"I hope we can still get that cool rainbow look but I'm really just happy I'm getting any growth at all right now." Not in Virginia Beach but it's impressive, surprising even, that it managed to return from the roots. Where did your gift giver get it - or did you ask? I think they are pretty rare in commerce. "We have a lot of crepe mertles here that people cut back and the tree regrows its branches back, would a eucalyptus do the same?" It would but it's a bad idea, especially for crape myrtle. Google "crape murder" - I believe there used to be a website.

With respect to your bolivians: I had the same problem with my white habs last year (puckered leaves). The leaves remained puckered throughout the summer. I sprayed fungicide on it, and i'm not sure it did much. The bad news is that the leaves did not look pretty. The good news is that it still produced hundreds of white habs. I'm thinking its not life-threatening.

SHhhhh, Our weather here has been on the cool side, and many of my plants are just coming out of dormancy. MR is just waking up, no leaves yet, but I can see the tips glistening, and a very new inflo crowning on one of the tips. No new flowers to share yet, but I will post in a few months. Here are a few from last year. Hard to believe the last one is MR, but with heat and humidity, she changes so much. Do you see this in Florida, too? I got MR from Matthew as well. Like Laura said, he is wonderful to do business with.

Insect damage could be grasshoppers (on any growth), cabbage loopers/worms (on any growth), slugs/snails (especially on the new growth) or something I haven't encountered depending on where you live. Since you're noticing new leaf damage in the morning, I'd suspect snails and/or slugs, which are easily taken care of by dropping Sluggo on the surface of your potting mix around the plant. Cabbage loopers, either checking for eggs constantly, spraying BT or putting your tulle back on. Tulle would also work for grasshoppers as long as the leaves aren't touching it (here they'll chew right through tulle if the leaves touch it for some reason, and leave it alone if they don't). No idea on the bumpy orange areas, could just be environmental damage but again I'm not sure. You can still eat damaged leaves, just not pretty but still ok to eat after washing well. Or just cut off the damaged parts and eat around them if it grosses you out.