Dave, "Zinnia grow so quickly and turn leggy almost overnight so most feel they are best direct seeded outside." I agree that it is generally better to plant zinnias directly outside when that works with your schedule. However, I think Dale was trying to get an early start with his zinnias, hence the attempt at starting them early inside under lights. I agree with everybody who identified Dale's problem as not enough light. I just want those who are considering starting zinnias indoors to know that they will not "turn leggy almost overnight" if you provide adequate light. With enough light they are quite docile and well behaved, and you can get an early start of a month or more if you have an adequate light setup. The shelf in this picture has four two-bulb T8 shoplights over it. The shelf measures 2 feet by 4 feet, and with a total of eight T8 fluorescent bulbs over it, the light on the seedlings is good. That picture was taken a couple of days ago and I will be setting most of those zinnias into the garden in the near future. There are a few "late arrivals" in the picture that will spend some more time inside. They would be just cutworm fodder if I set them outside now. All of those zinnias are hand-hybridized hybrids, so I give them better care than I would for seed-packet zinnias. ZM

What type of heelbore are they? I have added a link to a previous thread here that was very informative (maybe to much information) But these people are growing hellebores in zones similar to yours. Here is a link that might be useful: informative thread re cold zone hellebore

Well I went out and pulled off the dark brown/black ones that have dried out. Cracking open the shell was a lot like cracking open some peanuts. Anyways, the beans that came out were perfect. I still have the original batch of soybeans from the asian market. My grown ones look almost exactly the same. The only difference is that mine are just not quite as fat. Also I'm growing some mung beans. Same deal there, I pulled off a dry pod and cracked it open. The beans look the same as the bag of mung beans I grew them from. I'm still amazed I got any beans at all from these plants. I mean I truly treated them like crap. They were not at the edge of my balcony but close to my door. So they only got direct sunlight for about 5 hours a day. The stuff at the edge get 8 or 9 hours. I grew them in crappy $4 for 40 pound "organic" potting soil. No fertilizers added or anything. I really haven't been very diligent with watering them either. These bean plants never had any good looking leaves. They've all been full of brown spots and frayed edges. I've built one of those earthbox type self watering containers and have a tomato plant and basil plant in it. They've grown so quick and look so healthy. I'm going to build some more and I want to try a soybean plant in there to see how it does when it's treated nice.

Glad your whale watch actually found some whales! Our winter breaks on Maui coincide with Whale Season in Hawaii -- best viewed from Maui and Big Island of Hawaii. Whales migrate from Alaska to warmer waters to calve -- and to mate. There are astounding breaches by bulls competing to impress the cows. Using binoculars, I can see a lot of 'showboating' from our condo's lanai. Last Christmas we took our son and his family on a morning whale watch out of Maalaea harbor. We were fortunate to have a calm day, with a sea like glass. The bay is a favorite 'nursery' for whales, and we were only out five minutes before seeing a cow, her newborn calf, and an accompanying 'auntie'. (Auntie cows aid with the babies and help keep too-eager bulls at bay.) Later, we were still in the water watching a pod of dolphins when a young bull came alongside the boat and then went under us to the other side. We could almost scratch his back! I don't expect to experience that again. (By law, boats must keep a good distance from whales, but a pilot can only cut engines and wait when a whale decides to approach.)