Hiya Norma, Thanks for your efforts, interesting stuff. I liked that paragraph you wrote exactly 'cause it spoke so well about diversity of habitat in which Sans can be found. Thanks for allowing its use, I hope to incorporating it into my talk (w/ credit of course). I can't check you for accurancy, wouldn't begin to know where to look & have no access to the reference materials it sounds like you do. I know you well enough to know you when you try & share info. on GW, you give it your very best, that's certainly good enough for me! The talk I'm planning on giving will be much more general in nature & scope, esp. 'cause I'll be speaking to Indoor Gardening group (much more 'Houseplanty' type growers). I imagine they're NYC apmt dwellers for the most part, maybe have the ocassional summer home, certainly no greenhouses. Specifically, they're not succulent types (tho' I know number of members who also belong to the local C&S Society). I'll be bring in 1/2 dozen or so, as will other members, my main goal is to showcase lots of diff. Sans to folks who may only be familiar with the ubiquitous S. trifasciata laurentii (w/ its yellow stripe, that I particlarly dislike). I'll be taking: S. pinguicula (beauty that Jeff brought me 2 yrs. ago) w/ its rosette on a stolon S. Hi Silver (name uncertain, but given me by a very knowledgeable member collector, sadly now passed away); lovely rosette of long, graceful, slender, arching leaves S. cylindrica (deliberately small & young) showing they can be contained in a small space S. moonshine, small young, not spectacular, but shows its pretty, pale color S. patens (undergoing strange changes after 5-6 yrs. of doing nothing, threw a pup a month ago, growing like crazy, yet the parent plant fan is loosing a couple of leaves, just had to twist off an ailing portion of it tonight). I turned it out last wknd to check the roots, maybe lost some, but the pup is going gangbusters & looks entirely diff. than parent. The pup came up a paddle-shaped leaf as flat as a sheet of paper. Wonderful example of the juvenile growth having a diff. form that the parent Couple w/ guessed IDs: S. concinna (one of my favorite forms) S. socotra (those exposed rhizomes w/ long petioles ending in smallish spoon shaped leaves) S. hallii (small baseball bat) couple no IDs w/ thick, long cylindrical leaves w/ ridges that curve backwards a no ID short rosette, solid green leaves, wavy ruffled edges, rust edges, very pretty. Friends expect to be bringing (a few at least that I know of): S. bantel's sensation, a mature (one of my all time faves, would love to find some) S. unknown (from Kew, I hear it's very dark, almost black) whatever else other members bring to show &/or ask about. That's it for now, thanks again Norma. Hugs back attcha, Karen

Buehl, please do! I was just trying to save something of use. I'd been checking the GW all night, turned my back for 15 minutes to watch the Health Care vote, and whammo! all the posts were gone. I kept refreshing, thinking, "This can't be!"

Hi all, Checking in after the weekend. Wanted to give you a quick link to the FAQ for those who may have missed it. https://bit.ly/2S2Gxm8 Important to note that not all accounts have been sent an email, but there is certainly no harm in updating your password regardless. It's a good practice to change passwords regularly and to use different passwords for different sites. For a small number of people (as at least one person noted above) their password was reset proactively because our system was able to detect that it was a weaker password. It is a good idea to check in your account settings and make sure your email is still current. If at some point you do want to reset your password, you will need to have access to the email that is registered to the account to do that. (Also, unless you are registered as a pro, there is no phone number associated with your account, so there couldn't be any connection between this incident and spam phone calls.) Emily

From Tech Crunch, January 29: Pull quote, emphasis mine. A source hints to us there could be more layoffs coming, as the company looks to get into the black ahead of a potential IPO. “The company aims to slash costs in order to be profitable before going public,” the source said. Houzz has built a $4 billion business on the back of a platform and marketplace that lets you plan and execute home improvement projects. But as the startup gears up for its next phase of growth, it is also going through some growing pains. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed the company this month laid off around 110 people in the U.K. and Germany, along with an additional 70 in its U.S. home market in Q4 of last year. “We restructured our international marketplace workforce, primarily in our U.K. and Berlin offices, so that we can double down on the areas that will have the greatest impact for Houzz,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch. “It’s always difficult to go through a restructure at growth stages given the impact on people’s lives. We value and appreciate all of our employees and will do everything we can to retain them. We are introducing as many new opportunities as possible in other parts of the business so that those affected can apply and transition to other positions. For those who will leave Houzz, we are offering a separation package and providing any help we can as they look for a new opportunity. Houzz’s business is strong and we continue to hire and scale teams across our international and U.S. offices.” Houzz has 1,800 employees, meaning that these two tranches of layoffs account for approximately 10 percent of the company. The spokesperson added that Houzz has been hiring in Q4 in other areas — some 300 people in all — although she did not specify in which department or region. Houzz is also not providing much information about which departments have been impacted by the layoffs or what happens next, but details posted on social media point to at least one entire international department getting eliminated. “Purchased items from you in the UK. For the second time one of my orders was canceled. I emailed your offices + tried to call only to find the phone had been disconnected. I tweeted @HouzzUK yesterday & rcv’d a message that all staff had been made redundant,” one customer noted on Twitter. A source hints to us there could be more layoffs coming, as the company looks to get into the black ahead of a potential IPO. “The company aims to slash costs in order to be profitable before going public,” the source said. https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/29/houzz-layoffs/ Houzz does still have the resources to censor the Sophie topic when last someone asked in the middle of another thread about why some have her name/issue in our moniker.