I'm no expert on this, but I found after that BIG EASTER FREEZE a couple years ago that I didn't always prune back as much as I should have. It's easy to pick out black/brown canes that need trimming, but some of the other canes were still greenish and didn't look too bad, so I left some of them. They did put out new leaves and then flowers, but they weren't really thriving. I thought they'd improve with time--but they didn't. A year later when I started pruning them, I realized the center of the cane was not very healthy--brown center, not glistening white like sound, healthy canes. So belatedly I ruthlessly trimmed back those so-so canes until I found clear white centers--nearly ground-level in several cases. Those canes have since put out good healthy growth or the severe pruning stimulated the growth of brand-new canes that are super healthy. Bigger healthier blooms as a result. If you are thinking of getting rid of so-so performers that you suspect may have been damaged back in the BIG FREEZE, you might try first ruthlessly pruning all canes back to clear white centers, even if it means pruning down near ground level. Then see if new canes are produced (add appropriate food and water, of course). You may find you have a new healthy plant waiting down there ready to emerge and blossom with a little help from you. Just a possibility--no promises. Kate

(I have also posted this in the tree forum) Two years ago we had a very late freeze after all of my trees, except for the beech, had leafed out and last year we had the 17 year cicadas. To my surprise the cicadas seem to have done far more damage to some of my trees than the late frost did. All of my 4-8' japanese maples, kousa dog woods, stewartia and american holly have significant damage with many losing over 50 percent of their branches. I have a 7' x 7' 'Gold Star' kousa that is almost dead and several others that will look terrible for years to come. It seems like the cicadas damage the plant's smaller branches enough to cause desiccation of the branch. Because the cicadas like pencil size wood only smaller trees seem to have been effected to this degree. Very small younger plants and plants with thin banches such as acer palmatum Murasaki Kiyohime were also unharmed by the cicadas. Did any one else see a similar pattern of damage? David

I concur that if you're getting down to exposing the lath (unwillingly or not), then remove the lath before you put the drywall up attached to the studs. But before you jump either way, I'd price out re-plastering over the exposed lath. Sheetrock is less expensive than plaster, but not dirt cheap, and the difference might not be as much as you think. After you've taken off the lath, you'd have to re-lath (or hang some other underlayment) then plaster. Plaster can be put on old lath, but it needs some extra attention vs. new lath, which would likely be metal anyway. One advantage of getting the lath off is that you could insulate between the studs, add vapor barrier, etc. Something to think about. It's preferable to do the whole house, but with older buildings, it's worth doing any exposed cavity, as you come upon them. You should be able to work around the point where the cupboards join the new surface (whatever it turns out to bes). If all else fails a little run of cove molding can be added at the join to tidy up any gaping holes. If you're going to heap curses on the PO, better make sure it's all the PO's. No one could have put up 14 layers of wallpaper in one ownership. In the Old House Journal mag, what you're encountering was dubbed "The Mushroom Factor". It's the well-known (at least to old house owners) process whereby a relatively straightforward plan, exposes issues which must be solved first, but before they can be dealt with another problem is revealed, which requires even more extensive preparation, leading to exasperating encounters with local building officials, which results in new materials being needed, which when located after great trouble turn out both more expensive than expected and backordered for 17 months; attempts to find the materials on the Internet show them to be available at a warehouse six states away, which for some reason is closed when you get there with the rented truck despite the fact that you had an appointment. Fortunately on the way home you see an auction where you are the only bidder on enough repair parts for six other projects on your old house that you were going to start as soon as you finished the first one, which of course is still torn apart. Anyway, by this time it will be after Thanksgiving and you'll be out there desperately trying to caulk the largest openings before really cold weather sets in and keeps you from doing anything more until it gets warm again and you can try (one more time) to tackle the original job. The only good news is that the first building inspector has retired and the delivery service appears one day in the driveway with the parts which turned out to have only been backordered for 13 months -though a check of the invoice reveals they have now doubled in price- and you can't figure out what you wanted them for since by now you're trying to work on the project that you bought all the stuff at the auction for, but only a day or two in, you've discovered that the PO, made a connection using bobbypins and playdough, which has held up pretty well, considering, but needs to brought up to date to keep the new code official sweet-tempered. Now, it's clear that the work you did the previous year (before you encountered the Mushroom Factor) will have to be torn out, since the only way to do it right means you have to open it up from the other side. So, on the next lovely Spring weekend (when every normal person is going antiquing or playing tennis) it seems like it will a quick job except, that as soon as you've pulled the first board, you discover .......! Molly

Indeed, it has been a 'different' year. Here too. I thought I was going to have a problem recently with temps plunging in April. Normally, over here, we do not see 30s as a low in April and we had lows in the upper 30s announced last weekend. Got nippy too during the day and had to get my winter coat too! Now I looked at the weekend forecast and we have another spell in the upper 30s again. I was originally afraid that these lows may get changed lower and lower as the days approached... until the forecast read "below freezing". Ugh. That would have been a problem as I already removed the winter protection, the plants leafed out a long time ago and half of the hydrangeas are in the broccoli stage. If the temps stay in the upper 30s, I dodged a bullet! Hope you still have bloomage!