Hi, Birdie. How long has it been since your last repot? One of the symptoms of tight roots is shedding of lower and interior foliage. If the internodes (distance between the leaves) are growing shorter, your plant needs a repot, but winter and early spring are poor times to consider repotting - especially for plants that are stressed and very low on energy reserves. Root congestion can promote blooming in some plants, but root congestion IS a stress, and as such limits growth and vitality to a degree that varies with the amount of congestion. I think the wise thing to do would be to get your plant healthy again, and THEN worry about blooming. Sound reasonable? When did you last fertilize? Often, plants starved for nutrients, particularly nitrogen, shed foliage after 'harvesting' mobile nutrients from older leaves so new leaves can grow. Culturally, you can treat your plant like most succulents. Letting it dry down completely IS a stress, so try to time it so you're watering just before soil is completely dry. Humidity is no problem for this plant. It's glossy leaves are very high in cuticular wax, which helps guard against low indoor humidity. I'm sorry, but I disagree that a fertilizer with a high middle number is a good choice for any containerized plant. There are no plants that use more P (the middle number) than either N or K (first and last numbers). The excess P adds unnecessarily to the level of salts in the soil and can actually contribute to leaf loss and deficiencies of other nutrients ...... particularly iron and manganese. That may be more information than you need, but others too, may be curious as to why high P fertilizers are not such a good choice for container plants. Best luck - let me know if there are any other questions you think I might help you with. Al

Oops, I think I offended some people, i.e., GC's. Sorry, that wasn't my intent. I sometimes don't use the correct words when I'm trying to express myself. What I mean to say is those folks who have to hire a stranger to deal with the whole process. I've read horror stories on this forum from people whose GC was incompetent, lazy, and just didn't care. I know not all are like that and the bad ones are in the minority. deanie1, I'm with your DH on not letting them think I'm desperate. The fact is, my cash money spends anywhere and I'll be darn if I hand it to someone who is not reliable. We are fortunate that we have not had to hurry to get our house finished. Obviously, it's taken us 4 years now!! We've been able to take our time and hire the right people to do certain jobs. From the very first person I hired, the gentleman who cleared and filled our lot. He didn't srvice residential, but took pity on me and accepted our job. We were so impressed by his professionalism and work ethic. We went out to check on the work and could not believe our eyes when we saw how much time he had taken to ensure the dirt that was added, was level and where it needed to be, not just thrown about and every bit of debri from the tree clearing was removed I'm so glad he was so dependable and that's the foot we started on in building process. I told my husband a that time, this experience reassured me that there are talented and professional people out there to do the work, it's just a matter of finding them. Up to now we've been blessed with great subs. The gentleman who did our framing was phenominal and we've called him back to put the siding up. I suppose I posted this message to let people out there who are taking "garbage" from these contrators, that you should stand up to them when they try to jerk you around. Don't accept excuses or poor customer service. Customer service to me is at least 50% of the job if not more? Again, I apologize if I offended anyone, but if you're doing your job, you shouldn't take offense. You good GC's out there need to be offended by others in your field who are making you look bad by the example they set.

I am sorry to hear that your going through so much with your mom. I KNOW what you are going through. My first husband died of an overdose. We were divorced about 5 years before he died. We were close even after divorce. We just couldnt live together because of his addiction. All I can tell you is that there is nothing you can do for her. She has to get help for herself. Until then you can continue to make sure she has groceries & etc. Because we love them we will always do things for them. But there is a fine line between helping and enableing. Sounds like you know this since you stated you dont give money to her. Alot of people will thell you to cut her off or use "tough love". I think thats right when it comes directly to the drug use. But I also know that addicts are human and have serious problems. I just wouldnt cut her off. When she does pass away one day (hopefully from old age)you will not have to feel guilt from everything. Believe me there will be guilt. I had to learn that even though I did the best I could and all the choices I made in regards to my husband wasnt always right I did the what I thought was best at the time. Took me a long time to not beat myself up. I still do over some things. Just let her know you love her and you are willing to help her get help when she asks for it and until then you can only see to it that she has the basics. Hang in there, its hard loving an addict.

Thank you for the kind words. I am happy you had a nice day Velleen. I just wrote a long post but erased it because my brother just showed up with the food. Little too late. I ate the fish and it was really good. I don't normally eat fried fish but enjoyed the perch my friend made. My friend Donna called me after and asked me how my Easter dinner was and if I still had company. I told her I didn't get the ham and didn't invite Paul over and she was more shocked than I was. We had a good laugh. I told her I didn't care about the ham now darn it, I wanted the chocolate. Dontcha know chocolate heals all wounds? LOL So I sat here and wrote another long post about how my SIL should have called me when they realized they needed the ham, etc. but I wasn't going to say anything to her so that she would feel bad. I just thought it was strange anyways that she called me at 1:30 in the morning to offer the ham. I joked with Donna that maybe I dreamt it but she said no, she talked to me after Shelley called me. LOLOL So the phone rings a few minutes ago just as I was going to submit my post and I saw it was my SIL so I didn't answer it. I listened to the message and she said that Ray had all the food packed up and was going to bring it over but she wasn't sure if I was home. I shut off my lights and went to hide out in my bedroom. LOL I should have realized she knew I was home because when I am on the internet the phone rings funny. My brother just lives 2 streets over so by the time I got into the bedroom he was here. I told him he shouldn't have bothered as I already ate and they could use the ham for sandwiches. He asked me if Paul came over for dinner and I said no, I didn't have anything to make for him. I can't really talk to Ray without him jumping on me so I wasn't going to say anything but I thought what the heck. LOL I told him Shelley should have called me yesterday so I could have gone out and bought my own ham so I could have Paul and Laura over. Surprisingly he didn't attack me like he usually does when I speak. He said he wasn't sure how much ham they needed because when it was out of the package it didn't look like it would be enough to feed Shelley's family. I offered him the cupcakes to take home but he said for me to keep them they had enough desserts and stuff. I told him I made the cupcakes specially for them but he said "you and Paul eat them". I was more upset over that because I did spend some time on the cupcakes dying the icing and decorating them. I can't eat 24 cupcakes. I haven't looked in the bag of food he brought. I think I will call Paul and tell him to come over and eat it. Ray said he only ending up taking a few slices off the ham. I am glad the next major holiday isn't until Thanksgiving in October and I am going to treat that like any other Monday and nobody better mention me making a holiday dinner. Marjorie bailed on Christmas and now this happened on Easter. I'm giving up holidays for Lent - oh darn it's Easter - Lent is over. Okay, where is that chocolate? LOL I hope you all had a Happy Easter. Anne