Hi Robert, I am an expert on plumeria grafting and I am going to try to explain what is going on with yor plant and what the prospects are. In grafting plumerias there are two important things: a) making cambium contact between the scion and the rootstock so sap can flow from the rootstock to the scion, and b) maintaining the cambium contact over time. A rubber band (elastic) is generally used to make contact. A plastic tape wrap is used to maintain the cambium contact. Sometimes in plumeria grafts the cambium line contact between the scion and the rootstock is broken for different reasons (no sap present, scion surface has dried, etc.). What happens then is that the scion acts like a cutting trying to develop roots. It center soft white core swells out to form a callus. If the graft wrap stretches some, it pushes the scion and rootstock appart and cambium contact is broken completely. Eventually the wrap stops stretching and the soft center cores of the scion and rootstock fuse together. In the picture below I show an example of this. I used clear fruit tree grafting tape, which is designed to stretch on purpose to avoid girdling of the graft. As you you see the scion was pushed away from the rootstock by more than 3/16". I eventually put a cable tie on it to keep it from stretching any more. To prevent this from happening I use a thick green tape that does not strech much. I use duct tape to secure the end and two cable ties for safety (picture below). Luc at FC uses a similar green tape but puts a rubber band over the green tape. The rubber band (special elastomer for grafting), is design to disintagrate in a few weeks. He does this so he does not have to go around to remove all the tapes. This is what typical grafts look like. Note how the cambium line is completely healed and filled with callus all the way around. There are no gaps in good graft unions. These are some grafts from Florida Colors, when I received the plants. Luc's tape stretches a little like mine and creates a small scar. As you can see, typically Luc does a pretty good job grafting plumerias. After I remove the green tape, the gap between the scion and the rootstock continues to become bigger. I have tried to put cable ties to hold the scar from getting bigger. It helps some but the ends deform and grow out (not very pretty). That growing callus just exterts a huge force. I developed a new technique that gets around this problem and makes pretty grafts with very small scar every time, as the picture below shows (two weeks after grafting). Note how the cambium line is completely healed all the way to the bark in just two weeks! Now your plant broke the cambium line contact and the swelling soft white center of the scion pushed the rootstock away and broke the cambium line contact. So the grafting has taken but it is healing slowing from the center out. It will take a while to fill the gap. When this happens, it is possible to leave a gap somewhere in the graft. I would take a thin flat metal piece and go around the graft and measure the depth of the open area, to see if there are any open areas, especially at the top of the graft (generally heals last in this type of graft). The rubber band that is on the graft is not the original rubber band they used in grafting. It is a new one (much thicker and stronger than used normally for grafting) and it is used to hold the graft union together until it heals fully. Do not remove it. The rubber band stretches and the scar will become bigger. If it was me I would put two cable ties on the ends of the graft cut to secure the graft union. Now, what are the prospects for this graft? It is bad? The next picture shows a one year old graft with a large scar. It looks fully healed from the outside. The next picture shows a cut-away view of this graft. The top tip is still open, it has not fully healed. However, the bottom part has completely healed and new wood has formed over the scion and rootstock original woods and has connected the two. The cuts have line up with solid wood and the bottom half of the cuts have fuse together. The bottom line is that it takes time to heal but when it does the graft union will be the storgest part of the plant (it will be solid wood). Here is a more extreme example of a really large graft scar. The angle was too large and the scar kept on growing. On the surface it looks weak. It looks like one can break it appart easily. The next picture shows the cut-away view of this graft union.The cut is fused together with solid wood. The scion and the rootstock are connected around the perimeter with solid wood. This graft union is the strongest piece on the whole plant! It cannot be broken appart. The bottom line is that your plant will be fine. Eventually it will make a very strong connection. However, it will take time. The fact that the plant is growing leafs shows the graft has taken. Now, do not get me wrong. I would prefer a plant with a "normal" graft that has healed at the cambium line first rather than this one that has fused at the soft white centers because the graft union heals quicker and makes a much stronger union much faster. I hope I have answered all your questions. Good luck Robert. Regards, George

You can also use a pressure washer to clean moss, lichens and algae from shingle roofs Sure you can...if you want to watch five years of the roof's useful life wash away. 1) as above, find a roof cleaning specialist (one that doesn't use a pressure washer) and let them have at it. 2) climb up, use an old fashioned corn broom, do the best you can and then liberally sprinkle the roof with detergent granules. Dish washing detergent is best but most folks use powdered clothes detergent due to cost. Make it look like the roof has been snowed on. But don't pile it up in drifts. Wait. Probably repeat a few times. 3) tell the insurance company to get a life. Its probably not the company itself but a keener, OCD agent. 4) open up the sun to the roof, there is most likely a tree or something that is both shading it and blocking airflow? You don't have to take the tree down or top it, just a spiral prune to allow more light and air movement. 5) If there is no tree...I don't know what to say. Birds must have "dropped" lichen spore laden droppings or something.

Stolenidentity, we are not using the flat rubber roof at all. We might use it as a patio IF it ever gets fixed right. Our patio door to the roof is crap and falling apart, so that's another reason we don't use the flat roof. Alot to get fixed......... I would love to put a small screen porch or greenhouse on a small part of the roof, if possible. I know the whole roof needs to be ripped off and new fiberboard put down, or whatever. Thinking that's a good time to put a small porch there or greenhouse since its on the south side of the house. Still looking at options. Its unbelievable that a lot of the roofing companies don't even return my call. I leave message that we either need it patched or replaced, and would like to get an estimate. We've gotten ONE estimate and 2 ballpark estimate, with probably 6-7 calls to different roofers. I think the flat roof has the smallest amount of pitch in the middle. Whoever originally put it on should have put more pitch on it, that's for sure. also, because the highest pitch is in the middle, some of the water flows toward our patio door ,which isn't good.

Hi, I live in NH and did well with my snow until I had a metal roof installed. Now, when it snows, I use my snowblower to clear it and all is fine....UNTIL 24-36 hours later when the glaciers slide off my roof and create a 4 foot high pile of packed snow right in front of my garage doors. It's as wide as a double garage and probably 15 feet front to back. My Toro two stage snow blower won't cut it. I have to shovel it into piles and blow it away. Too much work for my old back. I've tossed around ideas from an ATV with a plow, to a tractor with a plow or snowblower attachment, and now it was recommended that I get a Honda hydrostatic track machine. I've read a bit about these and understand that I can tilt the machine down into the snow pile. I'm wondering if I can get some advice on this. Does anyone have any better ideas or is the Honda truly a good way to go? I can't do another year of breaking up the pack ice. The plow guy won't reliably come by when the snow slides off the roof (can't blame him) but I need a way to deal with this. Ideas and suggestions are welcome. Thank you.