Remember me asking if "Black Quitls were Morbid or Maudlin", & thx for photos Betsy V. (who just memorialized them from the Show for me), so I could pop them into my Blog.

Of course I will be unconventional. I believe these are seeds forming on my 'Phelan Bright'. I assume these need cross pollination, I've never seen it set seed before by itself or the other deciduous magnolias I have. There is a plain old M. X soulangeana about 100' away in a neighborhood's yard, that was in bloom at the same time. I might try growing them out even though it will take ages for them to bloom. Yes you see a bit of pokeweed, it was well hidden in there and I will remove it soon. They are a scourge but I think I have gotten ahead of them this year and hopefully the seedling count will be smaller next year.

I see you already made up your mind, that’s fantastic! I just wanted to say that we bought a dual fuel 60” viking professional range in 2017 as we got a fantastic deal on a floor model. We are quite pleased with it, and it gets a lot of use as we have a larger than average sized family and I cook a lot in bulk. We had a bit different experience than most... we knew the appliance store we bought our range from was cutting off business ties to Viking (the story we were told was that they had been the exclusive distributor in the area for many years, but the owner got pissed when Viking started selling through other nearby stores so he wanted to sever ties with them... ok... whatever... we were just happy about such a great deal on a range we hadn’t even thought about getting originally because of the outrageous cost) anyways, our range and hood was their last Viking item in the store and we knew we weren’t getting any service stuff done for it through the store, they made that clear. Our range isn’t full of electronics, it’s quite basic in its design, and my engineer hubby felt confident that he could 1) repair things himself if needed, and 2) rely on friends/family we have to help manufacture replacement parts if they stop being sold. So we aren’t a typical customer. LOL! Anyways, we did deal with Viking for a repair right after the range was installed... but it was nothing to do with the functionality of the range. A little metal trim piece on the front of one of the oven doors was loose and sagging a bit. Viking sent out a repair man at no charge... after fiddling with it for a while he determined he couldn’t repair it. Vikings solution was to replace the entire oven door. We didn’t get charged a dime for anything... but the repairs certainly didn’t happen in the quick time frame you mentioned. Granted, this happened over a year ago. The initial visit from the repair man was within a few days. The oven door replacement didn’t happen for several months... but my panties weren’t in a wad simply because I could still fully use my range, the issue was a minor cosmetic one. It did make me wonder if that timeline would leave me very patient if it had meant I couldn’t use part of my range though... I hope this helps anyone reading through this thread for further information on Viking. I really love my range, best I’ve ever had... prior to this, the most uppity brand I’d ever had was kitchen aid (and we always had great experiences with their customer service as well and still have many KA appliances.) but my Viking range is nicer to use than my KA cooktop or double ovens were. I much prefer the Viking infrared broiler, I adore my griddle, the burners are pretty much what I had been used to except there’s more of them with a 60” range, and most of all I love the painted surface compared with everything being stainless steel... it’s much easier to keep looking clean for longer. We have their graphite grey, and it blends in very nicely with our other SS appliances.

It's not any clearer. There seems to be flower buds forming, but I can't make anything out. A much closer and clearer picture would help a lot.