Good show, Esther! Now, if little Pure Heart doesn't make it (mine was destroyed by squirrels this winter), check out Snow Mouse as a possible alternate. I'm surprised and delighted at it vigorous growth despite the upheaval of the shared bowl it lives in. Ahhh, your Paradise Island will be a joy to behold. Mine lasts a long time, looking good to the very end. Maui Buttercups is fine, but when it got really hot sort of faded out. But still worth growing even in my extreme climate. Do you have a smarty phone? I have my pictures on Flickr, and there is an app which lets me upload to Flickr quite easily. I always add "tags" with the hosta name for easier retrieval. Flickr is a Yahoo affiliate now.

OK, so the "bulb" part is a crown. Now I know, thank you. Toward the "drowning" you recommended, I just bought a new hose, a regular garden hose, to replace the curly hose I had. It was of such a small diameter that the water pressure forced water out of every brass fitting and I'd end up more soaked than the plants I was trying to water! I used that new hose to water my garden tonight, plus the hostas. The Golden Tiara, Diamond Tiara, and nameless blue-green big-leaved hosta my colleague gave me are all blooming purple flowers. The new baby leaf continues to grow and is a nice green instead of yellowing--so far. Of the 2 hosta roots in a plastic bag of "Wide Brim" I bought at Home Depot when they were 50% off, the new baby leaf is the result. The second root never sprouted. And one of the rootless crowns with a couple leaves that I planted (part of my colleague's gift of hosta divisions) never sent up a new leaf. All the other divisions he gave me sent up new leaves. So, hopefully next year I will have some nice hostas to enjoy, more than the scraggly taggly crew I started out with this year.

endi - I'm with Rina on this one, judging from the pictures, the soil does looks really dense and peaty. What type of cactus mix do you use? Most commercial cactus/succulent mixes contains peat soil and are detrimental to the well being of these plants in the long term. Unless you can make variations like what Rina suggested, adding purlite/grits into your soil. Wilting leaves are usually signs of the roots not being able to effectively take in water, and on the other hand, when you overwater, the roots are prone to rotting instead of taking the water in. IMO, your immediate choice is to repot them in the best medium you can find possible to minimize any of those risk. If you ever watered well-draining soil like most of the people in the forum here uses (gritty mix), water almost sips out the pot in less than a second, that's why its defined as "fast draining soil". As for Sun, this needs a little more care, because every plant has different preference to sunlight needs. I try to slowly acclimatize my new plants to more sun during the weekends, but during weekdays as I work in the daytime, I leave those who prefer lesser sun on spots away from the window with occasional sun. 1) Babytoes - depending on the season, their sunlight needs varies; since they started turning pale when you gave them full; you might want to slowly start them with just 1-2 hours per day for a good week, and make slow increments weekly. http://www.cactusjungle.com/plant_pages/fenestraria_aurantiaca.htm 2) Devil's tongue - Ferocactus Latispinus - It doesn't seem like rot, but usually rot starts from places that accumulate water for a prolonged period of time, and from the structure of your cactus, there is no way water can cause rot on the crown of your plant, so you might want to check the the roots of the plant as that is the most common way it spreads. If it's sunburnt, you might want to slowly increase its sun exposure as describe above, but from the link posted below suggests full sun. http://www.cactusjungle.com/plant_pages/ferocactus_latispinus.html 3) Aloe Juvenna - I don't have much experience growing Aloes, but I'm pretty sure you will be fine following the tips provided by Rina and Crenda above. As well as the link below about Juvenna http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1801018/aloe-juvenna-just-boughtwhat-do-i-do-with-this Best of luck with your plant rescue! Bernard

Bkay, Thanks for letting me know about Orange Marmalade. Right now she's a shining star. She brightens up my back yard (under a tree). Definately an attention grabber. I think Dancing Queen may take her place as A favorite if she turns out like the online pictures. Dancing Queen will get dappled shade/sun most of the morning but some mid-day sun. By 1:30, she'll be fully shaded (light shade) for the remainder of the day. I'm hoping she'll be able to handle the two hrs of sun. I planted the Green Mountain Hostas. I purchased a different potting mix (this one has lots of wood fiber in it) and the Orchid mix you mentioned at a ratio of 2 parts potting mix to 1 part Orchid mix. The pots with this mixture drain at a much better rate than the first ones did. I retested the first pots with the water retention soil (using the moister meter) and they still show wet. Not much drying out yet - 48 hrs since watering. The plants look amazing though. I'm loving the leaves on Paradym! Oh my gosh! Beautiful ridges! If they don't start drying out soon...what should I look for to save them before it's too late? I also wanted to make sure I understand about The proper way to plant hostas. The leafing spikes (pips?) have roots coming out to the sides at the same level and cup down forming an upside down bowl - with a few stragglers that tend to stick up. Some of the hosta I received had one or two roots that were twice as long as the pot so I curved them following the natural inside curve of the pot . I brought the dirt up to the leaf spikes but left the umbrella (just under the stalks) exposed a little. I was afraid of covering the this part up too much (is this the crown?) based on what I've read about Hostas not liking their crown covered.