Kylie, I love that picture of your GD!!!! I know....I did not look that cute with the frog in my hair! LOL!!! Amelia....You are so funny! I actually thought about taking it back but did not want to drive back there. I thought about giving it to the neighbor kids. I usually take my snake skins to them as they love that kind of stuff! Kristy...I will try and get a pic for ya. I don't know exactly what kind of snail it is. I was surprised for such a little frog...how high and far it could jump and how much energy it had. Of course he may have been freaked out cuz he did not like my driving skills! LOL!! Karyn, We have an edition across the street that has a huge pond built all around the neighborhood. It is a gated community and I don't know how far I can throw.... hmmm. Will let you know what happens to him. Joyce

Marquest/Dave, I had bought a small Stromanthe TrioStar on Ebay a couple of months ago. It is growing in the house. It has only put out one new leaf so it is not an ideal situation although I mist it daily. I enjoy watching the leaves go up and down at various times during the day. I read an article about it. I need to figure out how I am going to over winter the two that are outside. I went nuts on Ginger this year so I will need to figure out what to do with the ones that don't go dormant. They are all in containers. I am just enchanted with this Stromanthe! Lucy, I used to have one of those miners lights like you are talking about. I need to look for one as you ought to see me holding the flashlight between my legs or under my armpit while I am working on plants at night and my other hand is being used! LOL!!! Joyce

I live in Wahiawa, the Uplands of Oahu. The cool weather here is perfect for gardening. Check the Honolulu Advertiser and you'll see a news article about the Okinawa Cherry Blossom trees in our town. We've been having an unusually cool season and the blooms were incredible. The town also has the island's only Botanical Garden in a rain forest. Wow, I sound like an ad for the Hawaii Visitors Bureau!

Copied from another users reply; ”#1--most Calathea are not high light plants. This is a good rule of thumb to follow for light: if a plant has leaves that have red or maroon undersides, its a shade or low light plant. The red coloration is a genetic adaptation of rainforest plants that thrive in moderate to deep shade. The pigment is made up of specialized cells adapted to catching what is called "green light"...this is light that filters through the canopy layer, hits the ground and bounces back up. These plants with red undersides are specifically adapted to catching and utilizing green light. So putting your plant right in an unobstructed South facing window might have been a little too much light all at once.” So, being a low light calathea, the undersides will start to lose the purple tone with more light. You could put it in a more shaded spot which may darken then again but it’s not doing the plant any harm being green. Chloé