Wow. I am completely embarrassed. I had no idea there were more posts after Lucy's on the 5th of June. This is what it looks like today: I've been thinking more and more on the idea of re-potting this tree so I hunted this thread down to remember what it was identified as. I remember ficus but I just wasn't sure what kind of ficus! Now I know - again. hehe. And yeah, you can tell by the picture that the stones are glued on. They're slowly being pushed outwards a bit as the tree grows. I never bothered to remove them because I didn't think it'd cause much harm.

The Nature Conservancy is looking for some help. This sounds like such a fun job andso appropriate for all of us nature lovers - it almost makes me wish I were unemployed! I got it through Seminole Natural Lands Committee with which I just recently started volunteering to do cleanups on trails and rivers. They asked for widest distribution so here it is... The Nature Conservancy POSITION DESCRIPTION POSITION TITLE: Community Outreach Coordinator JOB FAMILY: Operations JOB NUMBER: 520008 SALARY GRADE: 2 FLSA STATUS: Non-Exempt LOCATION: Melbourne, FL SUPERVISOR: Indian River Lagoon Program Director DATE PREPARED: September 18, 2007 ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: Provides administrative support for TNCs volunteer programs. This includes preparing correspondence and informational packets for distribution to volunteers and other interested individuals, maintaining the volunteer database, working with staff and volunteer leaders to prepare projects and producing standard reports from the volunteer database to communicate activities and results of the program. Actively participates in recruiting and scheduling volunteers, leading volunteer workdays and coordinating other activities within the volunteer program. POSITION DUTIES & REQUIREMENTS: The Nature ConservancyÂs Indian River Lagoon program was awarded a TNC-NOAA Community-based Restoration grant to restore oyster reefs within the Mosquito Lagoon portion of the Canaveral National Seashore. The grant is in partnership with University of Central Florida. The Community Outreach Coordinator will be responsible for implementing the community outreach tasks associated with this grant project. This position has currently identified financial support for one year from hire date and no guarantees can be made that the position will extend beyond that date. However, The Nature Conservancy is an employer at will and the employment relationship may end at any time. Â Increase public awareness about the importance of the Indian River Lagoon estuary and shellfish restoration. Â Excellent logistical organizational skills and extensive travel. Â Produce educational program workshop and event materials to promote active participation in making and deploying oyster restoration mats. Â Research sources of, and collect oyster shells from, various sources, such as shucking houses and restaurants. Â Transport oyster mat material to community events along length of the Indian River Lagoon, from Martin to Volusia County. Reliable, personal transportation required, trailer will be provided. Â Coordinate project logistics with grant partners, according to their responsibilities detailed in the grant (Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines at Port Canaveral, Brevard Zoo, New Smyrna Beach Marine Discovery Center and others). Â Transport oyster mats and equipment to New Smyrna Beach Canaveral National Seashore for deployment. Â Establish & develop cooperative relationships with local schools, universities, state & local agencies and corporations involved in environmental education to promote, expand and implement the grantÂs community-base involvement objectives. Â Effectively communicate the projectÂs conservation messages and promote conservation and community-involvement. Â Other duties, as assigned. KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS: Â AssociateÂs degree, technical education or 2 to 3 years of related experience or equivalent combination. Â Experience leading and working with volunteers preferred. Â Strong organizational skills and attention to detail. Â Demonstrated experience in MS Office, Word and Excel. Â CPR and First Aid certifications preferred. Â May require fluency in foreign language(s) to support global operations. Specific language(s) may be preferred depending on operating unit. COMPLEXITY/PROBLEM SOLVING: Â Prioritize tasks in the absence of specific instructions. Â Resolve day-to-day problems within specific guidelines and parameters of position. Â Tracks progress on tasks and does follow-up as needed. Identify routine problems and utilize existing resources for resolution. DISCRETION/LATITUDE/DECISION-MAKING: Â Make day to day decisions within the scope of work assignments. Â Consult with supervisor to address any issues that affect the work of others or the program as a whole. RESPONSIBILITY/OVERSIGHT ÂFINANCIAL & SUPERVISORY: Â May help plan and direct the work of volunteers or interns. Â Limited responsibility which may include processing check requests, travel expense reports and petty cash. COMMUNICATIONS/INTERPERSONAL CONTACTS: Â Work with and communicate effectively with a wide range of people, including employees, the public, vendors and others. Â Function productively as a member or leader of a work team. Â Familiarity with standard business communications; ability to draft and edit correspondence and other written materials. Â Formulate and clearly communicate ideas to others. WORKING CONDITIONS/PHYSICAL EFFORT: Â Willingness to travel extensively and must own automobile. Willingness to undertake evening and weekend work. Â Work requires only minor physical exertion and/or physical strain. Work environment involves only infrequent exposure to disagreeable elements. CLOSING DATE: Open until filled. TO APPLY, SEND COVER LETTER AND RESUME TO: Anne Birch, Indian River Lagoon Program Director The Nature Conservancy 1333 Gateway Drive, Suite 1016 Melbourne, FL 32901 Fax: 321-956-7722 Email: abirch@tnc.org No phone calls, please. The Nature Conservancy is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Nice job, Pam! Let's see if I can attempt to answer some of your questions, Jakki... The three producers named are the sources of the vast majority of tc hostas in the US - which means the vast majority of premium hostas. They are all strictly wholesale companies. Shady Oaks sells only young tc plants. The other two also sell tc babies, but also sell plants that they have grown on for a while. When a retailer buys the plants from these wholesalers, they usually also purchase the tags for the plants. Some folks prefer to print up their own, but that doesn't necessarily mean they didn't just buy the plants without tags. So a nursery may very well sell plants that they purchased recently from any or all of these wholesalers, plus they may be selling plants they purchased from these wholesalers and grew on for a year or two, and they may also be selling divisions that they have made from mother plants from whatever source. If they have the wholesalers tag, they probably came from there... if not, you just can't be sure without knowing the nurseryman. All three of these companies are very sensitive to disease and infestations. I've never seen nematodes carried in the products of any of the three. Since both SO and Q&Z deal primarily in young plants grown in greenhouse conditions, they are unlikely to pick up neems. Walters sells some field grown divisions, but they are also quite vigilant. Virus is something else. All three are testing their stock before they tc it so they are getting clean babies. Walters did circulate some HVX stuff because they imported from Holland before we really understood much about HVX. Of course, the problem is, you can trust that they got good stock from any of the three - but you have to trust how it was handled after they received it. I've purchased from all three for about ten years straight and never, to my knowlege, received a diseased plant. Wish I could say the same for some of the smaller growers who I tried to support... Take clean stock and put it into a field with nematodes for a year, or fail to clean your equipment properly after inadvertantly picking up a virused plant, and you've got diseased hostas to sell. I'm not clear how the big box stores get their stock. I was under the impression that much of their stuff was coming directly from Europe - and concerns and standards about HVX are much lower in Holland than in our hosta community here. They consider it OK to ship a whole batch if only a small percentage shows symptomes - ignoring the fact that they are also powerwashing all of them together and reusing water, thus spreading the virus to many other plants. Apparently it is OK with them to sell it if it looks OK now, even if a year or two from now it will have spread HVX to gardens all over the world. No one company provides all the variety a typical hoophouse or big box nursery needs, so they buy from a number of different wholesalers... and it is usually impossible to be sure who the plant comes from unless it bears a particular wholesaler's tag. And about Ken's comment. A little known or understood fact: Every patented or PPAF (Plant Patent Applied For) "must" be sold with an extra tag that gives the patent information. It is illegal to propagate/divide patented hostas. I've heard different versions, but the common understanding of that is you are OK if you divide it for your own garden, but if you sell or trade or even give a division of the plant away before the patent expires, you are breaking the law. If you buy a patented hosta without that tag, either it is an illegaly propagated plant or the seller has just neglected to meet the letter of the law and still has the patent tag in a drawer someplace. When I buy a patented plant wholesale, I receive a quantity of those special tags equal to the number I have paid for. If I were to grow that plant on and divide it, I wouldn't have enough of the special tags to go around and this would, theoretically, prevent me from selling an illegal plant. Royalties are a different matter altogether. Whether or not a plant is patented, an originator may make a contract with someone to produce, grow, and sell the hosta. That contract may include an agreement that the originator will receive a royalty on each sale for a set amount of time. There's been a dramatic increase in the number of plants I pay a royalty on. On a recent wholesale order just over half the plants had a royalty attached - but then, I tend to be buying newer items for my self and resale. On the six hostason that order, I paid .50 on each Brother Stephan, .25 on Remember Me (which goes to the Susan B. Komen foundation). Other royalties ranged from .13 on each Eupatorium 'Little Joe' to .45 for the new Brunnera 'King's Ransom.' As a percentage, the royalty usually adds around 7-15% to the wholesale cost of the plants. How's that for some stuff to chew on?! Gardening can be about hard work and creating and appreciating beauty - but if you combine it with business, it gets mighty complicated mighty fast!

OK......been there and done that. I was in engineering for the first part of my career. There was an economic crises in the first half of the 70s and the booming techical fields went through a lot of downsizing when the war ended and I took that opportunity to make some career choices. The company I work for shut down and after several interviews for a new position decided I'd be better off taking that hiatus to go back to school. Being older and in a better position to know where I wanted my work life to take me, I decided to switch over and study ornamental landscaping with an emphasis on plant protection. In my senior year, a divorce happened, and a relocation and that option was not available at any university within commuting distance, so I ended up with a degree in nursing instead. At 40 (your age) and my kids out of school, I took the same leap and did just what you are wanting to do. The only jobs here were at two larger independent grower/landscaping/retail garden center combos. If I hadn't dumbed down my resume I'd have never been hired because your first jobs at places like that are always entry level unless you have that degree in hort. I was close, and with six years of university, and coursework in plant path, taxonomy, design and ag engineering and economics.........but unlike horseshoes, close to the stake doesn't count. Most jobs in the green industry without that hort degree are entry level. I wanted to be on the growing end of the operation and frankly, a mature woman with a powerful resume is at a disadvantage in the hiring process for such jobs. I had sized up the situation accurately because after the fact, I found the owner got resumes from women like that routinely and just figured that most of them didn't have a clue how much hard grunt work was involved and also knew growing flowers in a home garden bears little resemblance to growing thousands of them commercially. I took a 75% pay cut just to get my toe in the door and dumbed down my application and interview to get that. I knew that once I got in, I could use my skills and did. Kept my mouth shut and took every opportunity to learn the ropes of the business and after a couple years, left and broke out on my own. You need to know what branch of this trade you want to be in. I knew retail garden center wasn't my goal. You need to scope out the job opportunities in your immediate area. It's amazing how many different types of skills are needed in the green industry. Working with the public selling posies is a small segment. Know your strengths and know that home gardening at a large growing operation is like comparing a candy striper to a surgeon. Many employers would not be impressed with your credentials in the hort field and actually might be discriminatory of your credentials in other fields. It's their loss but it happens because of their mindsets. Get 'out there' and see what you want to do and with whom and what they have to offer and have some discourse with owners and employees before you write that resume. You'll answer your own question better than we can answer it for you. I just retired this year and closed my business down after nearly a quarter century in the trade. I am so glad I did it, but this is not an easy question to answer.