I got my Wisley in mid April, before HD had a chance to kill it & send it back to the supplier instead of discounting it. I repotted it & put the 2 gallon pot into a hole I dug last Fall for another clem that I moved to a different place to keep my groups together. It wilted down but sprung back rather quickly. Making slow growth. One long stem with a bud at the end that hasn't gotten any bigger for several weeks, and one shorter stem. Is on the same 6 foot trellis with Vesuvius, Huldine, Pagoda & Reiman, so the sparceness is not so noticeable. Had to tie strings onto the top of the trellis to lead Vesuvius to a higher arbor on one side and trellisses on 2 other sides. But it was a 2 year old plant last Summer. I got my Rosemoor at my favorite clem nursery about a week later and it was doing fairly well until it wilted. Still hasn't shown any new growth. One older Jack has grown well & has lots of buds, but the newer one is slower. I broke off the flowering stem bringing it home from Lowes last Summer (couldn't resist the sale price) and repotted & dug in the ground last Fall. It was slow to come up & only has 2 stems & a few buds, but it will be ok. I got VDL as a 3 gallon pot size last Summer from HD & planted it directly in the ground last Fall. It has several stems & one bud is about to pop. It is planted next to the older Jack on a fence covered with American bittersweet & porcelain berry that leads onto an arch.The fence, originally a brass headboards, had to be built up to 6 foot a few years ago because the bittersweet is such a fast grower. The additions, miscellaneous brass shelving & fireplace screen is pretty ugly, but you don't see much of it anymore since the vines cover it pretty well. On the other side of the Jack is an Ascotensis that has been blooming about a week, then a Minuet that had a slow start, in a tub slightly closer to the road than the ones in the ground. Then a Jack Rubra that was also slow coming up but has a bud. At the end of the fence, where I put an arch over the gate to another headboard fence section, is another tub with a new Brocede from Silver Star, but it has wilted back to the ground & not yet re-emerged. The bittersweet has grown up into an ugly Ash tree, and the weight of it has caused the fence to lean into the bog garden behind it. A few years ago I tried to put another support post behind it, but had forgotten that was where the first Jack was planted. I danaged the roots in this process, but it did come back the next year. This year I put one of those screw into the ground dog lead posts, about 3 feet out toward the road, and tied the middle section of the fence onto this with an old telephone extension cord. And when my son found out that my booster cables were useless, I clipped one end to each of the fence ends & the other ends to the screw post. I have been training one stem of VDL to go down this and up the telephone cords when it gets long enough. The same with Minuet on the other cable. Maqrie in ME

Good to know for next year, thanks for the tips! Two of them were half woody so I just cut below the woody part. Next time I will let them turn completely brown and woody and pull them off once they don't resist. I pulled all the dead foliage off too so now it looks like a little grass plant. Can't wait to see flowers again. I'm guessing since it bloomed in early July (stopped a few weeks ago) that it's an early season bloomer? I wish I would have kept the plant tag so I know what kind it is.

Too late now, it's full of buds. Next window of opportunity will be from November'09 till early April'10.

Re: slipping stitches, generally stitches are slipped purlwise except when specified or doing decreases where they are worked right away after being slipped, like the SSK. Slipping purlwise maintains the correct mount of the stitch for the the next row. When you slip a stitch stitchwise, it is twisted, which is useful in some cases like decreases. The pattern may not have specified the way to slip because people knit differently. Combined knitting or eastern knitting will twist stitches so the way you slip would depend on how you work it on the next row. Incidentally I think that Annie Modesitt who designed this scarf has promoted awareness of different knitting styles, which is great because some knitters have been criticized unfairly for doing it the "wrong" way. There are no knitting "rules" so as Donna says, just do what looks right to you. Here is a link that might be useful: Different ways to knit