Wow, guys, you've bowled me over! Truly, Jim, I appreciate your compliment on my humility but I can't lay claim to it, for sure. Reading all your posts, I see the gist you all got was MY metamorphosis (which, of course, is there, but I didn't see it.) I was trying (maybe ineffectually) to describe a garden with some maturity under its belt, a garden that stood up last month, looked me in the face and asserted "I'm a big kid now!" It's like watching - and being jolted by - your kids growing up, stage by stage, after being convinced they will never survive and at each new level of growth being astonished at my own lack of awareness of what the future would bring. I don't have children so don't have those experiences anywhere but in this garden. It really feels like all my fretting and stressing were needless. The roses were going to do their thing no matter what I did, as far as worry goes. The biggest lesson here is "don't sweat it!" I feel the tiniest bit of mellowness coming on. Me? Mellow? Hardly, before now. In the original post I had started to write that I was concerned that the highly anticipated spring flush might not meet expectations, but I deleted it. That definitely has the ring of mellow to it! Melissa, what a wonderful thought...that I deserve these beautiful plants. How can that be? Anita, *** time for them to meet their shovel *** What a laugh you gave me!! Re Cels Multiflori, I had seen (I think on the Vintage site) that it is a very small rose, so you plan accordingly and what happens? It's moving time. I had also planted a Salvia next to NN, and the first time I cut the Salvia back I saw I only had half a rose bush. So the Salvia is the one that moved in my garden. Jim, an apt student? I hope! Patricia, I like your designation and I humbly accept the award. And you're right; stuff is happening whether it's observable or not. Florence, I'm hooked alright. 67 roses on .17 acre! DH is far too tolerant of my mania! Mendocino rose, I loved the way you put it. *** your growth along with your garden *** Kinda gave me goose bumps. Leslie, yes, yes, do learn from my mistakes - and from others'. Even though no one can be perfect AND inexperienced. It's a very good idea to apply what you learn - makes life MUCH easier. Oh, my back, when I move Belinda's Dream! I keep putting it off. Had the thought yesterday "I'll wait till Louie blooms then I can wack off the side that's blocking my access to BD." Sounds reasonable. Jeri, wouldn't it be great to see my garden 20 years hence. Boy, will I be a geezer! Had another thought the other day. I've basically made our property unsaleable with all these roses. They say there's a buyer for every house, but I don't know... Thankfully, this is our "last house" so I won't face that issue. We'll let DH's kids handle it! Sherry

Next to our place is a vacant acre lot where the house was removed about 10 years ago. The garlic from their garden kept spreading over those years. There was a patch about 30x70 feet and other clumps here and there. A neighbor who was related to those people told me that the garlic was German Red. I spent some time investigating. There were 9 inch or so balls of bulbs mixed in with rounds. The bulbs were small, maybe an inch in diameter. I planted some of the cloves and got bulbs as large as 3 inches in diameter the first year. I would guess that these wilded plants will tend to grow for many years without problem because the spreading is accomplished by the bulblets bending the scapes over so that the plant can move a foot or two each year. Garlic plants grown from bulbils grow plants that are said to clear any plant diseases that would continue in plants grown from cloves. The 30x70 foot clump was mostly to the north of a huge shade tree, with a 3 foot in diameter trunk. In the spring into early summer the only thing growing there was the garlic but then the weeds would crowd out the garlic. When the scapes were on the plants the clump was still mainly weed free. I'm guessing that the shade helped the garlic overcome weed pressure.

Even (if) the porcelain was completely bad, it is impossible for it to be cleanly dissolved/vaporized. The missing portion looks pretty clean to me. I don't know where it went or if it went or if is this is somehow a reaction which makes the metal appear to be bare. The only thing I'm sure of is that it doesn't look normal and I am not going to cook in it. As a matter of fact, non-stick surface can take temperature higher than 450 F and even at much higher temperature you still cannot cleanly remove the coating. I don't think that it did reach a very high temperature. I just reconfirmed with hubby that the pizza wasn't hot yet. I am concerned that whatever the material inside the cookwell was, you did make one meal in it and there might be health issue to consider. I believe that the matter needs to be escalated higher with Nesco until you get a satisfactory answer, not just with the Service Department. Do not throw away the defective cookwell. I believe Nesco may have a serious product liability issue here. The thought crossed my mind on the "health" issue. The cookwell looked normal after the first use and washing. It was during the second use, when he lifted the lid that it was found like this. Hubby is an engineer, and he could not have been more surprised. You may want to check the heatwell operation. Typically a device like this uses bi-metal thermostat or some mechanical / capillary device to control temperature. None of them are highly accurate or reliable. Looking at your picture, it is possible that the thermostat had failed and the interior temperature had risen to much higher range. If that's the case, it can damage your replacement cookwell just the same. Because the pizza wasn't hot yet, I don't think it overheated. I'll be watching the new cookwell closely for the first several uses. I find it strange that Nesco didn't want it returned if they were truly puzzled. I'm sure puzzled! If the porcelain broke off the underlying metal, you'd find pieces of it. It certainly didn't vaporize. Either Nesco already knows what's going on, or they just have a low-level person instructed to replace without argument anything people are unhappy with. Maybe you should write a letter to someone higher up. 
Manufacturers often use different plants in China from one year to the next, and quality can change drastically. I don't know if Nesco was puzzled, they did want photos emailed, which is why I had one available to post here. The person I talked to had discussed it with a manager. They actually suggested that we try to clean the "stains" with Soft Scrub. We explained that what they were seeing is not "stains" but rather missing finish. We did try it though, with no change in the appearance at all. I suspect our cookwell isn't the only one, something happened somewhere in the manufacturing process. I did ask them whether the cookwells are produced in China, which they denied. The quality coming out of China is all over the place, even on the same product. That is one reason we cook for our dogs to begin with, which makes this whole issue somewhat ironic. athomesewing, what is the dark material in the pic above the bare metal? Is it the coating which covered the metal before the lower part disappeared? The dark area is the original finish. The best way to descibe it is that the cookwell "looks" to be the same color and material that the heatwell is made of. Do you have other porcelain coated cookware for comparison, or are you familiar with the appearance of it, from having seen it on enameled steel canners or spaghetti pots? In other words, how certain are you that the cookwell was actually porcelain on steel? Porcelain is a ceramic material and is very durable except for a propensity to chip. This "porcelain" is like the bottom half of a oven broiler pan, the type that is generally included with a range. I don't know if it's porcelain, however that is what Nesco calls it. Looks like the heatwell. Is it possible that someone switched with you? A joke maybe? LOL...No, however if someone had switched, I would still wonder what would have caused theirs to look like this?

I agree. The soil has likely broken down and compacted around the roots. The plant is not getting any water because the roots have died. When you repot, use at least 50/50 mix with perlite or grit with fresh soil, preferably a cactus and succulent soil. The soil around the jade looks like it is pulling away from the side. If that is the case it may have gotten too hard and will no longer absorb water. This happens with peat based soils. Try to remove all of it from the roots.