lol..listen to you all! Eddie, with a job like that how could NOT have made a bit of a mess. Too dang cold to do it outside thats for sure! I too have bags of soil, perlite, and stuff all over the kitchen and bedroom bathroom. Heck the bedroom bathroom is my seed room. The way I see it is..I do the cleaning so I can make as much of a mess as I want..wherever I want..and I DO! DH complains, but I just tell him too bad, lol. Bob, Laura would pitch a fit if she lived with me, lol. There is soil on every windowsill here..cuz there are plants on every windowsill, lol. Lucy, every time they go near the plants just spritz them with the water bottle, after a couple times, they wont go near the seedlings anymore. We dont want shish-ka-kitties, but I think she meant to put the blunt side up, lol. lmao Annette...I am waiting for the day our drain in the kitchen gets so clogged I cant fix it myself..I'm sure the trap is full of soil, sand, and dare I say maybe a few pebbles ;/ Soil and sand thaw out pretty quickly if you leave them in the kitchen..just make sure you put a towel underneath the bags, lol. Better yet put the bags in a bin, thats what I did..I learned that lesson last year! Who woulda thunk so much liquid woulda came outta there?

I put my potted plants mostly in plastic pots or line the clay pots with heavy duty plastic bags with the bottoms cut out, here in Tucson the clay pots dry out much too fast, and although I have been lining my pots like this for sometime the local guru stated in his column last month to do just that. I rec'd a lacecap from my daughter three years ago for Mothers Day and figured it would be a one time plant, but potted it up and last year had nine blooms and this year thirteen, it still has the outer blossoms intact and it is now July 12, am about ready to deadhead them and leave everything else as is, Its in a 15" pot but will move it to a much larger pot this fall. I do cover it or pull it into the carport/garage if I think it might freeze and pull it back out during the day. It gets morning sun up til about ten and then dappled shade the rest of the day. I would love to try a mophead but fear the hot winds we have would play havoc with them. But then again I didn't think the lacecap would do so well either.

PAR lights have no business being used in a family room, unless you have a high vaulted ceiling. The beam spread is just too narrow and concentrated to be useful. You either want a BR40 or BR30 bulb, or one of the fixture/light combos, such as the CREE Cr6. They'll give you a nice wide beam pattern -- anywhere from 90 to 120 degrees. For kits, I'd go with something like this: http://www.golights.com.au/lighting/downlights/led-downlights/led-downlight-kit-alluminum-dimmable-18w-90-degree-ip44-premier-sunny-lighting Here is a led BR40 bulb: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Philips-423756-14-5-Watt-BR40-LED-Indoor-Flood-Light-Bulb-Dimmable-/400480586367

It is very beautiful and it kinda reminds me of striatum? I have one that I purchased on Ebay as 'Old Timey Orange' and the seller said that it has been it in his family for a long time. I have mine in the front window and it's sending up two scapes at the moment. I only purchased one bulb and it's got a whole potful of babies next to the mother bulb. Also, it seems to bloom several times a year :-))))