Purple..Do you find, Draecena surculosa..'Gold-Dust' or 'Florida Beauty,' slow-growing? Mine two are several yrs old, and rarely leaf..Why is that? How often do you fertilize? Maybe that's the problem. My theory about fertilizing is..slow growing plants need less fertilizer than those that take off like weeds. Therefore, since I believe Dracaena surculosa is a slow-grower, they're rarely fertilized. I also feel, surculosa and goldiannia/sp, are just plain difficult. Yes, there's a couple pics of Milky Way..Are they not gorgeous?? One Ebay seller had on on auction about 4 yrs ago. I made a bid, but the winning bid was way more than I could afford. But, it was a beauty! There's a Croton, 'can't recall name,' that looks identical to D. surculosa. I get the two mixed up. The spots might differ a little...I can't tell though. Your Dracaena's very healthy. Nice-looking. No brown which is great considering the time of year. I agree it doesn't resemble most Dracaenas, but if you look at stems/leaves of D. 'Song of India,' they're the same. So, you place yours outside? I'm afraid it'd burn. Maybe next year I'll place in the yard, on a shelf that gets mostly morning east, and behind other plants. Or would that be too much shade? Indoors, both are in a west window, sitting on a tray. No artificial light..Maybe I should place them under light to speed growth???

I was wondering that, too. The north side of my house is not where I'd choose to hold things over, especially things in pots. I know I am two zones south of you, but I have planted mid-Nov or a tad later with success. I think it depends on the plant and how your winter is, just my opinion. If it were me, I don't like to hold them over in pots...so, I'd go with the planting them out and mulching very well. With perennials in general, I have heard several noted experts say you can plant as long as the ground is workable...don't know how that might apply in your situation.

I bought most of my cast iron at yard sales, inherited several well-used pieces from around WWI (not kidding!), and believe it or not actually dug one frying pan out of the dirt in the backyard of a mid-1800s farmhouse I rented 15 years ago when rototilling for my landlord's garden. It was very rusty but once we got the rust off (wire brush attachment on an electric drill!) and reseasoned it it was good as new. I see them all the time at Goodwill and "Sal's Boutique" ;-) for just a couple of dollars because they're always all black and nasty looking, but they're easy to rescue. IMO the best place to buy NEW cast iron is an old-fashioned independent hardware store, where it costs maybe 1/4 what the fancy kitchen stores charge. Lodge is an excellent brand and the only brand still made 100% in the USA (and mostly from recycled iron!). There are many ways to go about seasoning cast iron and everyone is convinced that only their way is the right way and everyone else is wrong. :-) The ones I had that came from yard sales and other dubious sources got a run through a self-cleaning oven cycle or blasting-hot grill (if you use a charcoal grill, bury it right in the coals while you cook on the grate above) until a layer of ash formed on the surface. I washed that off and reseasoned them, and they might as well have been new. I had to give up my cast iron a few years back, which made me very sad, but I couldn't cook anything with them unless DH was home to pick up the blasted pan for me. My favorite pieces were my Dutch oven, the great big "chicken-fryin' pan" as one of my Southern friends called it, the flat griddle (best grilled cheese sandwiches ever), and a 12" skillet with lovely smooth sloped sides that made wonderful cornbread and Yorkshire pudding. Oh, and I had two ancient muffin pans which made the most glorious popovers. Popovers are one of my favorite things, but muffin tins and modern popover pans tend to be too thin to get hot enough for a good "pop". At least I gave them to a fellow foodgeek who would take care of them. All-Clad makes a stainless steel wok but I don't have one. My horrible glass-topped electric stove (I hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it) doesn't produce enough heat to bother with a wok so we gave ours away to a friend who actually cooks on the same iron wood-fired stove his great-grandmother cooked on. He fires it up blasting hot, takes one of the lids off and drops the wok right inside. I preferred the woks with a smallish flat bottom and the single rolled-metal handle rather than the ring and two little loop handles.

Excellent ... I still have bubble wrap left over from insulating my potted roses in summer (last year) - it worked a treat - when they were planted out in early March they'd all developed lots of really healthy roots so being confined to a pot hadn't fazed them at all. The straw arrived as packing around my rose order a few weeks ago - it's lovely clean wheat straw .... I put it all in a plastic bag and have been saving it until I could find a use for it .... guess I'll re-arrange my very overgrown strawberry beds and use the straw to protect the strawberries. I re-read your advice about watering .... it would seem that citrus and roses are almost diametrically opposed when it comes to watering. I haven't watered the plant since I brought it home and soil is still quite damp so I'll keep monitoring it and when it feels dry down to the second knuckle I'll water it.