by February 4th, A. incarnata, tuberosa, syriaca, purpurascens, and variegata. They're all going to get 2-3 months of cold strat whether they need it or not! Here is a link that might be useful: Tom Clothier's seed germination database

Drilling holes into glass can be dicey if you are inexperienced and hanging all the weight of the piece from the holes in the glass is not advised. You don't want to hang something that potentially heavy from a "thin leather strap" . . frame it and reinforce the framing to keep it (and your family) safe. Of course you can just glue and go if you want grout bleed. You need to seal the edges of the stained glass to the substrate glass in order to avoid grout bleed. Or don't grout. It's up to you.

I'm wendy Launius it's so nice to meet you. I am aneursym survivor and we have a survivor group awareness mission retreat September 8-10 in San Antonio, Texas. We would like to have a gift put together for our president of the group and the businesses that are providing us a free tour.Also anyone to put in goodie bags for survivors... terr are 20. Anyone willing to help in supplying something we could give as a thank you to them. We live off our disability checks that we receive once a month and this trip is all being provided by different sponsors around San Antonio,Texas. We can't buy or put a gift together ourselves do to funds. We are extremely grateful for your generosity. Just message me and I'll be honored to give my address.