Hmmm...that is interesting. I can definitely explain the issue with Baby Blue Eyes, but I will have to look at your readings for the Mexican Heather. Not too sure about that one. As for the Baby Blue Eyes, being an annual gives it "special privileges". In other words annuals don't play by the normal set of rules when it comes to recommending a plant and this isn't an uncommon practice in horticulture. The reason for this is because annuals only live for one season (and often times are only of horticultural value for part of that season; they flower for only a couple of months out of the year). Many gardeners could squeeze in the pretty flowers of that annual during the part of the year where the weather is nice enough for it to grow. You will see this practiced among other horticulturalists. Since annuals have to be replaced so often anyway, the thinking is you could try to squeeze them in while they are pretty. Your EasyBloom sensor apparently sensed an environment that would be amenable to Baby Blue Eyes during this time of year. As for the Mexican Heather, I will have to look into this further. I may have to get back to you on this one. It seems like this plant would be a good fit too. I am rather familiar with it and its cultivation needs. I hope this was helpful to you. If you do have any more questions, please feel free to ask. It is my pleasure to help our customers. Thanks for the questions and Happy Gardening!!!! Robby

Hey Kathie...I'm sorry to hear about your Meyer Lemon. It is true that like other Citrus the Meyer Lemon does best when the soil dries out slightly in between waterings, but it is definitely possible to let them dry out too much. It sounds like this is exactly what happened in your case. It sounds like you have your watering under control now, which is good. Luckily, trees have a good amount of reserves in their trunks and roots so that they can come back from most types of environmental stress (even the dwarf trees have these energy stores). As long as the stress wasn't too severe, your lemon should be ok. Having said that, winter is fast approaching and Citrus do not do well with temperatures below freezing. Also, Citrus are full sun plants and do best with lots of sunlight. These are two issues coming up for you and your lemon tree that you will have to deal with. Normally, citrus can deal with cold temperatures as long as they are above freezing and as long as they are not abruptly put out into the cold. In other words if you had your Citrus in the heated house during a snowstorm and then decided to take it outside in the exposed cold. My recommendation is to keep your lemon tree outside as long as possible, but you will have to be a little more proactive in watching the weather. I grew up in Los Angeles and we had a bevy of Citrus trees in my backyard. Now that I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, I have to be a little more diligent with my potted dwarf Bearss Lime Tree outside. I do have a trick up my sleeve however. As winter approaches I string up my lime tree with holiday lights. Not only does it give my little tree a festive look, but on especially cold nights I can turn on the string of lights and that will create a little microclimate around the tree that is slightly warmer. I also keep my lime tree close to the house as there will be some residual heat from the home that can keep the Citrus warmer than if it was exposed and out in the open. For you, I would recommend moving your lemon tree indoors especially overnight if the temperatures are predicted to be especially cold even if you too string up your lemon tree with lights. I hope this was helpful to you. If you have any further questions, please let me know. Happy Gardening!!! Robby

Hey James...Your insight to the horticultural world continues to impress me. You claim to be an intermediate gardener, but I would argue that you are more advanced than you think. I appreciate the feedback. Please let me know if you have any further questions. Cheers, Robby

Hey Nick...I had a Nepenthes for a very long time, and we have a few Sarracenia here at the lab. They really are a lot of fun. I did want to mention that you should be watering them with distilled water (or some other type of demineralized water). I'm not sure if you are doing this or not and I don't want to insult your intelligence. Carnivorous plants tend to suffer with even a small amount of dissolved solids in their irrigation water. Cheers...Robby

Sure thing, Nick. Do you have a specific pitcher plant in mind? There are basically 4 genera of pitcher plants, 3 of which are commonly known. (Nepenthes, Darlingtonia and Sarracenia) :)

If you do have any further questions, please feel free to post on these forums. I go over these forums all the time and am fairly quick to respond. I appreciate the feedback. Cheer...Robby

In conclusion, I would say that EasyBloom does a fantastic job of taking a snapshot of the microclimate for any given period of the season. Due to the near impossibility of predicting environmental factors months in advance, taking several measurements throughout the season will give the gardener the best idea of how the environment changes for a plant over time. Luckily, plants are adapted to deal with changing environments since they can't get up and walk away if it gets too hot/cold or needs more sunlight, etc. Having said that I would argue that the readings you took during spring and summer will be the most significant readings if you are concerned that one of your plants is on the cusp of its environmental limits. Generally, those seasons are the ones that will ruin a plant (especially when it comes to sunlight exposure).

We have kicked around the office the idea of mathematically predicting sunlight profiles across the different seasons. Currently we can do this for a couple of weeks, and it works rather well I don't mind saying. :) In order to predict light conditions throughout all of the seasons, we would have to know the dimensions of the structures around you yard and which way they are facing in comparison to your reading location. Also, there's the little issue with deciduous trees. A location underneath a deciduous tree might actually get more sun in winter than it would in summer because there are no leaves on the tree. As you can tell this is extremely complex and although we have not thrown this idea out, it is not currently implemented.

Since you mentioned that you live in the northern part of the nation, I would advise that the readings that you took in and around May would be the most pertinent for seeing an environmental snapshot that would best suit your couple of plants that you wish to get in the ground. Also, I would like to point out that you said that these plants are a bit rare. If the EasyBloom plant database does not have these plants in the database, please let me know by posting again on these forums. I would be more than happy to do the research to figure out the cultivation needs for your plants and incorporate them into the database.

Hi James...My name is Robby and I am one of the on-staff plant nerds here at PlantSense, maker of EasyBloom. This is an excellent question (one that we have asked ourselves). My educational background is in mathematically modeling horticultural systems, which has played very well into my current position at PlantSense and has helped us tackle this very problem. Unfortunately, we had to accept (as every scientist does) that a set of data becomes more reliable with more repetitions. Since the sunlight profile of a certain location in your yard changes as the seasons change, you can get a better idea of what the overall sunlight status is by taking many readings at that one location. What I would do, however, is look at some of your readings during the growing season. You can even look at the monitoring readings at different times of the year to get recommendations. When you go to "My Readings" you can look at both the recommend readings and monitor readings and we now show you which plants would do best in those microclimates.