Hi,
I am pretty new to the I Ching and have been using the 3 coin method to cast my hexagrams and progressing well with my interpretations.
I have recently discovered the Plum Blossom Oracle through Lillian Too's book, the new I Ching.and my initial thoughts from resulting hexagrams I have created via the Early or Late Heaven methods is that once again the correct guidance is shown.

The crux of my question is this, In Too's book she gives an interpretation of how the elements represented by each Trigram interact in either an exhaustive, destructive or positive relationship.

Whilst interpreting my hexagrams I have found that on the outset the hexagram is favourable, yet when I also look at Too's interpretation of the trigrams elements they show a destructive or exhaustive relationship.

For example I asked the question what is my relationship with X and cast Hex 19 with no changing lines. and my interpretation is that with the constant attention & nurturing things will be favourable if I don't then the will be no benefit in the 8th month, though I don't take that literally.
The elements quoted in the book are earth above metal being exhaustive and the nuclear being earth above wood being a negative relationship.

How much importance should I put on the elements in interpritating my answer?

Thank you.

I haven't read Too's book about Mei Hua/Plum Blossom... I can explain the way I use this.
Metal below Earth means the lower Trigram is Resource for the upper one. Girl is in upper one, You are in lower one(more on that below). So this is as supportive as it can be and you are supporting her. That can be exhausting, but generally seems very beneficial, for this type of question.
In this specific relation if we look at the elements in the lines, we can find the girl at line 5, since that line is of element Water. And since 19 is an Earth hexagram(part of Kun Palace), we look for female person at the line that is controlled by the hexagram element.

Earth Hexagram controls Water line, that means a girl will be on line 5 in this specific situation/hexagram.
▅▅　▅▅You Metal(Child)
▅▅　▅▅Hai Water(Asset) Yong
▅▅　▅▅Chou Earth(Sibling)
▅▅　▅▅Chou Earth(Sibling)
▅▅▅▅▅Mao Wood(Officer) Ti
▅▅▅▅▅Si Fire(Parent)
So in line 5 we have Hai Pig Yin Water.
You are on the line 2, there we have Mao Rabbit Yin Wood.

Now, the lower Trigram is resource for upper one, that can be used as one way to think that the relationship is ok.
Another one is that Hai Pig combines with Mao Rabbit in the Chinese astrology(BaZi etc.)

So both of you are making a group of Wood.
Also one more reason to think something new is starting to emerge, since that is what wood is.
The whole Hexagram is seasonal and is connected to the month that we are in now. Shows increasing of the Yang after the winter, the light starts to show up again from the bottom of the Hexagram. Again one more good sign that all is beneficial and one more sign that something is starting to be born.

You are on yang line, she is on yin line - one more reason to think all is good.
Depending of the day the question is asked there may be problems, but from the pure hexagram it looks very favorable... In the five arts having something showing up 2 times usually means it will happen, with 3 is more or less unavoidable.

The 8th month... Well, this type of hexagram is seasonal, so it shows light is coming again - that does mean that it isn't balanced position, someday autumn will show up too, but that isn't what is coming now, so no reason to worry about that(and in the middle of autumn You Rooster clashes the line of the person asking in this hexagram, so if someone gets this hexagram in August, depending on the day too, it may not be as favorable, relation with the girl will still be great, but there will be other problems, no point getting into that since I guess you asked last few days)...

In short - elements can help a lot to get deeper into the meaning. However I really can't comment on Too's book, since I haven' read it. I don't practice Plum Blossom by itself, though, trigram relation looked through the element is very important, but the lines relation to each other and the day in my experience are a lot stronger influence then that. And since Mei Hua/Plum Blossom doesn't go into that, it can be helpful... But it isn't enough to cover all situations all the time.

Edit: Just 1 correction... The metal is below, so it's the other way around, she is resource for you(supporting). That have 2 reasons as well, in the Wood combination, she is water that is combining to form wood with your line, so 2 reasons to say she is supporting you, means it can be exhausting for her. But the rest is same as described and that by itself doesn't changed that much. Of course, all can be very different depending on the day, so it's just to explain the elements, the info by itself may be different depending on the day question was asked.

Many thanks Nevemind for such a detailed answer.

: )