Thanks guys, As far as transparencies go, there is no real alternative here..considering the number of blossoms that are required, a fully modelled bloom would be pretty silly, I guess. However, I hate the idea of absolutely flat planes unless it's going to be a literal shower of blossoms, or way off in the distance (which is still a consideration) So, here is try 1 of a lower res solution. The biggest change is the lack of any geometry for the berries. Considering the likelihood of anyone actually seeing them when you look at the whole tree, that is a fair trade off (pretend the texture doesn't suck so bad:) Also, the petals haven't been smoothed, which leads to a more efficient, though less natural shape. For the size in a tree sized render, do they seem reasonable? This new bloom is 323 polygons in wings....including the partial stem and seed portions. 100 blooms is 32K, plus the few leaves and branches and trunk.....might work. A pale comparison to the earlier ones, though:( Would that computers were up to our dreams, eh? (not that poser could handle it even if my computer could once it got really big, lol) eric