Hey! Thanks Jessica. They are planted in the 1.1.1 mix as well as my jades. I love that mix because it outlasts the 5.1.1. mix. Oh, if you pot up your jade into the 1.1.1 mix, believe me when I tell you it will take off on you:-) Thank you for your kind words. Josh! I LOVE your plants. I see how happy they are frolicking in the nice windows you have. Look at what you have done with the CC. I can't believe that it is even flowering again! Bravo. Nice colors. I love that Pichira too. I almost picked one up today. What are the little guys growing next to your CC on the top pic? Cute! I see where you are keeping some of the jades too:-) Nancy! I love those orange flowers too. Did you notice the Hoya flower? That has grown off the Hoya I saved a few months ago! I keep telling them to behave, or I will have to send them the the plant masters for training. They have been good since then. Jodik! Thank you, thank you:-) No worries. I can't wait to see what's up your sleeve..lol I can tell you this. Every time I look at my Clivia flowers, I think of you. I know how much you love flowers like that and they remind me of Ameryllis. God, I can never remember how to spell that name.. Mike

I don't really get pest issues from taking plants outside (unless it's something that's REALLY pest prone. Hi, you stupid A. Squarrosa*. Fortunately, none of the aphids or whiteflies this thing got ever spread). The high humidity outside keeps mites in check. Scale and mealies... I don't see those much around here, and bringing those in on and infested plant from the store is far more likely. I DO tend to get a lot of spiders. I stopped caring about bringing those in with me, so a fringe benefit of growing plants has been that my arachnophobia has improved a lot. Anyway, I'm moving to an apartment next year for gradschool. No dorm means no going home for the summer means no putting plants outside. I think I'll be okay for the most part, except for a few things: * Delonix regia - This doesn't really make a good houseplant, and it's pretty much deciduous. It's actually stayed more-or-less in-leaf this year, but it needs to be outside to get properly leafy. * A. Squarrosa - This doesn't seem to make a good plant indoors or out, although outside it actually grows beyond just replacing old leaves. * Blechnum gibbum - Way too dry for these indoors. It seems perfectly capable of surviving half the year in a fairly brown-and-crispy state, but it *needs* summers outdoors. I might have to set up a humidity tent for it or something. * Pineapples - A little too dry indoors for them, and they need full sun to really grow. Also they're sort of huge. * Key lime - It doesn't grow well indoors. It does okay and won't die, but it just does better outside.

Hi Nancy, Actually, I already had a general, very general, layout and I brought it to them (Jacob). I gave them the exact measurements of the room and some pictures for inspiration. You can have them come out to measure, but you'll pay for the trip...probably worth it. I told Jacob what I wanted and he worked with me to get/fit it all. They have many sample cabinet door and drawer fronts to look at and a book to look through to pick out your hood design. The corbels I assume are also through a book of pictures of kitchens they have done. Jacob mailed me a paper with several legs to choose from, and I circled the one I wanted and sent it back. We did a lot of mailing, but it only takes 1 or 2 days. I gave them all of my appliance specs before they made the cabinets. My HVAC guy installed the hood insert The paint color is one of their standard choices. BM dove white or white dove, I can't remember which. It is a soothing color. They do have a fax number. I believe there are a few people that help them out with that stuff. Jacob Jr. doesn't do the faxing. He will talk on the phone, but he usually isn't there in the morning, his dad Jacob Sr. is, so Jacob Jr. usually ended up calling me back around 1 pm. Good Luck! The craftsmanship is excellent, and the price is unbeatable...I think. Lori

Hi, yes also with the japanese names it is quite confusing and besides the fact that we don't perfectly understand their names, even in Japan they are often used synonymious for different cultivars. As Oksana correctly have noted Kagetsu means Moon Flower. However, this is also the general word for a jade tree in Japanese ... so, jade tree = Kagetsu To specify the particular cultivar there is always a second or third word added ... Kagetsu Nishiki = Moon Flower Variegated (normaly this is Tricolor) Ougon Kagetsu = Golden Moon Flower (Hummels Sunset) Hime Ougon Kagetsu = Princess Golden Moon Flower (Small Leaf Hummels Sunset) Hime Kagetsu = Princess Moon Flower (Small leaf Jade = Crosbys Compact) Shin Kagetsu Nishiki = New Moon Flower Variegated (this is actually a synomym for Maruba and some others) Maruba Kagetsu = Round Leaf Moon Flower Maruba Nishiki = Round Leaf Variegated (actually the same as above) As Maruba is already established here and elsewere, I would argue to keep this name for the cultivar. Alternatively one could use ShinKagetsu as I did in the beginning or choose a completely new name. As far as I understood the japanese do not distinguish the simple Maruba (only light sensitive variegation) and the variegated Maruba (light sensitive variegation + green variegation that does not bleach) and use the same name for both. here some older pics of my plants ... common Maruba ... you can see that the whole leaf bleaches out and gets yellow (the middle alway bleaches last) variegated Maruba ... you can see that some parts of the leaf stay green and don't bleach out even though one cannot see a difference when the leaves are not bleached (the green state) in my opinion the difference in the bleached state is big enough to consider both as distinct cultivars. This is also corroborated by Mikes pictures ... maybe he could make another side-by-side view of his two plants for better comparison. Ben