I am Incredibly ticked off! Mother nature is a bully! We got hit with yet another wind storm so I run out at almost midnight to try and figure a way to fight her off. I finally come up with the (kind of pathetic) idea of covering Anna with a huge cardboard box but not before loosing two entire stems with two huge gorgeous blooms! They just came right off. Soooo ticked off. All of my other hydrangeas are troopers and do fine but Anna seems to be super delicate and I'm very close to just ripping her out and replacing her with some other white flowering hydrangea. She is three years old so she should be stronger than this. I can't get a break with her this year. Is Incrediball any better?

It look very good, indeed and could be left as is, but my 'always could be better' mind telling me that, -curve from the 'flowers portion' of the bed to peninsula should be softened and be similar to what you have in 'Annabele portion' to peninsula connection. It will still make your SM standing at the tip of the peninsula, but will make the whole bed more uniform and tied together, - the 'flower portion' shouldn't go at the angle straight from the steps, but rather should go out perpendicular to them and then make a soft 90 degree turn exactly as it is done on an opposite side. re: trunk is not idealy vertical. If all previous suggestions was only IMO and simply reflected my own taste and preferences, in this case I don't think you have another choice as to replant it correctly AND stake it for at least 1 full year (preferably for two winters). Your site is sloping down and some soil erosion will happen no matter what in a next one-two years. You don't want to deal with a leaning back [and much larger] tree in such conditions.

G.M., We're fine but we had a pretty rough night. We had 3 to 4 separate waves of storms after the NOAA weather alert went off to let us know that bad weather was approaching from Jefferson County. Just about 3" of rain, high wind, power out, some tree limbs down, but nothing serious at our house.....well, except for a serious lack of sleep. Marietta had more damage in town than we had here. There was a strip of power poles along Hwy 77 south of town where one pole went completely down and then quite a few others snapped in half. We got our power back more quickly than Marietta did, I think, 'cause our particular power lines run up to us from Thackerville, instead of down from Marietta. We saw lots of ornamental pear trees split right in half, which is typical after a big windstorm. We made a quick run to Ardmore to Lowe's this morning so I could get bags of mulch. Figured if I couldn't plant, I'd mulch what's already been planted. You wouldn't believe how many trampolines we saw in the middle of nowhere.....fields and pastures.....alongside the road (with no houses nearby).....piled up on top of cars or sheds or swingsets or fences. None of those trampolines looked salvageable. During the worst of last night's wind and rain, (before the power went out....so we still had light to see by), our trees and shrubs were blowing in a rotating manner, but none of the trunks snapped. It is very wet and windy out there today. I am operating on a severe sleep deficit. I never really went back to sleep after the NOAA alert went off because every time I was almost asleep, it went off again for a total of 3 or 4 times. At least mulching is a easy task and I don't have to think real hard to to it. LOL Did you know the Roosevelt Bridge over Lake Texhoma was shut down half the night and most of today (one lane is currently open) because all the power lines and poles are covering the bridge? The stuff during the night was scarey, but I was more afraid of the storm cell that was moving our way sometime after 8 or 8:30 last night....it was the one that spawned a tornado or two near Breckinridge, Texas, and then very slowly and laboriously made its way towards us. Just south of Gainesville, though, it veered southeast towards Whitesboro. We had watched it on KXII for an hour or more and I was just relieved it slid south of us. On the radar at the time, it looked like we'd take a direct hit, but we didn't. That same cell may be the one that did all the damage that has been reported near Denison. It looks gorgeous outside today, but the wind is really blowing hard out of the west. Dawn

Very good information, chas045. Thanks. I have always suggested everyone to get a generator. Weather problems will be with us for the next century. You need to power up your heating system in the winter. Pipes bursting in the winter can cost you thousands. You need to run your water pump if you have a well. You need to keep your refrigerator going. It's good to have lights, computer, phones and internet. I am not advocating this, because it is illegal. Back-feeding with a generator is the cheapest way to go to power up half of your house. However, I always find it difficult to understand with the main technical reason that back-feeding can kill a lineman. A professional lineman takes all kinds of precaution when he is working. If you don't turnoff your main breaker, you simply cannot start your generator. Your generator will be attempting to power up your entire neighborhood and all the street lights. Repeat: Don't do it, just use a heavy duty extension cord. It is not that painful to use an extension cord for a few days. A 1,000 watt generator is about $200. How big a generator do you need? Incandescent light about 100 watts CFL light, 25 watts Computer about 100 watts Phone charger, 1 watt Small electric fan, 50 watts Microwave, 600 to 1,250 watts Toaster oven, about 1,800 watts Refrigerator, Freezer, depending on size, from 800 watts Attic fan, 350 watts Forced air heating system fan, 500 watts Refrigerator, 20 cf, 800 watts TV, 250 watts Air conditioner, about 1 watt/BTU rating Hair dryer, up to 1,850 watts Electric oven, forget about it. Takes too much power. Electric water heater, 2,500 watts to 4,500 watts. Three other important things to keep in mind, besides capacity of a generator. 1. full-load running time 2. Noise level - quiet generators are more expensive. But you don't want your neighbors complaining. 60 dbs is very quiet. You will get lots of complains at about 80 dbs. 3. weight - A good 2,000 watt generator can be light enough to go camping with, others can be very heavy to transport. dcarch