Gin, not sure if this helps. I had one (no longer alive after a rogue bleach spillage!) and it did fine under windowsill conditions, light somewhat brighter than phalaenopsis (watered the same way). Didn't seem to care much about humidity (I know folks who grow these in terrariums). It was potted in a bit of a weird way - the plant was originally in a small clay pot in sphag. The pot was knocked over, shattered, and the plant fell out. I didn't have sphag at the time so I just stuffed the plant into a larger pot and filled the gaps around the root/sphag ball with hydroton pellets. I forgot about it, and when I found it later, I saw oodles of roots growing into the hydroton between the sphag and the side of the pot. Blooomed profusely every year. I think that these are hard to get established but once you get them going, they're hard to kill (unless you use bleach)

Gwen, I, too have a myriad of HST's that I have trimmed from projects sitting in a drawer. When the drawer gets full, I plan to start stitching them together and see what comes of them. Some will be teeny-tiny, and some larger. I'm thinking of potentially doing a pinwheel-type quilt with them, but it's likely going to be pretty busy! So, does anyone else do this, or am I the only crazy lady here? Odessa

Patty, Mention midge to me, and my blood begins to boil. What a persistent, devastating plague it is. I know what you are experiencing. My best solution is spray.....which I hate to do, but if I didn't, after my spring flush, I would not have a single bloom until next spring. My study on rose midge fly indicates the female midge follows a scent trail emitted by a rose's growing tip to find it. After the tip has reached the state of growth where the bud (buds for cluster bloomers), has reached the size of a garden pea, the female midge fly leaves that tip alone. Her maggots require the tenderest, newest growth to feast upon. If a scientist came up with a synthesized rose tip scent applied to artificial rose growing tip lures placed throughout a rose bed, that could cause the females to lay their eggs on them where the emerging maggots would simply expire from starvation. Timing the scent trap rose tips to be activated at all times, and particularly when the roses were in full bloom cycles (few vulnerable tips available then, not producing abundant new growth), further luring the females toward the artificial lure tips, the midge fly population should drop considerably. Anyway, it's a thought. Moses

Maryl the color of ALA's second image is really close to being true to the color of the actual real bloom Shive , yes I have hostas growing all over . They are great increasers . I usually start them with 3 roots and by the second season they are a clump. My favourite though out of all of them is Hosta clausa var. clausa. This blooms a deep deep purple but the blooms never open . It is stoloniferous. Here is a picture of Clausa's blooms , Intense Purple but the blossoms never open . It increases underground I guess that's why it is not important to have any insect pollenate the blooms .