Oh dear, so sorry it's taken me SEVEN YEARS to reply to your comments! I'm back with another update. My beloved dogwood is still with me - as Mike noted, chopping it down did not get rid of it. Though, it did take a couple of years before new shoots started emerging. By that point, I was so impressed with its resilience that I let it do its thing. I've let it grow on and off every other year or so since then. Last summer, the shrub grew to a glorious large size and the aphid swarm was correspondingly large (black, winged aphids). It was the worst I've ever seen it - they were attacking even the mature leaves. I had to prune the shrub down to the ground as it was becoming a sticky, aphid-covered mess. To answer some of your questions: - I do not fertilize nor water this shrub at all, yet it grows lush and healthy all on its own - I live in the northern part of Zone 8 (British Columbia, Canada) - Dogwoods are native to this part of the world so it's well suited and thrives here - I've tried a ladybug release in the past, but they didn't stay on the shrub - they were pretty much all gone by the end of the day! - I haven't tried the other beneficial insects yet - willing to consider them but only have a small budget - money's very tight right now - Sorry, I didn't snap any photos of the infestations... but I will try to remember to next time it happens I'm quite sure I'm giving this dogwood the care it should get... so I'm absolutely confounded by the aphid infestations!! Any other suggestions?

Kailua - the only fertilizer I use is a small handful of 15-15-15 every 4-6 weeks although I did give it a dosing of liquid kelp at 1 tbsp per gallon a couple of times. I sometimes wonder if that is maybe too much. Lazybonz - this is another case of looks good, doesn't really smell. JJ's website describes it as having a fragrance I believe, but my nose can't detect it.

Lighting is light room no sunlight. heat comes from the top of one of my light buckets where the plant sits on top of a large peak hole. After about a week i'll place the plant inside one of my light buckets. It usually takes 3 or more weeks before the potato roots. Hopefully the kumquat will sprout roots. I will break any shoots from the tomato off. Steve

Go for it Kelley! It feels like the most exciting project you can do since you're not hassling to get $80 budwood. Plus you get to savor the fruit attached to the stems! 1 out of 3 of my twigs is dying and it had the least nodes. The other 2 twigs were also longer and one of them is multi-branched. They also had larger green swollen buds and buds that were already pushing out unlike the dying twig so definitely look for these types of traits when you get yours!