Well, I suppose that could be...it doesn't look like it. I hope not! The petals are starting to spread, today...ever so slowly, still! They look healthy, just slow. I wonder why that is, though? And if anyone else had similiar experience with this plant

Although you will want to start putting stuff away, resist the temptation until all work that could cause dust, including drilling for knobs and pulls, is done. (Not sure if you have a walk in pantry or pantry cab.) You will have a plywood topped cabinet pretty soon, so you can leave stuff on top of the cabs if you want, but again, beware of the dust. Expect that the installer will work for 5 full days, or more, to do it right -- make sure that everything fits nicely, cut trim & filler pieces as needed on site, etc. Expect to feel huge joy & relief because it means you are more than halfway through the project! Expect to post pix so we can check it out :)

Exactly what Aqua Eyes and Jim say. I've had 3 Belinda's Dream roses. One grew in a large pot in full sun on its own roots and produced a ton of wonderful blooms for about three years and then slowly died. Another currently grows on Fortuniana in a not so great location and gets some BS, has grown very tall and produces much larger, albeit much less blooms yet it keeps on trucking. The third grew on its own roots in the ground and failed miserably. I have recently just purchased another one to grow in a pot again as that was the way it provided the most blooms. I'll be keeping my grafted one and wishing it was in a better location, but I wont risk moving it as Fortuniana doesn't like being moved. I'm betting it will also get better and better with age as it has thus far. So many variables, many different results. All the same plant. Another Earthkind rose that I grow (right next to my BD) is Duchess De Brabant. Does she get BS? Yes. Does she get PM? Yes, but does she shake it off and bloom continually? YES! Another one I grow is Knockout (is KO still considered and Earthkind?) I grow both pink and red double. Do they get BS? Perhaps not, but they get all sorts of other stuff that makes them unattractive certain times of the year. They do however bloom and keep growing. Currently both are ridiculously happy and on their 3rd year in pots and are producing some of the best flowers (for KO) I've seen so far. I recently purchased SPICE rose as I've still been impressed with the designated Earthkind roses. I do not expect them to NEVER get BS, I do however expect them to brush it off and continue to grow and bloom. I only wish more varieties could be designated to the program. For example, my most disease resistant and best performing rose is Livin' Easy. It has out performed every single rose in my garden (over 150 varieties) and is not a designated EK, even thought it out performs all my other Earth Kind roses. Mine is grafted on Fortuniana and is spectacular in mid summer. Here she was last July. She's about 5 feet tall.

Lynn just a big hug going out to you from me here in MI. I lost my mother to a fall/head injury a little over a year ago. It was much harder on my dad, who like Lukkiirish's mom, said goodbye to her after having lunch together as they both went off to run errands, and in an instant his whole world turned upside down. He returned home to find her comatose from a fall and she died a few hours later. He never imagined such a thing could happen, and he blames himself for not going shopping with her or coming home earlier, even though neither one of them was doing anything out of the ordinary. Dad has been having a very hard time because he feels like he needs to "snap out of it" and "get over it" and he just can't. He is sad and grieving every day. So am I, sort of. It does come in waves. The human mind has to adapt and change with grief. If you are going to continue to function, you have to make peace with the loss and adapt to it. It's like a mind training program, or rehabilitation, or a wound healing. You have your good days and bad days. It's a process. Some days the memories flood in, that's just how the mind works, things trigger it. But I think everyone should realize that there is no shame or harm or problem with grieving and crying and just being sad. If you try and suppress it you will be like my dad who is suffering from all sorts of mental problems. Crying and feeling sad are the natural responses. You can't will them away. You have to move through them. What helps me is that I have wonderful and supportive friends and family It helps me to do things in honor of my mom. It helps me to be with folks who also knew and loved her and missed her. But I cry all the time and I have just learned to accept it. But I try and mentally engage myself with doing something positive. I told my dad it is OK to feel very sad. But no amount of crying or sadness will change the situation, so doing things like staying in bed or not eating or whatever, will not make it better. Just trying to get through each day, and do what you can. Just remember that you are in a big boat. The price of loving. The wellspring of compassion. But folks who tell you to be brave or not be sad, well they don't know what they are talking about!! Much better to melt down occasionally than bottle it all up. I know lots of people who go through depression and major mental readjustments after the death of a parent. That's the way of the world, that is our lot! I always advise folks to be kind and gentle with themselves, compassionate, and not try and be superhuman robots! Luckily my mom died during a slow time at work and I had a supportive boss and co-workers. I'm still not on my A-game, so I think you should again, be easy on yourself and not over schedule or try and take on some huge new project or direction at work. Scale back a bit if you can. Your mojo will come and go to, and sometimes mine comes back with a vengeance and other times I am totally feeling blah. Sine mom has died, I have become much more of a "one day at a time" and "one moment at a time" kind of person than I was before.