""One is greenhouse growing specialty tender plants like poinsetta." Not true. There is precious little money in a poinsettia crop" I know, I was surprised to learn they were doing this too. They must have found a higher paying market for them- maybe interior landscaping? I don't know more details, just that they are keeping that part of the business but looking to sell the retail store. They are growing other crops as well though, again, I don't have all the details. I dont' agree with the same comment about lily market, at least not daylily. The data I've seen is that there are perhaps 5 companies that are in the $10-20M annual revenue and literally hundreds below that. There are also quite a number in the $1-5M range. The majority are 58k varieties registered to date) for collectors and hobbyists. New intros are in the $100-400 range per single fan. Then the prices drop year by year until they range from $20-$4 for 2 fans on older cultivars that are still highly collected. Also, I agree that quality is a big concern and this limits the types of plants that are doing well. They tend to be sturdy plants that either go dormant or that are strong enough to tolerate digging, root cleaning, shipping well. There are state regulations on shipping that impact how they must be packaged and treated. Similar situation with Iris and Hosta. "I think this is a very important aspect of staying solvent and profitable in this industry. You have to really, really know your production costs and plot them against the returns. You cannot be all things to all people, and you need to define where your market with the highest return lays and not be sentimental about what isn't paying its way." Absolutely, I could not agree more! And you are correct, owning land is a major factor. In fact it also is a major barrier to those companies who are trying to sell their business because their land value is so high that they have a huge asking price for the business and it's tough to find buyers in that high range for a business that isn't turning enough profit to cover huge property loans. nwnatural, There are several Iris growers in my area which started me looking at this type of business. They aren't often "dig your own" as much as buyer walks the display bed and chooses what they want, then the owners or their workers dig the order from the increase beds. In the case of iris the order is usually held then dug & shipped in the fall once the plants have gone dormant. I've done a lot of internet research into what the companies are offering. I also use the ResearchUSA small business database available through my local library. That database allows you to search privately held companies by name, location, SIC codes and will give ballpark revenue along with some other details of the business. It's hard to tell how current the data is and there are many more companies in existence that have not made it into the database but it's a good place to get rough idea of a market and target business. I've added to that some interviews with insiders. Much more research to do before I would jump in though.

I'm not from Scott County (Knox County born and raised). I ran out of time to cover everything I wanted to cover but I think everyone learned something. In the future I think i can cut about 45 minutes off the lecture by leaving out the botany lesson about eipgeal vs. hypogeal genrmination and moncotyledons vs. dicots and so on... I'm considering other classes this summer such as Pruning, Organics, and Integrated Pest Management, but I don't know yet. The time and money for materials required to set these classes up is a major hurdle. I'd love to keep teaching free classes but I'll go broke, and I'm not sure I'm "qualified enough" to charge admission.

Thanks for all the input. I did try hooking a monitor to the laptop to eliminate the possibility that it was just the screen or the cable that connects--it showed nothing. I agree that the repair may not be cost effective--but wanted to try everything I could before purchasing another PC. Also just tried Zep16's advise to keep hitting the F8 key, but just as he suspected--the menu never appeared. Although laptops are difficult to troubleshoot because replacement parts aren't readily available. We do have 2 of these laptops exactly alike and I wondered if it would be advisable to switch out the hard drives, etc... to see if I could pin point the problem. Since my knowledge is limited, I wasn't sure if taking the hard drive from the working machine was a good idea. Thanks again--All input appreciated.

TOS, I don't need a website to tell me that the majority of kids today are in non intact families. I was surprised back when I worked for social services, how many children lived with grandparents and other relatives. I was equally shocked at how many father's had custody and uninvolved mothers. I was a single mother and I figured that there were very few mother's that didn't have custody or see their children. While KKNY can yell from the rooftops that only 10% of fathers have custody, I think that's an outdated statistic. It may not be much higher, but that doesn't mean 90% of mothers have custody. Obviously, if 4.5 million (and I still think it's higher) children live with grandparents and I saw many cases of children living with other relatives that would not be included in those statistics (as well as non relatives raising someone's kids)... when you factor that in, the percentage of mother's raising their children drops. KKNY, like I said, you can't discuss EVERY possible scenario before you get remarried. When there are children involved, you have to accept the unexpected. I guess the first rule is IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN, DON'T MARRY SOMEONE THAT DOESN'T LIKE CHILDREN. Doodle married someone with small children and it's clear she loves kids. How can you anticipate whether you will want to babysit grandkids or how often (I think most people would want to babysit their grandkids) 15-20 years from now? Nobody can look into the future and tell what will happen years or decades from now. Like I said, i am looking forward to my grandkids. I can't say for sure if I will be available to babysit when my kids want me to. I think that when you get married, the best you can do is discuss how you feel about family and look at your partner's family ties... Id family as important to them as it is to you? etc. Some families are very close while some only get together at the holiday's or hardly ever. I think it's important to discuss family in general, it would also alleviate disagreements over in laws, etc. And then since the divorce rate is over 50% (and rising), I suppose that prior to the first marriage, while talking about whether they will have kids and how many, they should start discussing who will get custody and what kind of parenting plan they might have in the future. They should discuss how a step parent will play into the equation. After all, it's more likely than not for today's children to experience their parent's divorce, live in a single parent household, and eventually, live in a blended family. Might as well discuss it before having kids. I think you are right, the more you discuss, the better. And I'm always in favor of putting it in writing. People tend to change their minds and forget what they agreed to.