Thanks. Good ol Iphone. I was shocked! The light was just right I guess. I took photos of Orange Mother's Day and Sexy Rexy and there was just no definition at all. I'm crazy about this rose. Can you see the veining at all? I have Honeysweet and Frontier Twirl coming from Roses Unlimited. They will hang out with Belinda and some white polyanthas. Susan

And, fwiw, this is a good pic to discuss editing on. The image above was edited some, and needs way more than I could get to approach the real sunset. While a photographer can take a mundane "scene" and jazz it up with editing, the editing to the one above is really about compensating for not capturing the real scene. Mostly as a matter of contrast, I suppose, I didn't get the real image of the great brilliant "silver lining of the thunderhead and the halloween orange of the lower strata. Also add in the dark purple of the passing storm. I can discuss this freely because I didn't have time to even try to take great photo. Getting all those things, in my experience, is hard enough even if you have the time to try. So, editing, when it imparts something that isn't there, can be a little , what,inaccurate? often editing helps but still doesn't make up for the difference in the image and the scene. Photographic skill, ha, and equipment. Personally, I have no reservations in trying to edit to make up for any lack of skill or luck in getting across what I was seeing/taking. I can understand if some purists see that differently. And, here is another one from last night where the bright part (thunderhead) contrast gets blown out, but the darker parts of the pic down lower have better detail. In the big picture, pardon the pun, its hard to get pure white and halloween orange in the same picture. The eye can see it, but getting the camera to capture that great of contrast, for me at least, is hard.

What a lovely begining and ending to a day-topped off with Olivia. 4 yrs old wow I remember you posting pic when she was wee little...Can you do a before and after of her? Haven't checked any old posts and not sure how far they go back in the pages but I'm going to have a look! Thanks for sharing a lovely day!

The burned leaf tips and margins arte usually attributable to a drought response, triggered by over-watering, a high level of salts in the soil, and sometimes but not often - under-watering. The 2/3:1/3 you mentioned doesn't hold as much water as it would if you'd left the perlite out, but the ht of the perched water is the same with or w/o the perlite. This means there is a soggy layer of soil (100% saturated) at the bottom of the pot after you water. If you're watering when only the top inch or so is saturated, you're watering while the bottom of the pot is still saturated. This kills roots and causes lots of physiological problems related to drought stress and impaired metabolism- so the first thing I'd concentrate on is root health. Put directly, you simply can't have a healthy plant unless it's on a healthy root system. Wilting is an indication of drought stress, and not a particularly desirable condition for the plant. Still, it can be employed as a useful gauge re how long the plant CAN go between waterings. The occasional slight wilt is a stress, but it's preferable to the extreme stress of a forever soggy rhizosphere. Note the day you water and the day you see wilt. Count the days & start watering a day or two before you expect the plant to wilt. A sharpened wood dowel or skewer stuck deep into the pot is an excellent way to test for how wet/dry your plants are, too. BTW - not sure where you live, but when temps allow, your plant would much rather be outdoors. Al