Hi Jim, Thank you for the detailed account of these two sweet plants. I have been to a talk about what triggers blooming, and it is mostly photo-periods. For some tropical plants and bulbs it could be the onset of dry season or wet season. One consensus is that there seems to be no "blooming hormone" so to speak, and a plant will bloom when it is mature and well-nourished. Since your fiddlewood is healthy and mature, maybe you can adjust your watering schedule to simulate habitat rain pattern. Many plants do bloom better when they are stressed a little bit. I am growing quite a few plants that are not hardy in my area. One Artabotrys is already over 6' tall and I wonder if I will be able to see my Cananga odorata seedling bloom before it gets too tall. I guess we just have to accept that these plants will only provide a shorter than normal period of enjoyment out of its native range, but certain plants can last quite some time. For example, I saw many Osmanthus fragrans f. aurantiacus in half-barrel containers with 4"-diameter trunks in gardens in Beijing. They must be at least 20 years old and they bloom reliably at very manageable sizes.

Brenda, the "Knucklehead" wine is a white zinfandel. How is it? I wouldn't know, I still haven't learned to like wine, LOL, but his son said it was pretty good. I haven't yet tasted it. Elery says I have my own "wine grading scale" with 1 being worst and 5 being best: 1. Gag, gasp, choke. 2. I wish I hadn't swallowed that but it was too icky to spit out. 3. That sucks. 4. That doesn't COMPLETELY suck. 5. Um.....it's OK. And so, you see, you'll have to take someone else's word for it. I'm still trying to get the taste of the Christmas merlot out of my mouth. My mother assured me it was "very good". I wanted to scrub my tongue with Lysol..... Annie

great options to think about! thank you! lisa and lyfia...i didn't know engineered wood could be refinished! thats why i don't like it (or didn't lol) because i thought it was a one shot wonder. i'm looking into the pros and cons of cork :) i used to have berber but dh hates it (goofball prejudice like mine for engineered wood) but that explaination actually kind of shows that aside from orientals...it;s about the only reasonable option for play. foam squares lol....we always put about 200 of them out on the cement out front for ds and the neighbor girl. i'm not sure i can face more inside lol! os...i'm in complete understanding on that carpet issue. i always have significant issues with new carpet myself. i'm going to have to research that option, because frankly, i've never seen anything like that in a carpet store. one reason i like the wood, verses carpet is frankly the cats. the little furballs are so much easier to deal with on wood than carpet! if we do carpets over a wood floor, they'll be high quality natural fiber carpets. the way the room is shaper, we could do a rectangle and a square and leave just a foot or so on the perimiter. oh and tile....lovely idea, but not so much used in alaska because of the earthquakes. we have more annually here than the balance of the US combined. we often have 5+ and at least one 6 per year as well as a 7 here or there. no one here uses tile in large expances because it crack so badly during the shaking. our place is worse because of the pilings (which are a good thing because they take most of the shock). :( which is too bad because i could have some fun doing wonderful tile down there. i'm off to research! i have to let the gc know we're making a change! i just don't know what to lol!!! i love this forum! i have lots of new ideas now :) its great to put millions of creative minds to work! i can't wait to start the remodel mockups for the rental and have ya'll vote on which walls to move lol

Are they planted close together ? New Dawn is a large, aggressively-growing rose, which could be hogging most of the available nutrients if they are planted close together.