Very new to growing. I am the brown thumb in my green thumb family. my grandfather could bring dead plants back to life, i killed them. receently, ironically after his death, ive been able to grow and keep plants alive. this is my eureka verigated lemon tree. after newly getting my meyer lemon tree which has already bloomed, ive been concerned about how this one is doing. i found the term sucker branches in my search that lead me here. i am concerned something needs to be trimmed for the health and growth of the tree and i have no idea how or what to trim. In early december, the lower branches bloomed (however my husband didnt water it the week i was away and the tree dropped leaves and the buds). are any if these branches needing to be removed? i purchased it about 10 months ago, the bottom branches were not present at the time of purchase i believe

My DH is in the construction business and we considered OB because we knew contacts for more than 80% of the project. However, we went with a GC for many reasons the most important being that DH is a busy man and couldn't be onsite all the time. As it turned out, the GC's experience was invaluable. Our home was custom designed for us and thus many unexpected structural questions came up which someone not building residential homes everyday would not be able to handle. Knowing subs and knowing the inside and out of house construction are two different things. OB houses usually take much longer and as logicalone says, that costs money in interest. Our GC used some of our subs and some of his. His subs had no problems with schedule and quality of work because they have worked with him numerous times and know what he expects. If they don't perform, he doesn't use them again. It's a real headache if you hire a sub who does inferior work. If you're not in the "know" about subs, what will be your basis for hiring them? Lowest or highest bid doesn't ensure quality work. You might want to look at the recent post about a lien being placed on a GW member's home. That is another area which you need to be fully educated in before you try to OB.

Here is a schedule of the AVSA Convention. http://avsa.org/sites/default/files/files/2018%20Buffalo%20Convention/Show%20Schedule%20-%202018%20BUFFALO%233.pdf The plants to be judged include African Violets, Saintpaulia species and other Gesneriads. Plants from other families can be used in design classes, dish gardens, terrariums to compliment AVs. After the judging is done - the winners will be moved to the Honor Row. The commercial exhibitors have special classes - display tables - can be horticultural only or include a design. Can be AVs only - or they can include gesneriads. I saw designers using cut flowers - baby breath for an example - in the arrangements - but the focal point of the design is an AV or AV blossoms.

Bluestar, Miele, Bosch, Wolf/Subzero, ... all of these have a great reputation and if there is a service network in your area you'll probably be happy with them. If you are willing to explore some of the niche players, there are several of those for at least some product categories; and it can pay off to buy these brands, if you have specific requirements. You'll get names such as Perlick, True, Capital, Modern-Aire, ... Lots of the other brands though, might have good brand name recognition, but their product offering is decidedly more hit and miss. If you do a lot of research, you might find the diamond in the rough among these products. And of course, even if you stick with the top-of-the-line brands, you can find a lemon (c.f. Wolf's problem with chipping oven interiors). But as a very rough first approximation, you probably will be extremely happy with the offerings from either of these companies. Of course, as frequently in life, you get what you pay for. None of these brands are known for being cheap bargains.