Sadly, I think someone *did* get rid of the cat by dumping her in the country. She's deaf, and when she was found, was near starvation and full of mites. She's definitely a handful, and I've come to believe she was dumped because of the way she freaks out when she wakes up and can't find me or the other cat. Like she's been tossed again. :( Nobody wanted her because she is deaf. I happened to be at a Pet Smart buying food and took her home. I heard a number of people say oh we can't have her because she's HANDICAPPED. She's a little darling. My other cat doesn't even know she's deaf. He calls for her to come play. Just a service announcement: if you have a pet you want to toss in the garbage, please take it to a shelter, preferably a no-kill shelter. Having grown up in the country, we were the recipients of so many dumped dogs and cats. In my grandparents' generation, it generally ended with a bullet because a farm can only support so many dogs and cats. In mine, I tried finding homes, adopting, etc. I'm not accusing anyone here of such a thing, just that a lot of city people don't understand that country people aren't just sitting around waiting to take care of the unwanted pets. Sorry, it's just a thing with me, and my heart breaks when I think of this little miss being dumped. She's a pistol, but so loving. And being deaf, she wouldn't have lived very long. Don't take this as a personal shot to you; I'm really sensitive to animals. And yet, I eat meat. Go figure.

This has always been an interesting topic to me. Scape height is very hard to evaluate here at least in my particular situation. I have over 300 registered CV's here. I went out and measured a bunch of them at random a few minutes after I read your post and the bulk of them are not showing scape height any where near what you see on the AHS registry. Linda Beck averages 20" here. Warrior Victorious is 23". Orchid Gilded Ruffles is true to the AHS description of 18" but one of the few that comes up to the registered specs. Red Friday is 21" here. My lilies are atleast 2 years of age and most are between 3 and 7 years of age. They are fertilized and well maintained yet I almost never see the scape height that is stated in the registry. The only exception I see to this are the daylilies hybridized by Jamie Gossard, and some of Karol Emmerich's. When anyone wants to see Jamie's plants I just tell them to look for the ones on the flag poles....those will almost always be Jamie's plants. Maybe you should send some of that lily to a southern living friend and see what the scape height goes to in the next growing season. You might be surprised. Linda

To each their own - there is no "best" way to grow plants. "Most" growers recommend using a fan for at least 30 minutes a day and not just after seedlings are transplanted. Again, "most" growers remove the humidity dome when the first seed germinates and breaks through the media. If I had my druthers, I would germinate seeds in a room where the temps were 85 degrees and once transplanted, put them in a room with a huge overhead fan but where them temps stayed at 55 degrees. They would get 2,000 FC of light and be bottom watered with rainwater mixed with Tomato-tone fertilizer, with some multi-purpose vitamins mixed in. YMMV, Mike

I would use the fluorescents as side lighting and scare up an HID lamp for above the plants. I'm a huge fan of HID (metal halide, high pressure sodium) for cranking out the lumens per square foot. A 120 watt halide will put out about twice the lumens as 120 watts of fluorescent tubes. That having been said, you can put the fluoros right on top of the plants without worrying about burning them. They also don't have the surge from the draw when the lamp turns on, and don't need a ballast the size of a shoe box and the weight of a bowling ball. I'm not at all saying it can't be done. Give it a try with what you have. See what works for you and what doesn't work for you. What works for one person in one situation doesn't necessarily work for another person in another situation. And people who do more with less are cool! :) The worst that would happen is the plants get stretchy/leggy. They'll still grow...