> I read they do not like direct light, but rather need bright, indirect. My understanding was that even the strongest fluorescent T5 light you can give plants equals to this "bright indirect" light level from plant culture descriptions - because real sun is SO MUCH brighter. I was at an orchid show a couple of weeks ago at New York Botanical Garden, and they had a lot of companion plants including many species of Maranta and Calathea growing on the floor of the greenhouses. I should totally have measured the light there with my phone (unlike orchids, these did not seem to be temporary exhibit, so it would have been meaningful), but I did not think to do it. Maranta growing in the ground is quite a sight to see, by the way. It's a very low ground cover - its habit is to try to grow roots into the soil at every node, so it does not reach up at all, except for its tiny little purple (or white) flowers. Very cute. I am thinking how to replicate this look at home. When it was growing on my window sill a winter ago, a long vine crept along the window sill - and it did flower at that time as well. I cut it up at that time to fill out the pot, but I am starting to think just letting it crawl where it wanted to go was a better idea. It does not seem to want to grow upright at all. > can you take a light measument? I did, finally. On my light stand, it was getting around 200-700 fc (it was on the less bright shelf not directly under lights). On the bathroom counter, I get 15-20 fc. This is with an uncalibrated phone light meter app, so absolute levels may be wrong, but comparatively, they do tell a story, I think. The plant stand was getting 16 hours a day on a timer at the time, and the bathroom day is roughly as long (manual turn on/off), maybe a bit shorter.

I want to bump this up again so those who are interested in preserving this plant can add this year's growing information. I had a baby who bloomed this spring but no seed pods. The same with the wild A variegata I dug up three seasons ago. This year it put up four strong stalks and lots of flower heads but again, not one seed pod. I watched the flower heads closely and even though some flying insects crawled all over the flowers, there was no pollination. This particuliar milkweed appears to bloom the earliest of all the milkweeds I have. Maybe there aren't enough insects around this early to aid in the pollination. We had terrible high temps over a long period this summer and it was all I could do to keep the plants alive. Did anyone else have any luck getting seed pods of this plant? I also purchased three small A variegata plants from Pine Ridge Gardens this year (all MaryAnn would sell me as I suspect she was trying to make them available to more of her clients). I'm going to overwinter them in 1 gal nursery pots. I haven't decided if I'm going to try growing them in big planters on my deck next year (mostly high dappled shade) or plant them inground. Maybe I should try putting one in ground this fall and keeping two in the nursery pots over winter. What is the key to getting these plants to set seed pods? :-) ~Mary A baby A variegata - 1st blooming this spring of 2011 the wild transplanted A variegata - aka Red Ring Milkweed - blooming 5-24-2011

Annette - I'll definitely keep an eye open for that Cherry Cola heuchera! It's wet and sloppy out there today - we had some more rain - and even thunder and a rainbow to boot! I took some pictures in the backyard from the porch or in the house, an a couple in the front yard from the driveway when we went out to walk Cole: Most of the green in the backyard is corydalis: North beds looking from the porch+ south beds from a window (you can see the big mound of green fern near the shed; wost of the rest of the green is corydalis+ looking up the north alley by leaning out over the porch railing! You can see that corydalis has filled in nicely under the eaves in very dry conditions: This is the area outside the south gate in the front where we cleared out a lot of the dwarf lilac's sukers and hope the Lamiums will recover enough to fill in under it again: and a closer view of the Magnum heuchera that will, hopefully, make a nice combination with the Lamium+

It's common for the leaves of some plants to tear as they unfurl if relative humidity is low. USUALLY, dorms are very low in RH. Might that be the case in your room? MG potting soil is very water retentive ...... to such a degree that they are best used with one or more work-arounds to mitigate the impact of excess water retention. Your digital devices (fingers) aren't as good at determining when it's time to water as a wooden "tell" would be. Moisture levels deep in the pot are what determines whether it's to water or withhold water. I just left the following on another post here at houseplants, you might find it interesting. Rather than check soil moisture levels with a digital device (a finger), it would be better to use a "tell" made from a 1/4 or 5/16" wooden dowel rod. They can be had from any hardware or home improvement store for 50-75 cents. Buy one 48" long, cut it into 2-24" pieces, and sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener. To use, push the dowel deep into the soil, as in all the way to the bottom. Pull it out, inspect the tip. If it's wet or stained dark from water and whatever's suspended in the soil solution, withhold water until it comes out nearly dry. If you check the top couple of inches of soil with a finger, and your finger reads "DRY", whatever is beneath the depth you can reach with a finger can be 100% saturated, which is decidedly bad for whatever plant is in the pot. From something I left on another thread about using a "tell": Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support good root health, which is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to a build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. None of the plants in the Ficus genus is particularly difficult to keep happy. As with all plants, soil choice is very important. Beyond that, they want LOTS of light, a warm spot free from cold drafts, and a nutritional supplementation plan that can be hit and miss if you can't water appropriately because of an overly water-retentive medium, or monkey easy if you're using a good soil or even a middling soil with work-arounds in place. Al