That's a really hard question, and the answer is neither clear cut or something everyone would be able to relate to. Even as a bonsai judge, I can't say that I can identify grower A's plants from grower B's plants unless there is an obvious disparity in the skill levels between the growers. For the most part, a bonsai practitioner's job is to bring out the TREE's personality by helping the tree to tell its own story, even if it is an imaginary one. IOW, we try to minimize the appearance that we (the grower) had any hand at all in bringing a tree along to the point where it becomes evocative. Often, our skills as a bonsai artist are measured in our ability to disguise our skills; that is to say in our ability to make the viewer see the tree as a creation of nature instead of the artist. Once I see a tree in a show or in a magazine, I usually remember the artist who created it, but even though I might know many of the works of a particular artist well, I would have great difficulty picking his/her particular trees out of a show, even if I knew that artist was a part of the local talent the show was representing, if I had never seen the tree before. I took in the Midwest Bonsai Show this past August. As an aside, it was the best that show has ever been, IMO. The Garden's trees were well prepared for the show, and there were at least 100 exceptional trees in the judging. I did recognize many of the trees because I'd seen them before in other venues, so knew who their owners were, but I found myself having to turn over the informational cards that marked each exceptional tree to see who created them, even though I had a good idea of what individuals' work was being represented in the show and their relative skill level. It's even difficult to make any sort of judgment about personalities based on how a grower's trees look or how they are shaped. First, most high quality bonsai only look good for a short time every 2-3 years. The rest of the time they are recovering or building up energy for the next major operation. Also, judging a person's personality by how his trees look is about the same as judging his personality by how his shoes or his car looks. In reality, the most information you can get from how my trees look or your plants look is how we prioritize and how skillful we are. The greatest guy in the world might have nasty looking plants if he has either a poor set of skills or looks at plants as a low priority pastime; and the biggest jerk might have beautiful plants if he's skillful and puts a high priority on the condition of his plants. Where you CAN tell a lot about people and personalities is how they present themselves here, in forum settings. I think that speaks volumes about a person to those that pay attention and are able to read between the lines. Al

I water my winter growers weekly in the winter when we don't get rain. But you have to be careful, some aloes will melt on you if you let them get cold and wet (Madagascar ones but then they shouldn't be pigs). To be honest, I've been watering everything in the ground frequently because it has been so dang hot.

Thank you all soo much. Do you only water in am? I have some small sprinklers I purchased from Lowes that spray out mist of water. I've been using these for about 45 minutes 2 times a week but now I am thinking I need more. Do you ever water around or after 5pm. I ask because I have to be at work early and usually get home around this time and this is best for me. I have been amending soil. I have that clay soil that when I moved into home 2 years ago, I almost broke my back trying to dig in. I spoke with a nursery who stated to kill weeds, put compost then mulch down for about 3 weeks. I did all this at beginning of April last year and started planting at beginning of March. Just doing this made it so easy to plant. When I planted I put Miracle Grow and compost in holes. I know the saying second year just creaping but I can honestly say that some of my hostas in 1 year doubled in size and I think that is because of the compost. I planted some more hostas this year and now from what you all are saying, I need to be watering a lot more. Well, I am going to go outside now and get my hose and give a good drenching. Sun is not that high but it is still hot so enough time to dry out. I am proud to say that I have minimal Slug damage as of yet due to following everyone's suggestions. Thanks.

I also really love the Suave Daily Clarifying shampoo, it's dirt cheap and doesn't harm my very delicate fine hair. I just stumbled upon it too. I had bought it for my husband and he didn't use it so I had this huge bottle and used it and was surprised at how well it did for my fine hair and plus, it doesn't make my scalp itch, that has become an issue for me. I also found a conditioner that I love, it's Martix Biolage, the detangling one. Finally, a conditioner that doesn't make my scalp itch AND actually takes the tangles out of my insanely tangle prone hair. I used to shampoo daily because I styled my hair every day. Now, I just put it in a ponytail and call it done. I wash my hair about every third day now. I'd be very afraid to put baking soda in my fragile hair...I'm sure it would destroy it. I once (ONE TIME) used Dr. Bronner's liquid Castile to wash my hair and it damaged it so badly that it had to grow out before it was normal again. UGH! I'm lucky that I have hair, don't get me wrong, but my hair is very weird! My scalp is also very oily...so I cannot go very long without washing. Three days is pushing it and I can only pull it off because I wear it in a ponytail. I also can't stand the smell of stinky hair...UGH! It gets stinky after a couple days. That's when I know it's time to wash!