I thought I would share how I am spreading my woodland violets around the garden. I have them planted in an 10" shallow clay pot that sits in a round plastic tray. I keep the tray filled with water at this time of year. With frequent fertilizing, (I foliar feed with water soluable stuff mixed half strength.) it grows out of the pot and onto the ground. There it will root itself after a while. I then trim around the pot to cut the rooted strands away from the potted plant and then move the whole shebang to the next area. I have a great patch under Clytemnestra and now Miss Atwood is getting the treatment.

Merryd, putting pinestraw over the growing crown of the plant is excellent mulch. My 2 big tubs of philodendron had absolutely NO rot in the crown, and no leaf frostbite either. I banked a mix of leaves and pinestraw around the tubs, and only for freezing weather did I cover the plant tops with a tarp and bubblewrap. This also worked for my Kimberly Queen ferns, the white birds of paradise, a dwarf splitleaf philodendron, nun's orchids, and a variegated ginger. I did the same for my colocasia/alocasia/bananas but their trunks/stems had so much water in them that the outer portions turned to mush. They were all planted in the ground, mulched heavily, wrapped with bubble wrap or surrounded by heavy corrugated box material. Our temps got into the low 20s more frequently and oftener this last winter than I ever remember. However, I lost only 2 bananas and 1 elephant ear.

It looks like all the overwatered FLFs I've read about on the houseplants forum, and all of them have turned out to be caused by overwatering. 'Overwatering' happens when the soil stays saturated for long periods of time, preventing air from prejudicing oxygen to the roots, leading to dead and rotting roots and a plant that starts to kill and drop leaves its reduced root system can no longer support. You might want to scan the first page or two on that forum for FLF threads, but meanwhile I'll ask a few questions: Does the pot have a drain hole? How do your water--on a schedule, when the top of the soil is dry, or when the soil at the bottom of the pot is dry? Do you give it a fixed volume of water, or water until it drains freely from the pot? Does the pot ever sit in standing water? What kind of soil are you using? Have you potted up (put the plant in a bigger pot with new soil around the existing rootball) or repotted it (removed all old soil from the roots, pruned errant roots, and replaced the soil with all new mix)?

I'm thinking it's one of a three things, but leaning more towards just one or two. Here is a macro closeup of a wall in our remodel that will be tiled - it's been painted. You can easily see it's got a lot of rough areas. This is due to new plaster being applied, then sanded... sanding extended beyond the plaster onto the drywall, which gets fuzzy when over-sanded. This is not a big issue as after it's painted, you just sand it flat, then paint again (and repeat if necessary). Clearly you've done this so I'm thinking this isn't the issue: Since you said you could wipe it smooth while wet I'm thinking it's either your Dove rollers, or your paint. I had the exact same problem (no pics) with one Dove roller. None of my others that came in the same packet shed, but one was a nightmare. Try taking a new Dove roller outside and 'wacking' it well... see if lint comes off. Then try it. The other idea is that your paint somehow has gotten dirty, and yes, this can happen. Lint, grit, dust - all these things can leave behind those crumbs. Especially when remodeling. You can try a cone filter, or use a screen. I always filter my paint when doing large projects because one never knows what gets in them.