A couple of years back there was a small group of people who made a habit out of continually making all sorts of false claims for no reason other than the aggravation. Some residual effects of that still linger, one being the idea that if you use the gritty mix, you'll have to water every day. That's simply not true, except perhaps in environmentally driven extreme cases. I have at least 150 plants in the gritty mix, growing indoors right now. I water all but a half dozen plants every 4 days; those half dozen that I water every 2-3 days are bonsai in very small pots. All the other plants are in what you would consider to be small pots and small volumes of soil; this, because the regular root work I do makes for a very efficient root system that can easily sustain large plants in small volumes of soil. If you're used to an off the shelf, peat-based medium, you'll undoubtedly need to water more frequently than you have been if using a well-made gritty mix, but that's the part where the trading convenience for added potential (for your plants) comes in. I'm not sure why it is, but if you point out that eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner from fast food restaurants several times per week, or relying on trips back and forth to the refrigerator or cupboard as your only form of exercise are probably not good for you, most reasonable people would probably have to agree with the contention; but if you point to the limitations imposed on someone's plants by a planting medium chosen for its convenience, a war might break out. No one should get upset because someone eats at McDonalds or uses a soggy soil; and similarly, no one should be upset if someone points out the ill effects of our choices. They're just facts in our lives and should be treated as such. If you're intent on 'doing something' to help your plant, I wouldn't do any more right now than pot up into a slightly larger pot, using a soil similar to what the plant is in right now. Because of the difficulty in keeping a root mass evenly moist when it contains 2 distinctly different media, I'm not a fan of mixing soil types. Save your new mix until repot time. We tend to think in terms of hours and days where if a plant could think it would be thinking in terms of seasons and years. It took me a long time to come to terms with that idea, but when I did, it allowed me to feel like I was more in harmony with what nature intended for the plants. The next step was to learn how to do the work that would bend the plant to my will, while still maintaining that natural harmony. If you think about that for awhile, it will make sense. Long-time bonsai practitioners, even if they have never heard that thought voiced, will know exactly what I mean. Be patient. Learn to keep your plant healthy and properly care for its appearance - the plant will do the rest in time .... and a decade is nothing to most trees. It's good that the view you hold for your plant is so forward looking. Thinking in terms of decades or even years implies a commitment to your plant and acceptance of the responsibility for its well-being. Bravo! ;-) "Is it the temperature difference or some sort of plant biological clock that affects the repotting?" Photo-period is your plant's clock. As the days lengthen and soil temperatures rise to 65*+, your plant will begin growing in earnest. Growth rate should peak by about Father's Day, and the plant's stored energy reserves will be at their highest in the months immediately after Father's Day. It's actually the summer solstice on Jun 21, but it's easier to remember Father's Day. That's when your plant will be best able to tolerate any serious work that needs to be done. Hard pruning, chopping the tree back, root-pruning, should all be done during Jun, July, or maybe the first week or two into Aug in some areas of the US. That isn't to say there is a natural law against doing serious work at other times, or that your plant will die if you do; it's just that doing harsh work when the plant is most able to tolerate it and when fastest recovery is assured makes much better sense than an 'I'll do it when it's convenient for me' approach. "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven" ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1 Al

This is such a good topic. There's so much debate of the definition of terms: native, weed, and invasive. And it varies from botanists to horticulturists to taxonomists to agrarians to... It really warrants discussion. While you may eventually find an equilibrium between an introduced species and its new habitat, it's doubtful that an equilibrium would establish between the introduced species and the native species it supplants (bad pun). So many microniches and urban and suburban borders make it more difficult for the spread of native plants, and much easier for the introduction of foreign ones. Each microhabitat in which a native species is 'successfully removed' represents a loss of genetic diversity within that particular species, and of course, the more limited your genetic material, the more vulnerable you are to disease and predators. As an example, if you are a plant species with a slow maturity and/or reproductive cycle like Maryland's native persimmon, living in a very specific environment (brackish swamp), and a well-adapted invasive, like the common reed (aka 'phragmites'), comes along--without intervention your resources are going to get used up and your population will have a difficult time recovering. I've heard arguments that this is just accelerated 'fittest of survival,' but as Springa7 mentions, our scale of international trade and potential for introduction of species is unprecedented. Researchers have found that islands are terrific models for this line of inquiry and there are several books on the subject. One of my favorites is Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in the Age of Extinction. It's not hardcore data, but more essay format. **In reply to Botanybob's comment that 'all noxious weeds are introduced,' it seems to depend on which group you're asking. I recently read that natives can be considered noxious--for instance, in a recently disturbed area. Cattails were given as an example. Got the info from this website on plant management in Florida wetlands: http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/guide/invplant.html --Sara

COLUMBUS OHIO PLANT SWAP/POTLUCK II SAT. SEPTEMBER 16, 2006 Date: SEPTEMBER 16, 2006 (Tell your friends) Time: 10:00 - 3:00 Shelter house #5 Place: Hilliard Municipal Park on Veterans Memorial Dr, Hilliard, Ohio. Take outer belt I-270 & go west getting off at Cemetery Rd exit (go toward hilliard). 2 miles until right past Main St. Cemetery dead ends into Scioto Darby - turn right . Go a few blocks down & turn left onto Veterans Memorial Dr. First shelter house on the right #5 (same shelter house as spring swap). Material : Plant well-rooted cutting in pots, bulbs, shrubs, garden ornaments or junk art, garden magazines bundled up & gardening books. Please mark containers with kind of flower plus sun or shade. Use old containers, cups & for labels use plastic forks (or old blinds) with black permanent markers. Potluck: I donÂt know which is best the food or plant swap. Please bring a dish to share & utensils (mark your name) and any beverage. I will provide plates, cups & napkins. 10:00 - 12:00 People start arriving . Sign in at registration table with the # of plants, e-mail, sign up for door prizes & name tags. Donation jar for the shelter house which cost $30.00 to rent. Put your plants you brought to trade into there areas.(perennial, herbs, shrubs. Daylily, iris est.) Visit with other gardeners & view all the plants ready to trade. This swap is patterned after Beverly & Mimi fourth year plant swap. Last fall in September we had a small group of 50 traders but, lots of daylilies, iris & other plants !! 12:00 Enjoy our wonderful potluck. After lunch door prizes donated by our wonderful gardeners friends. Many thanks!! 1:00 Round robin: What we are all waiting for!! Round robin one everyone selects 1 plants. Round robin two everyone take 1 plants. Round robin 3 everyone takes two plants. Round robin 4 everyone takes three. Round robin 5 everyone takes 4 plants & so on. Everyone should be able to take as many plants as they brought. At the end there is usually a lot of plants left over for any one to take (some of use bring extra plants). Tips of the day: Please bring a wagon the help everyone unload there plants ( mark your wagon no trade). Folding chairs, table for plants, potluck dish & of course all these wonderful plants to trade. Any question go on line fellow swapers will help answer any questions. R.S.V.P : www.gardennweb.com./forums/get-together Then click on the Ohio valley or plant swap. You will find Central Ohio plant swap/potluck. IÂ canÂt wait until September for another swap . See you at the swap. Happy gardening!! Diane Garrett

uh oh, based just on what you've written so far, I foresee problems. First off, does your contract specify TRCC "standards"? There are a couple of things you need to know about TRCC and the TRCC standards. First, TRCC (for you non-Texans, that stands for Texas Residential Construction Commission) is now a DEFUNCT state agency. It was sunsetted this past September when the legislature finally got the message that the TRCC was operating as a builder-protection agency and that homeowners simply weren't going to stand for it anymore. Second, while the TRCC was in effect, it adopted a set of minimum warranty standards that replaced the old legal standards of good workmanship and fitness for purpose. The TRCC standards include a one year warranty for workmanship and materials, a two year warranty for plumbing, electrical, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, and a ten year warranty on structural components. Each standard specifies in excruciating detail what is and what is not considered a defect. Whether those standards still have any legal effect now that TRCC is defunct is up for debate and, so far as I know, no legal cases have yet worked their way thru the courts to settle the issue. IF your contract specified that the builder would meet TRCC minimum warranty standards, then my guess is that a court would say the standards apply in your case. If your contract did not specify TRCC standards but you entered into the contract with your builder before TRCC was sunsetted then there would be a good argument that the standards should be applied because both parties were relying on the rules in effect at the time the contract was signed. But, if you entered into your contract after TRCC was sunsetted AND your contract doesn't specify TRCC standards, then I think you would have a winning argment that TRCC standards have no application. And, given that TRCC's warranty standards were written so favorably to builders that 8 foot tall walls could be out of plumb by as much as two inches, the earlier legal standards of good workmanship and fitness for purpose served homeowners far better than the new warranty standards. Prior to TRCC, it was was left up to juries to determine if an alleged defect was bad enough to be considered covered by implied warranties of good workmanship and fitness for purpose - and since juries were likely to think about issues as if they themselves had had to face the problem in their own new homes, they tended to require builders to meet standards that the rest of us find more reasonable. Like, walls should not bow an inch and a half in the middle and there should not be 1/8 inch gaps between pieces of trim work! But, even tho the TRCC standards are so loose (despite being so detailed) that a house has to be practically falling down around you before it is considered "defective", NO WHERE in the TRCC standards does it state that a punch list defect must be "visible from 20 feet. If your builder is telling you that, he is lying thru his teeth (which is why I predict you'll have problems). Instead, different potential problems are defined in different ways. For example, paint issues are often "punch list" items and RULE 304.21(2) specifically states "Paint shall cover all intended surfaces so that unpainted areas shall not show through paint when viewed from a distance of six feet in normal light." Another big punch list item is often defects in hard surfaces such as ceramic tile, granite, finished concrete, etc. RULE §304.20(3) specifically states. "A surface imperfection in floor hard surface shall not be visible from a distance of three feet or more in normal light. A surface imperfection in non-floor hard surface shall not be visible from a distance of two feet or more in normal light." See what I mean about your builder's so called "20 foot" requirement! I think you would do well to download the old TRCC warranty standards and read thru them carefully well before your walk through. If you believe that they ought to apply, get your builder to state in writing that he considers them to apply then take a copy with you to your walk through so you have it to refer to. The TRCC warranty rules can be downloaded from the site linked below. DON'T just rely on the so-called "plain language" versions. They leave out the details and those are what you need to read. The formal versions are rather long but other than that, they are not difficult to read or understand. So read them and be prepared to make your builder meet them. And, forget the idea that you'll do the walkthrough to find defects WITH your builder in 1.5 to 3 hours. He'll be doing his best to rush you along and distract you from seeing defects. Go to the house ahead of time with several very observant friends and do your own walk through without the builder there. If your house is a 2000 foot home, expect to spend at least 6 hours. If it is larger, expect to spend proportionately more time. Make detailed notes of all the issues (room by room) so that when you are walking thru with the builder, it is just an opportunity to point the issues out to him. That you can do in 1.5 to 3 hours... and you can give him a typed up copy of your lists at the end so that he can't claim you never mentioned something. If you're anywhere in the Austin area, I'll be happy to try to make time to meet you at your new house (before your date with your builder) and help you do a walk through. I've gotten pretty darned good at seeing the defects and I am sick to death of lousy builders screwing homeowners. I just this minute finished talking to my next door neighbor who is in the process of having a horse barn built behind her house and it is already a total screw-up...to the point where I think her best option at this point would be to fire the builder, tear down what he has done and start over. Among other things, the concrete foundation is not level but rises and falls with the slope of her land and then her builder put NOTHING between the concrete wood 2x4 sill plates so they're going to rot out almost immediately. Anyway, back to your situation, while your builder may SAY he'll be showing up for a year to finish punch list stuff when you find it later, don't count on it. Once he has his money, you have ZERO power to get him back without filing a lawsuit against him. Anything on the punch list that you aren't willing to fix yourself better be fixed before you close. Since he seems to be lying to you already about the 20 foot thing AND wants to rush you thru the walk thru in 1.5 hours, I somehow doubt he is going to be a stand up guy and come back to fix problems you find two months after you move in.