Hi Sue, Congrats on your bloom, well one is better than none,(o: I'm sure you will be get more. I too have some very small buds but who knows if they will bloom? I will post if I do since this will be my very first gardenia flower if I get them to bloom, that is. Very Pretty flower and I'm sure it smells wonderful...

Markjohn, we bought our original plant at Selby Gardens in Sarasota several years ago when they were having a plant sale. It has multiplied since then and I have transplanted the new plants to other areas of our garden.I have smelled it several times before, but this year I have three blooms very close together so I wondered if I would have a triple impact of the "aroma". The aroma only lasts until the plant is pollinated which is only a day or so and then it doesn't stink anymore so you can't really use this plant to get teach your neighbors a lesson.

Roselee, Bags of mulch in the back? Ha! That's' another one that DH hates to hear. He'll drive the whole load to the back alley before he even touches them. They must have grown up in the same locality... like 'waaay' up north, lol. Jolana, "... as many plants as we wanted?" Now, that's a really great thought! The sun sails are so pretty. I've always seen them, but I didn't know they had a such a pretty name. It's so lyrical... like 'Sun Sails in the Sunset.' Okay, I'm a little off... :-)) This post was edited by sunnysa on Sat, May 24, 14 at 10:01

Thank you, Fori. I don't know why I can't seem to get a picture that doesn't make it look like more of a contrast than it really is.. Looks like a black floor with a huge bright orange center. Like a Butterfinger bar cross-section, lol! Columbusguy, I've said before... Those staples lay eggs, I swear they do! You get them all pulled, then a week or so later they hatch & new ones pop up. You KNOW that one wasn't there yesterday! My first mistake was when pulling up carpet pad, wasted so much time wrangling the left-behind pieces from under the staples. I eventually quit doing that, when I realized it actually protected the floor from the flat screwdriver I used to raise the staple enough to grip with pliers. (& makes staples easy to find, lol). For the ones without padding pieces - my first use of the credit card on this project. Well not really... First use was new washer/dryer to replace old one that caused all this, new bathroom subfloor, bamboo flooring (it was a compromise - DH got what he wanted in bathroom & I got to do what I wanted in this room. Refer to 1st pic - he was less than enthusiastic about my plan!). Anyhow, I found that if you can wedge the corner of plastic card under the staple, then - w/a very thin head screwdriver, you can dig & pry the staple up. Cutting an old card helped, made it possible to get it further under staple. Also helps, if you can, to pry from the other side of staple toward the "bulk" of plastic - in case you slip! (& you will @ least once if you're anything like me, lol). So... I know it sounds like a silly idea, a lot of work, & slow - but it worked great for me. After a couple of the little buggers are up, you find a rhythm, & it goes really fast. I kept pliers & magnetic bowl with me, & left the card in place to yank the staple out. "Card in left hand, pry from right, grab & yank, next! Not having to be as careful about scratching finish made it easy to go quickly!