A few years ago a friend gave me a tahitian bridal veil in a hanging basket. I hung it in a tree and didn't do much to it except try to remember to water it occasionally. A piece broke off--maybe a bird landed on it or something--and fell to the ground. I didn't do anything to it, but it rooted on its own and has since spread all over the yard, and the only time it's not in bloom is when I've pulled it by the armloads, or if it actually frosts a bit. It's really quite beautiful, and the bees love it, and it's impossible to kill. It seems to bloom in full shade, dappled shade, as close to full sun as we get around here-- I really see why people like it so much, and I still kinda do, but I do wish it weren't quite so enthusiastic about taking over. Our conditions certainly must favor it--lots of humidity, warm temperatures or hot, with the exception of a few months when it might get chilly and then warm again. I like the billowing ground cover effect. It even chokes out almost all weeds!

Dawn and GM, so sorry to hear about your trials and tribulations. As for me, I'm struggling trying to get my iris bed prepared and it is raining nearly every other day. The ground is saturated and smells spoiled. One of the pots containing my peppers and petunias got it's drainage hole plugged somehow and so I lost what was in that pot. Two of my Datura have died because of the water and DGS broke one. On the plus side, though, the remaining four are getting ready to bloom. They are not very tall and do not have many leaves so I hope the plants will be able to support these huge flowers. I have lost other plants as well, due to the standing water, among which were a couple of Cup and Saucer vines I had nursed along all spring and some english lavender I was really looking forward to. DGS is on summer vacation now and all he wants to do is watch TV and play video games and talk on the phone. He'll be a senior in HS next fall. He's kinda getting on my last nerve. I'm trying to help him get a summer job and it's not easy because he has poor math skills. Last summer he worked at Sonic and it was a struggle because he was car-hopping and he had so much trouble making change, got accused of stealing $80 and then they found they'd made a mistake in their calculations and they had to apologize to him but it left a sour taste in all of our mouths because they treated him so bad when they thought he was a thief. Yesterday we had to go buy stuff for Church camp, had to get groceries and went to several places picking up applications and I helped him apply on-line at Wal-Mart and K-Mart. You end up taking a test and everything. So that ate up most of my day because I had to field phone calls while he was working on his applications since he thinks you can't just let the phone ring, ever, and his friends call over and over and over. We just got a call from Wal-mart and he has an apppointment to talk to someone at 9pm tomorrow so they're probably considering him for night stocking. I sure hope he gets hired. On top of that, my computer is acting worse and worse all the time. It was fine till I had to install all that software when I got at&t high-speed internet. It has slowed my computer down big-time and sometimes I just have to reboot because it locks up so often. Last night I did a Norton scan, which didn't find anything, then I did an AVG scan which found 122 things to fix. Unfortunately, my computer is not working much better after all that, so I will probably do a defrag today and see what else I can do. This morning I worked outside in the mud trying to get a little further in the iris bed and now it's hot. I'm used to working in an air-conditioned office so I come inside when it gets hot, too. I'm so sad to hear about the kitten. It sounds like its mother was probably dumped off sometime previously and has fended for herself after having learned not to trust people. She will teach that to her kits, if they survive in the wild. The kits can be tamed, but the mother is another story. And do watch that bite. I was bitten by a neighbor's Siamese. He liked to hang out on our front porch and I would always pet him. One day while I was petting him he just sunk one of his fangs into my hand, just below my middle and index fingers. Before I could get in to see the doctor, I had a lump on my hand the size of half a golf-ball and there was a red streak going up my arm. The neighbors denied he was their cat and later on said they "gave him to friends who lived in the country". You can bet your bottom dollar that's a nice way of saying they "carried him off". Jerks. GM, I have plans to clean things out this winter and have a big sale next spring. The sale we had this spring was extra plants and things from the attic. It's really nice to have the attic cleaned out, but the rest of the house needs it badly. Sometimes it's good to whine. Hugs to both of you.

Kathy, a very different rose than Tuscan Sun. TS has loads of petals, is more heat sensitive and fades quicker, takes longer between flushes--but this last growth spurt and round of blooms is amazing. Tuscan Sun has more vibrant early-bloom colors, red orange tan, fades to a beautiful pale shade of salmon white that can stay on and look good. Much smaller petal number, though. There is something to be said for both of them, really. Kathy

I too, have a tiny one that I brought in July last year so I am learning about their growing habits still. I am not quite sure what you mean by "it's growing crooked!". Not just Gardenia but any plant will grow according to it's natural growth habit when an ideal growing environment is provided. Does the plant receive light from above? Maybe it just wants to sprawl toward the light source. Look at mine. It did absolutely nothing then just exploded within the last month or so. I do need to reconsider it's culturing conditions!