Anne, it is a great rose, but I can't comment as meaningfully on its hardiness as I'd like just yet. So far it made it through its first Minnesota winter with protection and has bounced back pretty well from below ground, but somehow I was expecting it to be hardier than, say, 'Nastarana'. I guess it isn't necessarily true that china influence makes for a more tender rose than moschata influence does, unless time proves the mature Rosa moschata to be much tougher (which is possible). Ann, thank you, that's a great tip - I will have to try it (especially since Claritin causes me all kinds of problems and DC is a den of allergies; I never had them in Minnesota)! I had to take some opiate pain medication last year and noticed a greatly enhanced perception of pleasant fragrances... so I believe that might just do the trick. I'll try to seek out even bigger patches of multiflora next time, but I would say I've been around quite a bit at once... maybe I'm just not thinking on the right scale. Hundreds of plants might be quite a bit more than I've experienced so far!

Oh what an absolute shame! That's a few thousand dollars of palms lying on the ground!

Good luck. Probably the only state you could get someone to trade one to you from would be from Florida, and I think almost all palms from Florida are prohibited entry into your state due to the Lethal Yellowing quarantine. This was news to me, but apparently its true. It used to be that if a palm was seed grown and grown off the ground it could go, but not now. Times have changed apparently. Your best bet would be to let go of the money and buy one from a reputable dealer in Hawaii. Kapoho Palms has them in a one gallon size for $10, but I believe they have a $100 minimum order...maybe you could get a few pals together and go in on an order together to save money.

I think the main differences between the different wax treatments are the types of wax and oil used. The dry wax has carnauba wax (food/automotive/surfboard) which is harder than beeswax. The M Tex drywax uses walnut oil combined with the carnauba wax. The Dorado drywax also used carnauba wax from what I remember but it doesn't list the type of oil. Carnauba is food safe by the way. It comes from the palm tree and is used in tons of food products. You can even probably go to your local automotive store and buy 100% carnauba wax and make it yourself with walnut oil from the food store. It would cost about the same as the M Tex wax though so you may as well order it. I remember reading that the dry waxes do last longer than the beeswax based polishes but I do think it really depends on your particular stone. Some types of soapstone stay really dark for months to years with just mineral oil while others (like mine) fade quickly and require oil/waxing every 3 months. I use Bee's OIl (from Holland Bowl Mill) and it did really help with keeping the counters darker for longer, particularly in the beginning when they faded very quickly. Hopefully, someone will chime in who has actually used the carnauba wax based polishes.