After a little searching I suspect the Ceanothus might be Ceanothus 'Dark Star'. If anyone agrees/disagrees please let me know. I've seen indications that it does like cooler (coastal California) summers. 'Dark Star' is really spectacular in full bloom, by the way. Here is a link that might be useful: Ceanothus 'Dark Star' Google image search

What is the ideal humidity for calatheas please? I live in a generally humid climate but because of recent drought it's only about 50-60%, lower over night. I recently separated a plant in to new pots, have put them on pebbles, they're next to a steel louvre window which I slightly open during the day to let air and a tiny bit of light in, but I'm having the same leaf browning problem. One, as well, is not opening properly and seems weak and soppy. Not over watering, but misting one to 2 times a day. Would love some feedback? Sorry to hijack the post! Just thought it was along the same lines... :)

No idea about the moss, but, well, Stromanthes are one of those plants that a lot of people find hard to keep alive. I personally won't even attempt them. Some people will no doubt post that I'm being excessively negative. But if you "have no idea with plants," well. Don't get real attached. Nevertheless, let's try: The big key is water. Don't let the plant dry out (like, water when the top half-inch of soil is dry, give or take), and -- the more difficult part -- they need high humidity. Pretty much all the time. Which is probably what's wrong with yours; it's reacting to the dry indoor air. Calatheas and Marantas (other plants in the same family) will do the same thing. There are varying schools of thought on how to increase humidity levels. Sometimes this leads to arguing. I don't want to start anything, but: Some people say you can get a misting bottle and just spray water at and around the plant at various times during the day. The problem with this is that it may or may not (there's where the argument comes in) actually raise the humidity levels more than about five minutes at a time. I think it's probably better than nothing, and for plants that appreciate moist air but don't *need* it, it's nice to do sometimes, but I don't think it's the answer here. Another school of thought involves the use of "pebble trays," which are more or less what they sound like: trays. With pebbles in them. If you keep water in the tray, and have it near, or under, the plant, then the water evaporating off the tray raises the local humidity level. The down side is that there's disagreement about whether this provides enough of a long-term increase to be worth bothering with. There's also a danger of drowning the plant: if the soil touches the water, the water can be drawn up into the soil. With a Stromanthe, that might not be such a terrible thing, but even so, I wouldn't recommend putting the plant *on* the tray. Maybe tray-adjacent, if you bother with one at all. So, what to do? If it was me, I would be inclined to discard the plant and start over with something a little less bothersome. But if there was, like, a $1 million prize for keeping it alive for a year, I would. . . . Put it in a terrarium, a clear plastic box of some kind, something that could be opened and closed easily to tend the plant, pick off old leaves, etc., but would keep humidity and water levels steady. Maybe a garage sale aquarium, or something like that. This isn't foolproof -- you would have to watch for rot, when you first set it up, and then after it's established you have to make sure not to let it sit in sun at all, or it'll cook to death. But it's a lot easier than sitting next to it, misting every fifteen minutes. Alternately, you could try keeping it in a bathroom, if you have or can get reasonably strong light in your bathroom on a steady basis. Though that depends on what your heating and air conditioning situation is like in the bathroom. I'm sorry I can't be more encouraging about this. We have optimists around, somewhere, though; maybe one will come by.

Tracy, Chalk Hill tends to be higher priced than say Brushwood. They also charge a per order handling charge and shipping which makes ordering one clematis from them prohibitively expensive unless you are prepared to pay it, which I did this spring. The more clematis you order, the less the overall cost is for your shipment so buying several clematis is a better deal. Chalk Hill switched to longer and thinner plant containers over the past few years to make shipping more competitively priced. They used to ship biodegradable containers that you could plant directly in the ground upon receipt. One problem I have experienced with the new containers is that the roots of the plant never fill them and the rootball tends to fall apart when you remove it. I wish they would allow the plants to grow out more and allow the roots to fill the containers before shipping or switch to smaller containers where the roots would have more of a tendency to fill them and hold the root ball together and cost less to ship. I ordered Peveril Peach this spring and the roots filled no more than half the container. When I removed the plant from the container, the root ball fell apart and I was left with a plant with roots and little soil attached to it.