Ingrid I'm so happy that 'Jessica' is beginning to step up to the plate! She has always been a lovely rose in PDX, and I'll be very curious to learn the extent of her suitable environments. Your garden has become quite the backyard laboratory. I hope the rose breeders are paying attention. (Are you reading this, rose breeders?) I predict your culling of the herd may lead to the creation of some really durable and beautiful cultivars. In my eyes, your garden is a little slice of Provence--hot, arid, rocky, fragrant, and filled with the watercolored hues of roses and other flowers which are tough but have a delicate charm. When I think of the bucolic south of France, I always think of agriculture, antiques, and lace curtains. Your roses remind me of strong and beautiful 19th century farm wives who rose at sunup, milked the cows, pitched the hay, baked the bread, and repaired the tractor all while clothed in quaint, colorful fabrics. When they retired, they raised their windows to the cooling night air and handwoven lace danced like petals on the breeze. Who says you can't be sweet, pink, fluffy, fragrant and tenacious? Thrive, Ingrid's roses! Does lavender like your climate? Do you like lavender? I keep envisioning lavender on your hillside. More of my France colored glasses, I suspect. I've tried to grow Lavandula 'Goodwin Creek Grey' several times to no avail. Sigh. Gosh, this turned into quite a prolonged short reply. I was just going to jot down something like "sending thoughts for 'Jessica' to grow 3 more inches tomorrow"! I guess I got carried away to Europe. Carol This post was edited by PortlandMysteryRose on Thu, Jun 20, 13 at 5:28

Kevin, your garden is looking great! I think a good harvest is coming up your way, gardening is like playing music, the more you played the better you get. The plants that I thought will be a problem with the hurricane they were fine and I lost others instead that were well established, overall the garden survived the weather. The tomatoes took a beating with the wind more the potato leaf varieties but they kept all the fruit. My banana with a fruiting branch was not so lucky and went to the floor, I can at least use the bananas because they were almost ready anyway. Lost the plumeria that was next to the tomatoes and here are some and how they look today that is sunny. Silvia

Late December of 2017 through early January of 2018 saw record cold in Maine and other parts of the Norteast. The nearest National Weather Service station is about 5 miles away and their records are as follows: 12-25 +3, 12-26 0, 12-27 -9, 12-28 -4, 12-29 -16, 12-30 -16, 12-31 -13, 1-1 -18, 1-2 -11, 1-3 -8, 1-4 +1, 1-5 0. With temperatures like these lasting for an extended period, I anticipated heavy losses, especially among the species. I was happily mistaken. Among the big leaf species, fictolacteum was the most severely damaged but is currently putting out new growth. Sutchuense and calophytum - both between 3 and 4 feet tall - were not at all damaged. Neither was asterochnum although this smaller plant was beneath a good depth of snow. All of these were protected with teepee style frameworks covered with landscape fabric. This is necessary even in mild winters to protect the large leaves from wind damage. Snow depth during this period was 10 to 12 inches, so the above the snow line growth was fully exposed to the cold. Other species, some with wind barriers and some without, that came through the winter with no or minimal damage included insigne, bathyphyllum, pseudochrysanthum, adenopodum, adenogynum, roxieanum v. orenestes, balfourianum, paradoxum, taliense, russatum, wasonii, souliei I don't really have any ready explanation for how species rated as hardy to 0 or -10 withstood prolonged temperatures far below that range. Certainly the snow cover, even though it was not deep enough to cover all the foliage of most of them, was a factor. The fact that this cold arrived relatively late after plants were fully dormant is another factor. Last summer was extremely dry and October was exceptionally warm. This meant that watering and natural rainfall continued later than usual. The hardiness ratings may be overly conservative although it's never wise to generalize after a single experience. There were fatalities: thayerianum, pseudotrichum and fortunei (which has never done well for me). Hybrids mirrored my experience with the species. The ultra hardy David Leach ones did fine as expected. Others, like several of the Hachmann hybrids, were fully exposed to the cold but suffered very little damage and bloomed well. Low growing hybrids, many of them originating in the UK or on West coast, were fine beneath the snow.

The structure was designed to be permanent and the main timbers were 3" x 2" and 3" x 3". I had realised that if we got any significant snow there would be a problem and had planned to take the net off for winter. It was one of those jobs I just never got around to and paid the price. The new set up has the net on runners, I can unclip it and push it back for winter. Just got to make sure I do it in time. Last winter was the worst in the seven years I've been here. I was snowed in for a full week three times. Normally it snows an inch or so hangs around for a couple of days and then quickly melts. This time drifts on our track were so deep that even though surrounding areas had melted I still had to dig the track to get the car out. It has rained twice in the last fortnight and my water butts are full again. Unfortunately it will take a lot more to restore ground water levels. The spring is still running although down to a very slow trickle. It will be some time and need a lot more rain before I can relax my restrictions on its use. Dave