I am sorry for the sadness and physically difficulties you have faced and continue to face and glad that you are able to garden with joy and anticipation again. I have ws thousands of containers over the years but only 4 containers this year, just a bump in my gardening plans and am hoping to get more done later and I am not actively trading seeds at this time so haven't been reading the Seed Exhange page or paying much attention to the offers in other postings. A few suggestions to get responses to your seed exchange offers: 1. Post on the Seed Exchange Forum and the Round Robin Forum. 2. Post on exchange pages of this and other forums that you frequent. 3. Join group exchanges. There was a group Wintersowing Swap earlier this year. Sometimes there will be a post telling of a new swap and linking to it. 4. If someone has expressed interest in trading in a Discussion posting follow up with an e-mail to that person. It is easy to forget the offer if one doesn't go back to read the post again. I look forward to seeing your photos and reading more about your winter sowing experiences. Bobbie

Relaxed! Yes, that is it. Clovis, you have graced this forum with your web site before and each time I see somethings new, but always calming. It is a tribute to your design and planting of such a huge undertaking. Thanks for posting. Carol, the first time my chapter took on the seed distribution job, o' so many years ago, I was such a total greenhorn. I remember that it was the comraderie that kept me there helping. I couldn't maked head or tails of the species and genera. And it was so cool because we did it in the basement of the member who had the second best rock garden in the club. Still, it was that "forced" immersion into alpines that really got me got me on my way. I think you'll find that you have learned even more than you think.

You know, I think it was Nil who convinced me to add more pumice/perlite to my Aloe sowing mix. Seeing his results in pure pumice gave me confidence to use a lot more grit in the mix and I've been very happy with that. I can't manage pure pumice or even too gritty of a mix because I like to be able to take a day off sometimes or forget about watering a pot for a few days. I think it's all about finding the balance that works for your conditions/practices. About the "x"... I only put it in quotations to separate it from my sentence. It can just be an x.... (Aloe 'Fang' x). If you knew the other parent, you could add that name after the x. Yes, you should use the x when talking about them. Specifically the x means "crossed with", if you were going to say it out loud. Yes, you should probably do a liquid fert. I don't think the green balls are doing much for you. To get the most bang for my buck, I use a straight 20-20-20 water soluble fert in a 10% dilution. That means I only use 10% of the recommended ratio, making my fert 2-2-2. I have mine mixed up in a spray bottle at 4x strength so that all I have to do is squirt a little into each watering can. 4 squirts = 10%, 5 squirts = 12.5%, 6 squirts = 15%... (all very specific to my equipment) It took some careful math to set it up but I wrote down my formula and now it's very easy. Alright, good luck! PS, my name is Ryan but that's leaked information:)

Hello everyone, I hope someone could provide me some information. 1. Please let me know if all the grafted Adeniums that you have purchased from Rinoa produced the same type of color and shape that were advertised for these plants. 2. How long did they take to flower after you received grafted plants? 3. Anyone had experience with growing from seeds purchased from Mr Ko or Ms Rinoa, please inform seeds from which supplier have a better chance to grow into what are on the pictures. I still love pink flowers but I think if 90% of them would turn pink, then it would be too much. 4. Can anyone comment if the adeniums which turn pink, is it the same kind of pinkish flower, or there is a variety in different form and shade of pink? 5. Was it ok to import grafted plants to the USA? Thank you. Sunny