Hey Marquest. Didn't see you reposted. What size Amary bulb was it? Mini Amary bulbs are less than an inch. . When they sent the freebie Amary bulbs, they looked dried out..I thought, what the heck, then tossed with the Epi. I'm curious how yours turns out. Please post pics when it's larger. Great, after seeing your plants, and since you use both VF and ST, I'll do the same..now if only we got sun..lol. Or maybe it doesn't matter..since VF isn't a fertilizer it shouldn't matter. I'm grateful you told me. Last wk I ST'd Hoyas. I was planning on using VF thinking it was a fertilizer. Big dilemma. Do I use a third product, a fertilizer, too? My plants and pets eat better than I do. lol. I eat 1.5 meals per day..the puter takes so much time..lol..When working on plants, forget the .5. It's worse in spring when working on the outside garden AND indoor plants. Some days I don't eat anything..maybe a bowl of cereal and a popsicle. lol. Since your story is working, I agree, stick with it..like they say, don't fix something that isn't broken. Marquest, I usually don't keep lists..like you, if I see something I like, and it's affordable, I get it. But last summer I found four succulent nurseries that sell gorgeous plants. I spent a good amount of time reading and studying each succulent, choosing those I liked. Same with a nursery in Thailand..I adore red Aglaonemas. He has the most beautiful Ag's ever, at very reasonable prices. They're very healthy. Found this guy in 2009, took a chance ordering overseas..They're doing fantastic. So, I went through his site, 'took over an hour,' lol, and jotted those I liked. Give your Begonias time. Especially your beautiful Escargot. Do you ST Begonias? Dottie and cousins, most Roseo Picta Calatheas are difficult. Don't think I have any RP types left. They died. I tried Cynthia and Cora a few years ago, but gave up..I have Cals but stay away from RP. My fav Cals/Sro/Ctants are Peacock, Tri-Color, C. Rufibarba and, darn, can't think of the name..it's leaves look like snakes. lol. Have you ever tried STromanths or ctenanthes, sp? They have beautiful colors, and hardier than Cals. Last year I bought the most beautiful Prayer Plant/Maranta ever. It was in a 4" pot, and needed water every couple days..Well, during Christmas, the area was blocked, and I forgot about it..It's now a goner. Its stems were over a foot long. Colors outstanding..doubt I'll ever find this type again. Marquest, btw, your Cal looks fine to me. Or is that a summer pic? What size is the pot and do you let soil dry a little between waterings in winter? They love humid air, but not wet feet. Toni

I can't believe all of the responses, thank you so much! I'm saving all of them and am going to go through the suggested plants to choose some for the space. The area in question is rather dry, although this spring/summer has been on the dry side so far, so many of our garden beds are dryer than usual. I think this spot tends to get less watering from us because the one spigot in the front of our house hasn't worked since we moved here and it's a pain to drag the backyard hose all the way around to the front. DH has promised to get down in the crawl space and fix the darned thing before next spring, so hopefully with a well-placed soaker hose under a layer of mulch it will be more moist next year. In the event that the area does remain rather dry, are there any shade-loving perennials that will flourish in dry shade? The idea of having a tree there is intriguing, but I do think that the area is a bit small---one of my husband's pet peeves is trees that are planted too close to houses. The window there is pretty much our one and only 'view' from anywhere inside the house, so we'd like to keep it unobstructed. We also have so many trees in our yard (especially in that half of the yard), I think the idea of adding more makes us start to panic a little ; ) This is a horrid photo (I think it's from the realtor) but you can see the three huge trees on the right (one is a double-trunk); there is also an enormous maple directly behind the garage. http://pattycakedesigns.com/house6.jpg I'm not positive, but I don't think that the garden stays warm in the winter. We planted three hydrangea there last fall, and none of them made it through the winter. Maybe the freezing wind blowing in from the west hits full-on whatever's planted there? We live a block from the shore of Lake Erie, so it does tend to get pretty cold/windy here in the winter. I do like the idea of a birdbath or some other small structure there (I think our four cats would enjoy drooling from the windowsill), and I think we have one in the shed that we aren't using now. I saw one the other day that had been planted with annuals that were positively dripping over the edges of the bowl; I seem to remember DH moaning about having to scrub out the birdbath more than he liked, maybe if we don't use it for a birdbath per se we can use it as a focal point for some fancy annuals? Other than impatiens, what annuals grow well in the shade? Begonias? I've been trying to come up with some more ideas for plants that might look interesting through the winter (since it's winter here for about six months, or at least seems that way, especially when it snows in April). Any thoughts for anything other than holly? We're not big evergreen/dwarf conifer fans. We love climbing hydrangea (left one behind at the old house, I still mourn losing it); if I wanted to start one up the siding there to the left, what would be the best way to support it? I'm guessing the siding is too slick for it to hold itself up. A trellis? If so, how do you attach a trellis to the siding, or would you just anchor the bottom in the ground? My goal now is to try and get the unwanted flowers moved to the backyard somewhere so that I can hopefully plant some shade perennials here in the fall. I moved the Clara Curtis this morning (from the way it spread in just one year, I have a feeling it's going to take over whereever I put it) and am going to move those sickly-looking geraniums when we hack them back in a few days. I need to get that poor hydrangea out of the corner; would it be better to wait until fall to move it, or could I do it now? Thanks again for everyone's responses, this is all fascinating and so helpful! Amy Here is a link that might be useful:

Jewelweed does like wet, but it also will withstand dryer conditions well as long as it is in shade or at least good afternoon shade. We have patches of them that have withstood drought years without any watering. They just aren't quite as lush. But they flower well and set seed, and come back. One of my favorite weeds.... Even the huge ones pull out with a mild tug if they're in the wrong place. No runners. No roots to China.

Thank you, everyone! I do think it's scale (warning: very last photo will be an icky picture of my scrapings—this is as close as I could get, floral :T ). They came off like flakes with little weight, actually, with the nudge of a plastic knife. I immediately sprayed both the inside of its shell and where it had been attached to the tree in case crawlers were coming out in a frenzy from either. Litterbuggy, to provide more info (that pics alone can't provide!): We will try the chopstick! We had previously been sticking a finger in / using a meter. The potting mix isn't typical peat moss + perlite; it's fast-draining succulent mix with perlite. Does this look coarse enough? We live in Orange County so it's desert-dry; I mist it some mornings. Our temperature stays around 78°F with the AC off while we're gone. Air doesn't move much. And our tap water is indeed pretty hard. Still have little budding green shoots on nearly every stem. Most leaf stems are still upright; only some droop, especially this one trunk stem: My two top concerns now... I'm now worried every little brown speck on the trunk is scale... Should I be? The tops of each trunk/stem are dark; since every one was that way (and has been for a while), it didn't occur to me that might be unhealthy. Is that of great concern? Gross photo alert. It's so dark you can't really see much...