Antoinette, Just curious about your GW name. Where did you come up with that Hawaiian name? I belong to a Bonsai club and the very experienced members have been extremely nice and helpful. I am learning about about the artistic facet of Bonsai by leaps and bounds. I am even starting to understand what Al(thanks for all your wisdom)here at the Bonsai Forum talks about. I watched a bonsai master take a nursery plant and turn it into a plant-on-a-rock bonsai fully wired and trimmed in two hours. It was incredible. The great thing was that he discussed what he was doing the entire time. Then the tree & rock bonsai was raffled off at the end of the free demonstration. I can't recommend the people-to-people learning experience enough. See photo below: The Tree is a dwarf Jade. Good Luck JMHO Aloha

Try googling with the terms "orchids in situ" - plenty of orchids in the wild galleries returned when I tried it. Then, you can restrict with geographic-/species-specific terms. Hope this helps. alvin

I am taking a few this fall at the University of Maryland. They are pretty basic level courses that I'm sure you've had (Insects of Ornamentals & Turfgrass, and Pesticides). I have to take these to get my pesticide applicator's license. I'm just starting, but so far they seem like they'll be helpful. There are some other colleges in Maryland that also offer some hort classes online, but they cost more. If you want details, let me know. Depending on what you need it for, you can often get a lot of the same knowledge for free just by reading books from your local library or good web sites. Are you working in the field now, or looking to get into it, or is it just for your personal enrichment?

Dcarch and Pilllog, Thank you for your responses. I agree with the interactive and sensory comments. I am hoping that having an IPad or a laptop on a router so it can be positioned anywhere will open a whole new world of "hands on" instruction. I found that when I watched the freeby knife skills course, I only retained the techniques the second time through when I stood at the counter, knives and chopping block at hand, and actually practiced the motions described. Lots of use of the pause button while I played with angles and motions. The first time I just watched and the information didn't "stick." The second time I actually learned some new skills--maybe!! (I know I rejected some!) I think the same will be true of the cooking courses. I may well take the Mother Sauces course, partly because I really like James Peterson. If I do, I like the idea of actually making what he is demonstrating. Easy to do with modern technology--pause and rewind and fast forward. FWIW, the Craftsy (what a dreadful name!) offers permanent access to all materials--no time limits for how long you can return to review. I like that idea. Pilllog-- I have not searched Youtube for demos. Sort of at a loss with how to use Youtube. I have mainly accessed only when it was linked to whatever I was reading. Maybe I should check that out more often. CathyChex-- I didn't know Craftsy offered special prices. Nice to know! I really like that there is no time limit on access to their lessons. Glad to hear you found Mother Sauces useful. That is the one I am considering. Can you comment on it? I noticed that it had won an award--not sure how significant an award, though. I agree the free KnifeSkills was good. A really clever way for Craftsy to entice people into their programs by offering such a good freeby. Have you tried to "cook along" with any of the classes? I am really intrigued by the possibility that with modern technology we might have a virtual chef to cook alongside us in our kitchen, just rewinding him/her if we get confused and fast forwarding when we don't need him/her :-) Truly, this seems to open a whole new vista of possibilities. It all will depend, of course, upon the content of the "class" and the ability of the instructor. I will welcome James Peterson into my kitchen! We shall see. I would love to hear if anyone has tried cooking along with any of these "classes." Or has any other input or suggestions into online demonstrations and instruction. This post was edited by Bellsmom on Thu, May 8, 14 at 11:43