Weigela f. My Monet is a shrub not a perennial, and not a honeysuckle either - that's a different plant. "Variegation changes depending on light exposure - often whiter variegation in shade and pink variegation in full sun."

You folks down in 10 lucked out...I'm in 9, and boy oh boy, did my yard take a hit. It got more freezes than Nicki's yard up in Leesburg. When I say 8 hard freezes in a row, I'm not joking. My birdbaths were frozen solid every single one of those 8 mornings, and a couple of days, it stayed below freezing until well after noon. Hi, Laura! I only have one or two roses left, and they DID come through fine. Another one that survived beautifully is my huge, gigantic fennel plant, which I had already cut back earlier, and which had new 1 and 2 foot tall sprouts on it. I thought since they were new, they would freeze, but nope. It looks wonderful. One of the few spots of bright green left in my yard. Gingers, split leaf philos, etc, all totally black and mushy. I'm thinking a few might come back, but most probably won't. Just too many freezes in a row. Bound to have caused some root damage. Many of you know I'm a 65 year old native of Florida, mostly the central Florida area, and I have never, EVER seen this many hard freezes in a row. Yes, I've seen it just as cold, but only for a night or two at the most, with a warm up, and then maybe another night or two in a few weeks. But 8 hard freezes back to back will pretty much do in anything remotely tropical in nature, I think. I'm just HOPING that 1/3 of what I lost will come back after pruning. The rest will probably have to be replaced, even though many were things I got after last year's freezes that were supposed to be much hardier. *sigh* It makes me want to plant out my whole yard in azaleas and forget about it! *grin* What I'll actually do is make a list of everything that made it, and those will be what I buy more of. The ones that are totally gone won't be on my planting list any more. Hey, Laura...I've heard that coral honeysuckle can suddenly go into an unexplained decline even without cold weather, perhaps caused by a fungus or something? But mine smiled through last year's four-in-a-row freezes and this year's 8, so I'm thinking I need a lot more of it along my fences. Besides which the hummers love it so much. Marcia

In regard to your Bonfire begonia, I think the problem is that it is in full Florida sun. It just can't handle it. Give it some shade, especially from the afternoon sun. Also you say you water it everyday and the soil is well drained. Since it's a hanging basket that's been in full sun, once a day watering probably isn't enough. It may be that the soil has become so dried out that it won't take up the water. You water it, the excess runs out, and one would think all is well. Lift the basket...does it feel heavy with water? Stick your finger into the soil...is it really wet? If the soil is dry or the basket seems light in weight, then you need to soak it so it finally gets "wet" again. Put the basket in a bucket of water. If it's dry, the Bonfire plant may even want to float out of the basket. If you let it soak long enough, it will eventually absorb water and finally become wet. Then let it drain well.

Still quite odd. Are the dried up leaves still attached to the plant, or do they naturally fall off(or fall off with a touch)? If they fall off, that usually means a leaf desease, which is actually good since the wood is not affected. If the leaves stay on, that usually means a wilt or canker disease in the stem, or environmental problems. What ever you do, don't give it any fertilizer. That might compound the problem. If leaves stay on, notice if the first black spotting is in any kind of pattern that is repeated on every infected leaf: near the midrib, near the outer part, spaced evenly throughout(that's a pattern too). Are the black spots angular or round/oval. If angular, do they folow the leaf veination pattern? Do the spots grow larger, or populate the leaf? Any marginal coloring to the spots? And, are the black spots yellow first, or go from green to black? BTW, how ever you prune a healthy plant doesn't matter to the plant. But on my honeysuckle vines, I always prune out the dead only because they grow so fast that you'll get a lot of build up of woody vine that you'll never know what is dead or alive. Actually, at this time of year I prune off all dead and any living that is not producing flowers. Seems pretty drastic, but it would eat my fence alive if I didn't. Rick