Amccour, aside from how you treat the trunks, remember the Norfolk Island Pine is a tree that should be given space to grow. In a few years if you feel your ceiling is preventing it going up any futher, cutting it back at the top stops it growing....forever. Try to remove minimally any side branches because this is the beauty of the tree. Norfolk Island Pine is a living Christmas Tree...but don't consider putting tree lights on it. Tenderly hanging light decorations and tinsel is OK. Norfolk Island Pine is also a tree that must be kept a houseplant unless you reside in zone 9 or 10....and 9 can be iffy. Actually, some people say the best place to grow a Norfolk Island Pine.......is on Norfolk Island in the South Pacific. Your plant should be allowed to dry down somewhat between waterings and it will use a lot less water now when the sun is at its lowest. It will not appreciate too cold of water...so letting it sit overnight to gain room temperature is recommended. And don't let the branches touch the cold window glass. And water should not be from a well that is treated. As long as it is receiving light from a southern or western exposure it should do fine. Senga, you mention your room where you have your N.I.P. has a humidity level of 60 - 70%..... Is this by way of measurement of a hygrometer or just an estimate of what you think it is. The way I figure such a high level as that I suspect the walls and windows must be running down with moisture drops constantly. Thirty-five to forty percent is a common level of a home with a furnace on recording a temperature of 65 - 70º I'm just curious why you would have such a high humidity in a room. How do you attain such humidity. It speaks of running a humidifier to reach such level. Does this not cause problems of many sorts from other rooms as well.

Fawnridge, I love crotons. I have a few, none rare I don't think. I like pink tones, and especially like a small Croton 'Piecrust' I picked up last season at USF. Jupiterplants, I know what you mean about the Sealing Wax palm. I currently have 4 of them. They are growing well. I killed my first one that I had several years ago by planting it too close to the sliding door of the greenhouse, where there was unfortunately a draft. It got a bit chilled and bit the dust. I made certain to plant the new ones (I was really, REALLY lucky and got them for only $10 each when I made a larger order from Hawaii, otherwise I wouldn't have so many)pretty far into the much warmer interior of the GH. I really like palms and am a sucker for the smaller growing understory palms that have new red leaves. This is one of my favorites, Calyptrocalyx pachystachis I am also a sucker for the "finger like" Anthuriums. I bought this Anthurium polydactylon off of eBay 2 years ago as a smallish plant, and finally trained it up a totem. I habe been growing the Costus "Maroon Chalice" for years and love the bright red architectural look of its stems. I discovered by trial and error that the Costus "Green Chalice" is actually root hardy here and comes back, but the Maroon Chalice doesn't. So I keep a goodly patch going in the GH thank you to everyone who has replied so far. I'd like to see pics of your stuff!

HA! Funny Jeff. I think it’s just YOU! :-) Interesting about plant “trends”. I just (try to) grow what I like and find attractive. I never heard about the Pilea peperomoides “thing” until a month or two ago when I saw it near the register in a Chinese restaurant. The owner was telling me that “you can find them everywhere now”, as if they had been hard to find before. I guess that whole frenzy passed my by. I’d never heard about (until it was over...?) it and wasn’t looking. As many nurseries and garden sections as I’ve frequented in the past and continue to visit, I’ve never seen them anywhere else. I came across this post in searching GW for any advice, problems and care instructions that I might find since I just purchased one from an Etsy seller. Both a Pilea peperomoides and Pepperomia prostrate cuttings. No idea where that one is on the plant trend-o-meter either. Just hoping I have luck with them.

Hello All! I've enjoyed reading your entries on growing in LECA. I traded plants for the first time with someone on reddit some weeks ago and ran out to buy some LECA before right the box arrived. I have a cutting of incrassata that's starting to root, but burtoniae did not seem to be having a good time in the LECA, so I've moved it to perlite and hoping for the best, no roots yet. I'm really hoping they take, because they were lovely cuttings, two of which have peduncles and I would be very sad to lose them. I've rinsed and soaked the LECA in very, very diluted rooting solution before applying cuttings. Bill, I like the idea of a bark/perlite mix for repotting the ones that like it really dry and airy. I would think you won't want to keep a reservoir because it would encourage the bark to decompose quicker (or so I learned from the orchid folks), but I've never tried it, so hopefully someone else pipes in.