Ursula, that is not a vision that ever goes away.

with Bill

Regarding "common sense" - one of my friends used to say "sense is not common!"

I always think/hope knowledge starts in schools and is re-enforced at home. I have noticed a trend however, in some families correcting say a child's spelling is much frowned upon, and one is so told. Good grief, I have been corrected/taught all my life and I believe strongly that this is one of the ways one learns.

And here are two cute little Abutilons which survived the Summer outside and now inside. I had cut them down in September. They are usually sitting under the Vandas, where they get flooded daily.

One year my son had a teacher, 5th grade, who routinely sent home worksheets she had made up herself and there were misspellings on them. I finally pointed out to her (as did other parents) that it was difficult to convince my son to check his spelling if his teachers were not doing the same for their work and she told me spelling did not matter. I discussed this with the principal who agreed with his teacher.

A new age for sure, Alice, when grammar and spelling don't matter. There's not much you can do about laziness and uncaring. I see so much poor grammar and certainly, poor spelling on FB. Just yesterday, a lady in Vero Beach posted something about a train/car accident. Her statement was: "I seen a car hit by a train in Vero Beach". Sad

That is another thing. I don't see the point in face book. I'm sorry, I just don't get it.

From what I hear, too much stuff gets posted on there that is best if it is not posted. Perhaps it is being done mostly by those without common sense or with poor spelling habits.

I just look at tropical plant related forums, Bill. But I also am on a Vero Beach forum and that's where I see posts like the one I showed. The only reason I have an account was because of 'Tropical Plants & More'. I sold quite a bit on FB. Even though I seldom sell anything any longer, I still have that "business" page.

Bill, fb is great to share photos of grandchildren, Orchids, hobbies and just staying in touch with people you can't always visit. Communication on fb is easy and you can control who sees your posts and you can unfollow/unfriend people whose post you would rather not see. I like it. Many times I have the grandchildren over or spend time with them, and I post something fun/informative for their parents to see quickly. I do see it as a nice tool when handled reasonably.
I made friends with some lovely Orchid-people through the years and I enjoy their posts a lot. ( from Puerto Rico, Australia, Canada, Chicago area, Massachusetts and so on) There are Amigurumi and knitting forums etc etc.... I guess, it is not that different from garden.org, except you can have more privacy if you are so inclined.

I understand why people like it and use it. It is just not for me.
I have typically been a background type of person when it comes to a good deal of family and personal info.
I'll tell you a lot about orchids but I just felt uncomfortable sharing stuff on the Internet. Maybe if I was 20 years younger it would have appealed to me.

Ursula said:I guess, it is not that different from garden.org, except you can have more privacy if you are so inclined.

FB is really quite bad from a privacy and security perspective. That's the main reason I refuse to use it.

Well, obviously one doesn't give out crucial information, one needs to always exercise some restraint when on-line.

But see, I hold tonthe theory that the more tidbits that you put out there on the web, the more pathways that you open. They might seem like minor and unimportant, but these hackers seem to be real good at what they do.

If their ability is + 1,000, mine is -364,748,297,220!!! I don't like those odds.

Of course, Ursula. My main concern is actually Facebook's poor privacy and security practices; controlling what you share with the public and friends is fine, but FB has a history of sharing data with other companies (i.e. the Cambridge Analytica scandal).

Data mining to influence elections! I am always amazed that people play those quiz games! Or follow click-bait links And so on!

Sometimes dyed flowers are a nice option.

For the St. Patty's day parade to highlight the holiday the horses and riders on my team always use dyed green flowers green ribbons, even spray our horses tails and mane green.-( Safe for animals.) All match our team outfits. Wearing 4 leaf clovers are on all the horses too. This is a competition as a team effort to win ribbons as a team.

Same with the Portland Rose Parade another competition to win ribbons it is also a team effort. For the rose parade our team colors are red, white and blue It's a requirement to have roses on all the horses and all the blue roses are dyed bright blue, natural red and natural white roses are used.

On some of the floats in the parades, flowers or seeds are dyed or painted to get the desired effect for the theme the float represents in a effort to win a competition. No restrictions are on dried or painted flowers.

I have dyed and painted flowers for all sorts of competition projects . Example go to (" Let's have some fun with floral arrangements" on this forum) All entries are for the state and county flower shows. I have made wall hangings , China plate designs, mini arrangements etc in many forms for state and local flower shows.Again flower shows are a competition for ribbons each floral arrangement is made to match the theme of the division it represents. In the past I have dyed my white hydrangeas for Xmas wreaths "Red" to sell for charities for the Holidays. They sell like hot cakes. Sometimes odd colored flowers can be what in some cases Like dying flowers - flora or fona is a creative license for many reasons.

In the mean time I am curious to see if the Amaryllis bulbs advertised I ordered from EBay are blue. I suspect they are dyed the pics online look very color edited ...so ...wait and see. I can still add them to my bulb collection either way. They have the Basel plates attached and can rebloom.

There really is a true blue amaryllis a Brazilian Blue amaryllis -Worsleya procera, Worsleya rayneri. Now that is a rare bulb in this neck of the woods.

Worsleyas certainly are rare all over. Seeing one in bloom would be amazing.

Facebook is also where you see that yesterday was Ursula's birthday! Hope it was a good one chief.

Thanks Alice! It is actually today, but going out yesterday was easier for everybody! I love having the family together like that!

Follow us please to the new 2020 What else do we grow thread
The thread "What Else Do We Grow 2020" in Orchids forum