Yup. I love 'em too, but unfortunately they never again look as good as the day you buy them. Instead of beating your head against the wall, try some plants that have a similar FORM. I have grown all of the following successfully here in central Mississippi. penstemon tenuis (Gulf Coast penstemon. Bloooms spring and fall, and is perennial. Reseeds too. Totally carefree.) Mystic Spires Salvia (blooms continually from spring all the way to winter) Galtonia (a bulb and is lovely if you can provide it dry winter conditions) LARKSPUR (it's in the family. Reseeds when happy. Expires when summer heat moves in.) Snapdragons: same as larkspur, but more colors. Sadly, aconitum don't do well in the deep south, only in the upper and mid south.

Tomorrow you crack me up! I try to be honest if I don't like something but try to put it gently. "I totally do not like ___ but it does look nice how you did it." Sometimes I totally disagree with the comments and wonder if everyone smoked a little something while looking at the pics. But then I wonder if I am missing something myself and not seeing what everyone else sees. I think when someone is really wanting an opinion we should give it. Johnmari- you crack me up too, but I agree with you too. Sometimes I see a post like you mention. I have had it happen to me too. Not to call anyone on anything but, I needed help with furniture placement in livingroom last year- actually still need help with that. I mentioned nothing in room was staying at all. There is a picture on wall that was simply put there to get it off floor and nail is already there so we used it. I think a few commented on the picture not being in right place on wall and I think there was a question about the sofa that was there too. I just had to laugh and know that no harm was intended and it is really easy to not read the post carefully. That is why I try to see what poster is asking before I comment. I just saw my parents new retirement modular home. It was built in 1988 and wallpaper is in many rooms. The kitchen area has this beige paper with "stripes" of fruit and ribbon going downwards. Some "stripes" are wider than others. It is actually quite nice enough to live with until mom finds what she likes. But she hates it. The masterbed has a floral paper that although it is floral it is not too old ladyish or 80's. They bought a really nice bedroom set and again, looks fine until she changes it. Mom and Dad actually like it. I agreed. Then comes the master bath. Oh my! I swear it reminds me of the Carnation Icecream shop at disneyland for some reason. The cabinets, tub and toilet are light creme and look nice. There is carving on cabinet doors with pink painted inside. The wallpaper is pink stripes. Within some stripes are various pink flowers. It might be somewhat foiled paper. The main pink is standard carnation pink. I think what makes me think of Dland is that I can imagine white iron chairs with that heart shape on them being in the room. It is almost super victorian creepy. My dd and I both immediatly told dad that he lost his mancard the moment he said he liked it. They both actually like it and don't want to change it. I think they need intervention, seriously. We all laughed but dd and I spared them not. We were totally honest with them and at least Mom and Dad laughed with us. I seriously want to sneak in when they are not home. I think I have another reason to survive cancer. I need to survive to change that paper.

The more I read on here, the better I feel. I grew up with no grandparents, they all died when I was little. My kids grew up with only one set of grandparents because my dad and their dad's dad were far away and didn't care too much. My mom and dad lived about 4 hours away. We saw her every Christmas and sometimes in between when I could afford to go visit her. So my kids didn't get to see them too often, but we had good times when we did. Did it bother me that my mom didn't come to visit me? Yes, but I never cut her off for not being the perfect mom or grandma. But I vowed I would do better. I have 4 daughters, and when I got my first granddaughter, I still had a 5 year old and 11 yr old, and 17 yr old. By the time I had my next two grandsons, I still had two daughters at home. It was like having more kids, especially since they all lived with me when in financial crisis, when going through a divorce, etc. I remember my daughter telling me it was my job as a grandmother to babysit the kids and I should want to, and besides, I had nothing else to do anyways. She was dating online at the time and I finally said no more. I would babysit for her, but not every weekend while she was going out with a new guy each time. Now back to the present where she has cut me out of her life......when she was throwing all the stuff about me being selfish and not spending enough time with the boys, I asked her why she never invited me over her house to visit.... bbq or play cards (I had mentioned it to her more than once) and her only excuse was she couldn't afford to bbq because her bf wasn't working enough. When I asked her why she never came over when I invited her and boys to go swimming.....well, she ignored that one. Two weeks before she posted about me on fb, I finally got them to come swimming, but she brought this new friend of hers and her kids with her and spent the whole time talking to her, so I think that was the only reason she finally came. One week before she posted the fb post about me, I had emailed her from work asking if they wanted to go to a baseball game cause my work offered me free tickets. I thought the boys would enjoy it. She refused. Two days before the post, I had emailed her because I knew her birthday was coming up and I offered to babysit the boys (including her bf's son) so they could go do something special and she said no thank you and don't ask why. I thought at the time it was cause she was mad at her bf. And then I get the post about being such a bad grandma-so I truly was it total shock. I had to stay home two day from work I was so upset. I just don't understand.....if it all really mattered to her, why doesn't she want to make it work when it's offered? Instead she says no, I don't care, I don't miss you, the boys are losing much, and I'm embarrassed to call any of you family. That was also even after two of her sisters said sorry for not visiting more (even though they live far away)

I had four outdated bathrooms plus an outdated kitchen. Here's what I did which really paid off. I shopped for floor model vanities. I looked at Lowes, HD, but found a vanity in an upscale bath/kitchen store. They had a beautiful, white vanity which was slightly damaged and were removing it from the store. I offered cash and got it for less than anything I saw in HD/Lowes. Its easier to bargain with private stores. I started looking at stone yards and found two marble tops which were cut but rejected by the buyer. One had a flaw in one corner, the other had a small chip. They sold it to me for a bargain and included the sinks in white. I bargained hard and won. What I learned, stone yards have tops which get rejected by a buyer. They are stuck with cut tops and will sell them cheap to get rid of them. I almost froze to death, running around stone yards in January, but it paid off. I really got bargain prices. It was worth the frost-bite! These two vanities looked like a million bucks. Again, I offered cash. I bought light fixtures in Target and HD for all four bathrooms. I kept the old vanity in one bathroom but replaced the hardware and top. I bought an inexpensive piece of granite at HD with the sink and put it on top. Replaced all the faucets on all sinks from HD/Lowes. I did not remove the floor tile from any of the bathrooms. The worse bathroom and the oldest (50's) was in our basement family room. It was green tile everywhere. All the fixtures were green. I put the bargain vanity with marble top there. I left the green tile but replaced the toilet (HD) with a white one. Had the green tub refinished, white (turned out great). Pulled off the old shower doors and hung a white shower curtain. Kitchen, I did replace the stove/oven and refrigerator. I left the old dishwasher. Cleaned the tile and dug out the old grout (mess). Changed the light fixtures. Changed the hardware on the old oak cabinets. Painted the walls. What I wanted, was to make the house look like the buyers could live with it until they decided to make changes. I didn't want it to appear as if changes had to be made immediately. I wanted it 'move-in.' It did sell in a terrible market and we were pleased with the price we got. I believe the changes helped sell the house faster and made it harder for the buyers to ask for a low-ball price. Jane