Yeah Hoovb, suuure we believe ya. Would you believe that I actually had to take almost a year off from this forum to stop the rose purchasing craze? The more I read, the more pics I'd see, the more roses I HAD TO HAVE. Really, the only way to stop was to stop coming over here! I think mine gets a little bit of morning sun but my house is west facing (ridiculous) so much of the unshaded part of my front yard yard gets blazed away, which is where my Austins went in. The afternoon sun the BB will get is filtered at best since it's directly under the trees. I am curious to see how well she continues to bloom. I had her potted in similar sun exposure under trees before and she bloomed out something wonderful.

Snookums - I read a bunch of responses then just jumped ahead to put in my .02 cents. I've learned a few things having been married once before my current husband. #1 - You may have a spouse that is never satisfied. #1 was like that and it's part of their demoralizing way of controlling the situation and getting you to jump through hoops. LESSON LEARNED - No one spouse can carry the burden of making the relationship work, making it happy etc. Refuse to be the burden carrier if this is the case. Couple of suggestions: You could say, or have the attitude that his level of satisfaction regarding decorating, home improvement is level A but since you like it at level C that you will bring it up there as you see fit. You're not asking him to agree to it, you're just telling him. What about the next time something needs doing, he hasn't done it after 2 askings that you just go ahead, hire a handyman and have it done? When he squawks tell him, hey you had your chance to do it, you obviously didn't deem it important so "I took care of it for you. Aren't you glad honey, I took that load off your plate." One of two things will happen, especially if you do this every time, he'll either begin to do it himself if he doesn't like spending the money or he'll be fine with it as you've handled it. If he's not fine, then he has to do it by deadline A or again, you'll take care of it. As many have said, when throwing his fits, walk out of the room or refuse to respond telling him when he wants to have calm, rational, nonacusatory conversation, he can find you, until then, you've got other things to do. With DH #2 of 13 yrs, he has a higher standard when it comes to some cleaning issues that bug him and don't bug me. He's a busy body and I just tell him, hey, I'm willing to bring it to this level, if you want it better than this or whatever, then you can take it from there. Yes, at times I do feel a twinge of guilt but that is my own fault for even feeling it. Luckily I have a very DIY DH, mostly because he'd rather do it than spend the $$ and he's very talented in many areas and can do it. So I'm grateful. Plus nobody could accuse him of being lazy. Does your DH have a high level of frustration when he can't figure things out, get them done etc.? Maybe this is his throwing smoke so he doesn't have to deal with that issue (thre real fire). Better to not do task, than feel frustration or inadequacy over not being able to do it. You follow? Again, you doing it or better yet handyman could be an answer here. My house is my haven from the outside world and I'll be D&^@ed if anyone is NOT going to let me make it that way. Keep doing what you're doing girl!!!! We're with you. :)

Steve..That's too funny..I might give it a try too...Those bags of leaves you have there, people about here throw them to the curb side...Me on the other hand, I collect them and insulate all my plants in ground and around the base of my greenhouse..Good thinking..

Jane I feel for you. I had the same situation with my Duranta. Like you I brought it with me from KY when we moved here. I had it in a 30 gallon pot for the last five years and every couple years had to wrestle it out of the pot, cut part of the rootball off, cut a good part of the top off and repot it. It finally got too big to keep doing this and too heavy to wheel in the GH so we planted it in the ground a few weeks ago. They don't like temps below 40 so I'm sure I'll have to cover it a few nights in the winter.