The nice thing about Heuchera, is that fast TC process gives you a mature plant in 3-4 years quite easily. The hybridizer and grower understands what the plant is going to do before it hits market. Year 5 is release. USUALLY it is longer than that, but in the best case when you have a definite winner it can be that quick. While it is very much possible to get hundreds of thousands in 40 months, that's almost never the case. It's always a limited release the first year or 2. At my last job I was the buyer and grower, trust me, it's a TOTAL PITA securing new varieties. Heuchera are easy to grow and IN GENERAL (lets face it, there are always exceptions) all varieties prefer a certain set of growing conditions. So there isn't this terrible need to trial them nationwide for gardenworthiness. Much like hostas, or daylilies... easy to grow if you give them the right conditions. The problem comes in that the gardening public isn't always educated correctly. Not a dig against the gardening public, education is OUR (horticulturists collectively- I do my best) responsibility. Sometimes we do a bad job (IMO my industry failed miserably with the whole hybrid Echinacea thing, and those were definitely a long trial time, despite what people might think). Terra Nova has done a pretty good job with giving what species are in a given variety's background. If it has strong villosa breeding you know it's going to tolerate more heat and humidity and heavier soil. If it is mostly micrantha, it will probably suffer in winter in the far north and in high heat/drought. But in general, Heuchera want gritty soils. They like excellent drainage, period. Even villosa, pubescens, and americana (woodland dwellers) derived varieties really appreciate a gritty soil. The whole Limerock Ruby Coreopsis thing is a whole other story... basically 1 nursery making an entire industry look like Aholes with a capital A by NOT trialing a plant and giving false information about hardiness. It's still hard to sell new Coreopsis, despite some of them being bigtime winners. 2 great ones: Route 66 and Star Cluster. The Plant Geek www.confessionsofaplantgeek.com www.botanophilia.com www.facebook.com/botanophilia

Thank you Diane, for that information, and for the petition, which of course I signed. I'm really glad that I patronize our small local nursery which is struggling and so hopefully haven't contributed to that problem. It's just another example of big business not giving a d..n about what they hurt as long as it's expedient for them. floridarose, I've already signed dozens of petitions to stop fracking and I don't think it's made the slightest difference. Once your name goes on an eco-friendly list you'll be signing petitions to save manatees, drinking water, Arctic wildlife and everything else you can think of. I don't want to think about how much money I've contributed because of the impassioned pleas that I get in my e-mail every day, but on the other hand I'm not sure I can think of a better way to spend it. Ingrid

Personally, I wouldn't use an auto-darkening welding helmet. Here is my reason: About 30 years ago, I was making a heavy-duty front bumper for my motorhome. I used a very large truck frame. (I wanted to mount an electric winch on the front of the MH and wanted a bumper strong enough to pull or be pulled.) After I got the sides of the bumper (truck frame) bent and welded, I mounted it on the motorhome. There were quite a number of bolt-holes in that frame, so I decided to fill them. For this I used steel plugs (scrap from a shop that installed trailer hitches----they had a portable hydraulic hole puncher to make holes with--- rather that drilling or using a torch.) I hammered the plugs into the bumper (truck-frame), then welded them. Then I ground the welds flush with the bumper...went back and welded again any pits that showed in the welds. It was a very sunny, hot summer day and I was at it all day. That evening, my eyes hurt like hades, watered continuously, and I couldn't stand to even look at the flame of a match to light a cigarette. My eyes were like that day and night for a full week. I put sauve and a patch over the worst eye, and wore 2 pair of dark sunglasses, and avoided any light like it was a plague! VERY PAINFUL! The Doctor said that my eyes would always, henceforth, be somewhat light sensitive, since I had burnt the cones on my retinas. (That forms scar-tissue, which is sensitive.) I wondered HOW I could have burnt my eyes!!! I had worn a top-quality helmet with a flip lens and had no recollection of seeing so much as ONE FLASH! I checked the lens...it was fine. I concluded that because of my grinding, the reflection of the hot sun, and, of course, the REFLECTION of the arc off of the shiny metal, I MUST HAVE been getting much more light than normal arc-welding. I went to the welding supply store and bought a lens 2 steps darker than the one I had used. (I had used a 10 and bought a 12, or vice-versa; [bought the darker one]. If I could burn my eyes that badly using a top-quality helmet and lens, I d__ned sure wouldn't trust ANY auto-darkening helmet! Also, I will NOT ALLOW anyone or any pets near me when I'm welding. They always seems to want to watch that arc! Just a little anecdotal message as to why I, for one, would NEVER use an auto-darkening helmet or for that matter, one without a "flip-lens". And I always close the lens BEFORE striking an arc! Best Regards, Bruce (Junkmanme in New Mexico)

Joepyeweed is right. You have to give the solution a good long time to work. If you keep the area damp with the solution, it will digest the stain. I once got blueberry stains out of a white cotton shirt by keeping Simple Solution damp on it for three days. No sign it was ever stained. I have an almost-house trained dog, and another who is on steroids, so sometimes must go in the house. I first use my Spot Bot (or Little Green Machine - same difference) to suck up as much urine as I can. Then I soak the area with SS and let it sit at least a half hour and suck up the fluid (hoping to "wash out" more urine with the SS) and then I soak it again with SS and just let it dry. If it is a vomit stain or other difficult stain, I will cover the carpet with a damp cloth to make sure it does not dry too quickly. If you use any kind of machine to suck up this kind of spot, you will find that the machine soon reeks! I wish the instructions had said to rinse the machine several times before putting it away. I will suck plain water through the nozzle and hose, dump the container and repeat several times. The last time, I use it to suck up Simple Solution and then let it stay in the machine. Oh, how I wish I had done this from the start! My new game plan for dealing with incontinence is to cover the hallways (where the dogs "go") with washable quilted incontinence pads like they use underneath people in hospitals and nursing homes. I got them for my father-in-law originally, but found that they worked great for the dogs, too. They contain the urine and have a waterproof backing, so the urine does not get to my carpet anymore. My father-in-law lived with us and his caregivers were here all day. He died a couple of weeks ago and my three dogs are now alone most days. I have my sister stop by on her way home from work mid-afternoon, and she lets them out for me. On the few days that she has forgotten or my arrangements fell through, the dogs have been making it through the day pretty well. My almost-house trained girl is getting better and better. It almost seems that she is finally "getting" it!