Lynn T Don't worry, I have to admit I have bought a few super cheap body bag roses. Two are doing good (finally), two more heard about the shovel and decided to get busy, one is maybe in a bad spot and the last....well it vanished. Those were all bought when Mom said she wanted roses and I did not want to work on caring for them-I had all the rest of the yard to clear out. Mom ended up not caring for them much so now I have most of them in prime spots so I figured I had better do something with them. I also bought some cheap potted roses for places that were bare and I wanted something while the $$ roses grew up. And a couple are in places that if I had to have the plumber or some other work man, I would not hesitate to prune to just above the rootstock. One is about to be loaded with big pink scented blooms.

My plant does not seem to have any of the subtle striations of the image I posted from the internet, but that could very well be due to a lack of sufficient light while in the Big Box store. It had no access to decent light on the second shelf of a shelving unit. It seems solid green on the leaves. Now that I am looking at images of S. ehrenbergii samurai, I am astonished. Never knew of that variety. Mine could very well be that instead of pinguicula. Is the culture of S. ehrenbergii the same as S. pinguicula? I have it on a table about 2' from a can light aimed at it on one side and an eastern window about 5' away on the other side. Other sansevierias on the same table seem to be doing well, such as a golden hahnii and S. francissii.

RE the question of how to keep a container conifer over the winter, I bought a live Christmas tree this year - a contorted white pine - in a container. I brought it inside for just 48 hours so it froze, thawed and froze again. I had dug a hole and set aside the soil inside, but when I was ready to plant the ground was frozen solid. Called the nursery for advice and was told I'd probably already killed it, but the best thing now was to put it in the coldest but not freezing dark place I had until spring and hope for the best. It was the freeze thaw freeze that was the problem. It's in a barely heated studio now where I will lightly water it.. My fingers are crossed. I hope yours survives too, but I learned my lesson about the risk of buying conifers with intention of planting them in winter. Weather is too volatile. At least you got yours at a big box with a guarantee. I'm out of luck!

I don't particularly rely on a store to provide me with repair work except for the immediate delivery of a product. I have Bosch appliances and I would contact an authorized Bosch dealer in my area or KA. Similarly my Apple computers and other devices are serviced by Apple or Apple service people once they are out of warranty - I've bought them from numerous places including mail order back in 1991 when I bought my first Apple Performa :-). @Lizzie - Hi there! My kitchen is finally finished but construction continued around me until fairly recently as odd stuff would happen - my washer dryer was a bit too deep for the closet so that had to be reframed. My hood was the wrong size and so that delayed finishing kitchen for a while because they didn't want to install cabinets on either side until the hood was put in - and didn't want to finish the backsplash etc. etc. etc. I am still not completely finished as they have to come back for various items on the "punch" list but it's livable except for the boxes which are still in the living area as I was a pack rat and I am still slowly going through stuff - and I have furniture I can't use and nobody wants :-( Apologies for hijacking the thread by responding to Lizzie but here are photos of the kitchen and dining area. I am really happy with the way it turned out and spending time (SO MUCH TIME) on houzz asking questions and reading threads helped me so much in terms of getting the best result possible. I worked with a very knowledgable designer but thanks to houzz, there was stuff that I asked for which she had never heard of like my toe kick step stools. It truly is correct that having the luxury of living in a space gives one a better understanding of what doesn't work in the space and what would make it work better because almost everybody has certain constraints that impact the design of the kitchen. In my case, I was working with a small urban kitchen in a high rise - the kitchen is 8' x 10' so I needed to expand functional storage. @Lizzie - here are a few pictures of my finished kitchen. To the left of the cooktop I have a Bosch side opening wall oven with a microwave drawer below it and a VERY shallow tall cabinet with shelves. It is in front of a concrete support beam so it is about one can deep. This is the area behind my dining area. The tall cabinet to the left can be seen in the first photo. There is a door on the side and so the KA mixer and Cuisinart can just be slid out when I need it. The tall cabinet to the right is my broom closet. Excuse the mess on the counter as this was taken just when I moved in. This shows the tall cabinets in my dining area better in terms of the appliance storage and how it relates to the kitchen counters. I had the interiors painted blue but the shelves are clad with blue laminate and the sink cabinet is also clad in blue laminate for easier cleaning. This is the sink wall. The kitchen sink is disproportionately large (36" for the space) but because it's a ledge, it is super functional since the grad which you can see to the right of the sink gives me very functional "counter" space. I can store it on the bottom of the sink and I also got the cutting board. There is a sponge caddy to the extreme left which is a narrow removable shelf which is handy for sponges and other wet stuff. My KA refrigerator is on the right peeking through. It is counter depth but not integrated but I "cheated" the look by having my lower cabinets made slightly deeper than the standard 24"; having a panel on the left side and having the cabinet maker clad the sides that protrude with matching wood. With a counter depth, you need to have it protrude slightly so the hinges are clear of obstructions but since I had those parts clad in matching wood, it fools the eye. Not part of my kitchen ha ha but this is one half of the wall unit in my office/den area. Since I have an open concept space, it relates to the kitchen cabinetry in terms of color as well as having slight Art Deco style elements. This was my sad kitchen prior to the remodel. Again apologies for taking this thread in a direction completely unrelated to the original question.