Jane, You are definitely right about the dirt plants, but then again, most yard and garden plants are designed to grow in full sun. Two problems with orchids. 1) They don't move water as quickly as dirt plants so cell elongation is hampered more under high light/low humidity than it is with high water pressure garden plants. 2) Orchids are partial shade plants, and each has its own native place in the forest canopy, with forest floor growers like Paphs (and most house plants) being the lowest light. The physiology is adapted to a certain light range, too much light and you get daily chemical backup damage, and energy goes into cleaning up the mess each night rather than growth. I disregarded the conventional wisdom to grow seedlings at lower light (probably I read in Northen's book and others) because I didn't think my light was that high, but after a while I found that I was even stunting my adult catts. High light also goes hand in hand with lower local humidity, and that may have been a big factor too. I grew stunted (75% size) cattleyas for a couple of years until I 1) built the collection large enough that they were self shading due to being packed on the bench, and 2)I moved many to the Oncid benches. I also stunted Phals and Paphs under shoplights because I had so much reflective maerial around them (white stone below and mirrors on 3 sides. It wasn't until I recently moved and put my paphs in a bedroom corner that they actually started to grow big. If you are having flower spacing problems, most notably with things like yellow Catts, which tend to open buds before they get out of sheath, you will get the spike to elongate more if you take them out of growing light and put them down into phal light when the buds start to mature. The overal spike length of phals may not change noticable with high light because of high growth rate, but the flower spacing will. You might not have problems, but if you do, like with the yellow catts, keep that bud end out of the high light. The low humidity right next to bulbs doesn't help the matter. The biggest problem I have ever had with light stunting was growing African violets in a bright apartment. Under my Phal conditions they were so flat and tight that flowers couldn't make it between the leaves easily, and watering had to be from below. That is why I laugh whenever I see it recommended that Phals be grown in AV light.

There are actually two good ones in that area, Hallet's my favorite is the one just south of Adams, that is another about a mile north of Adams that has a nice selection of perenials, both do actually. Hallet's seems to have the nicest plants I have seen around here. I went to a local plant swap and sale today put on the a group of church ladies in Adams. What fun I had. I bought columbine, bleeding heart, Astilbe for fifty cents each, Hosta for a dollar. large pots of red poppies with buds for a dollar. Ispent a whopping $13.00 and had to make three trips to the car. The plants where small. but healty and I know they will survive the cold winters here. Helped the chuch ladies out too. I am going to take them a bunch of my leftover seedlings in the morning on my way to work, I had such good luck I have way more then I need. Tell them the raglady sent you, they will get a kick out of it, I am one of thier best customers.

I think it is great that you have apologized and I can see that you really mean well. Sadly, I have learned that is is almost impossible to apologize or smooth over hurt feelings on a forum since words mean so many different things to so many different people. NOT your fault, just the nature of the beast. Always some who will stir the pot. And yes, what people write often sounds WAY more harsh than they meant, and often gets taken out of context. Just have to refrain and let things die (which I know I am not doing in this case). Can always send a private note of apology if you think you've hurt someone's feelings. At least this has been my experience. I like to read and express myself in words too, very hard to do sometimes on a forum. Usually just quick, "Sorry, didn't mean to hurt feelings" has to suffice since any more wording ads fuel. Most folks here are pretty thick skinned and let things roll off their backs. They're not posting to say this because of the above principles, and I'm taking a bit of a risk myself by posting this. You won't see much of a follow up. Don't worry about it!! Eat drink and be merry. :)

Well, it seems early, but I guess they start early over there where you live so they can squeeze in a couple of extra generations per year. I guess I'll start seriously watching for them now because you and I are only a county apart. I haven't even seen squash bugs yet (not that I'm complaining). However, I've got the flu and barely have stepped foot in the garden since last week so it is possible that I have everything under the sun out there and will be in for a rude awakening when I finally have enough energy to spend a little time in the garden. If I had the issues you have with SVBs, I'd be tempted to take off a year from growing squash. That usually gives you at least a partially squash pest-free year the following year after the year off. Well, unless you have native cucurbits like we do. We have those stinky native buffalo gourds that seem to help sustain squash pests even when we aren't growing squash. One method I'm using this year to grow some C. pepo and maybe C. maximas is to use micromesh and Biothrips Proteknet netting over hoops that cover the plants. I used them both with brassicas this year and they worked really well, though some cabbage loopers got underneath the Biothrips Proteknet near the end of the cabbage plants' lives. I must know have had it secured to the ground 100% of the way, or they wouldn't have been able to get in. Here's where I found the Biothrips Proteknet in smaller sized pieces (as opposed to buying it in huge quantities from Johnny's Selected Seeds) and I want to add that their customer service was great and they shipped quickly: Protek Net @ Purple Tools Micromesh netting is available from many garden seed retailers like Territorial Seed and also can be found on Amazon. This was my first year to use them both and I liked them both for use with brassicas. Now we'll get to see how they do with summer squash and maybe some sort of winter squash that is not C. moschata. My future dream garden would have a hoop house covered with Proteknet within which I could grow squash and pumpkins. It would have to be a big hoophouse too because if I was going to go to all that trouble, I'd want a big hoophouse. And, finally, I don't know if I've said this before, but I'll say it now. I try to garden as organically as possible....always have and always will, but I am not 100% organic. If ever there were anything on this earth that would cause me to purchase and use a chemical pesticide, the squash pests would be it. And, I did use a chemical pesticide to kill grasshoppers the one year they were stripping my tomato plants down to bare stems a couple of summers ago and swore I'd never do it again, but just thinking of having to deal with squash bugs and SVBs makes me rethink that idea. If there even is a chemical pesticide that would control squash bugs and squash vine borers, it would be almost worth compromising my principles to not have to deal with those little brats. Good luck in your battle, Dawn