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Hi, Jerry. Actually, I couldn't stand it one more day and moved them all outside yesterday :). We are having nights in the 40's and 50's for the next two weeks, and likelihood of frost after 4/15 is small here. What I learned: The biggest thing I learned is that lights are not a panacea, and they don't even approximate real sunlight. The winter still seems too long, and plants are much more likely to get pests or to sicken indoors, no matter what you do. The next biggest thing I learned is: Spray everything and give it a gimlet eye in outdoor light before bringing inside. I had scale on a couple of things that got pretty far along. Digusting. It's hard to see until it's pretty far along, and I didn't see it til I got them outside. Can you believe it? Put your lights near water and in a place where water on the floor won't do any damage. Carrying water very far is a burden when you need many gallons of it, and you just can't keep water off the floor no matter what you do. All in all, I was a bit disappointed. I expected too much from the lights-- wonderful thriving plants. That I didn't get. About half did ok and survived without getting denuded. The other half lost leaves constantly, looked miserable or had pests. Jasmines and artabotrys did the worst. The jasmines lost leaves continually. Ditto the arta, and the arta suffered dieback of several branches. Murrayas lost leaves and got ugly. I think it may have been mites. Brunfelsias did fine, even bloomed! Michelia alba, too. Aglaia also did well, also bloomed from time to time. Citrus, too. On balance, it was was better than the crowded feeling that comes from too many plants in your living space. And certainly better than just giving the plants over to certain death. And I enjoyed my trek down there every day and had many peaceful and happy hours puttering there. But I hated watching some of the plants sicken and come to near-death. It's terribly depressing, especially when you can't stop the decline. I think I am going to give up on the plants that I can't seem to winter indoors and concentrate on the ones that do ok. I hope this helps!

Well, I LOVE them ALLL. I have to say there is not a one that I wouldn't mind having. I do have to say that Color Glory done very will for me as all the others did (SO FAR). And, yes there are some that aren't as pretty as other but I tend to find something that I like about every hosta that I have. So, if I had to pick one it would be Frances Williams. She is an awesome hosta - doesn't burn for me looks great! She tends to stay for a couple years and leaves me. I HAD Colory Glory which was beautiful until the stinking, no good for nothing VOLES had it for a midnight snack along with Spilt Milk, Independence and countless other. OH and Thunder Bolt. Boy, I was MAD on that one. I do agree that hosta loves what it loves and they can tend to be spoilt. Anyway, I also have a question. Have any of you tried the Castor Oil remedy for VOLES?

Dual pane windows are also known as IG or Insulated Glass windows. Insulated really isn't the correct term to use for multipane windows however, although it is commonly used by pretty much everybody. Correctly, IG really means INSULATING glass since the glass isn't insulated in any way, but it does insulate. See where I am going with this? R-value describes a material's resistance to thermal transmittance. Insulation is generally rated by its R-value. A single lite of 1/8" glass has an R-value approaching 1. Add a second lite and the R-value jumps up to almost 2 (I have always done well in higher mathematics), so by adding a second lite, we have doubled the insulating value of our window. If we have a basic, simple, no-frills dual pane IG unit we have a center-of-glass R-value approaching 2. However, if we happen to have a single pane window and a single pane storm window installed then we find that we have an R-value approaching 2. So, two lites of glass is two lites of glass. The difference between the IG unit and the single lite with storm is negligible - when dealing with the R-value insulating capabilty of the clear glass lites. However (there's that word again), R-value only deals with conductive thermal transfer and doesn't take into account either radiant or convective thermal transfer. And on first glance it appears that your question specifically concerns radiant energy gain. "...the light passes through the storm, bounces off the single-pane or your house, changes wavelengths, but it can't pass back out through the storm window because it changed wavelengths, so the heat just stays in your house." Simply put - no. Consider the three "light" source we deal with. First is UV, then visible light, then IR light. UV stands for Ultraviolet and ultraviolet really doesn't account for any appreciable heat gain in your home (or anywhere else for that matter). UV does account for that burning sensation that you get when you are in the sun for two long (that would be UVB, btw), and UV does account for that gradual fading that you see in your home's furnishings, carpetsa, drapes, etc - and that would be UVA. And as an aside, since I mentioned UVB results in sunburn, UVA results in tan - and it is also the primary contrubutor to skin cancer. Go figure. Ordinary glass is opaque to UVB - in other words, UVB is blocked by ordinary glass. UVA, on the other hand, passes right thru glass. About 95% of the UV that we see down here is UVA and the other 5% is UVB. We don't get natural UVC (remember the ozone layer?), which is a good thing since it would potentially/eventually kill us. Next in the spectrum is visible light. Visible light is a good thing for many obvious reasons. As intended, visible light does pass rather well thru clear glass, about 90% of the visible lite that impacts a clear glass window goes right on thru. The remainder is either absorbed or reflected by the glass. Again, 90% transmittance is a very good thing for many obvious reasons. However, visible light entering our homes does result in an appreciable heat gain within the home. Visible light is a source of radiant heat gain and visible lite in the shorter wavelengths is responsible (along with UVA) for that annoying fading thing. Next on the list is IR or Infrared light. Infrared is the primary source of radiant heat and it is the primary source of heat on our world. No infrared, no us. We break down infrared into different wavelength or frequency bands. Near or short wave infrared is direct solar gain. Far or longwave infrared is not (re: what you were told). Infrared light passes quite readily thru clear glass. About 80% of near infrared passes thru "ordinary" clear window glass and up to about 85% of far infrared passes thru. I will have to finish this later. It is already pretty long and I have run out of time this evening. Hopefully, someone might find it interesting or even a bit informative.