'Gold Dust' is a cultivar name for Aucuba japonica, Japanese laurel. This is a shade loving plant, in fact is an excellent choice for nearly complete shade. The correct protection for leaf burn would be to relocate in a shadier situation. These are not shrubs that would be happy or thrive in any significant amount of Texas sun. For the OP: "japonica" is the species name of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of different plants and referring to a plant just by that name is not very informative :-) Don't feel bad, though - many other folks use this same term when referring to all sorts of plants. I work in a nursery and if I had a dollar for every time someone came in asking for a 'japonica', meaning anything from a camellia, to pieris, skimmia, aucuba and even anemones, I'd be a rich woman! I just have to play 20 Questions to find out what they are really looking for.

Many years ago, I discovered a product called MetaPosts. I discovered it was then sold by Aubuchons Hardware up in New England, and I ordered some. They are spikes on the bottom, like 2 feet long, you put in the top a short piece of 4 x 4 and then wham it into the ground. Then you put your real 4 x 4 into the top of the Metapost, and proceed to build what you want. They can be backed out of the hole to be reused somewhere else. Later on I found some at Home Depot, different name, but same sort of product. You can buy about 6 of them and put up a temporary shade structure or a shade sail which will work for this season. Sorry about the loss of your big tree, but it might be a blessing in disguise. The oak is a fantastic idea. I'm looking out the window here at a live oak in the neighbor's yard, and it is easily 60 - 80 feet tall. Mostly the live oaks shed leaves quickly in the spring when the new leaves push the old ones off. So never a bare tree. And clean up is done quickly too with a leaf blower. I have a shade structure built, but with all my busy days have yet to lay the shade cloth over it or lay the newspaper weed barrier and pine bark down before moving the hosta in containers back to this area. But, after it stops storming next week, that is top priority on my agenda. I only have 12 more hosta due to ship Monday (plus a "nice bonus plant they say) and then the garden here is set for the summer. Talk about sun, you stand a lot better chance with full sun than we do in zone 9a.

Parakalo (your welcome) Amdy. A)In a cup cut in small pieces 3 cloves of garlic and add 2 table spoons olive oil or (is better) machine car oil -cover the cup and leave it for 24 hours. After 24 hours strain the solution in your sprayer bottle - add 2 table spoon of dish soap and 2/3 of a galon water (not cold if it is winter), shake well the bottle and spray both sides of your plumeria leaves (early morning before the sun is on the top of your plants)spray also lightly the top of the soil. Repeat the same formula after 10 days for the new generation from eggs mites. Next day of using the above mentioned formula, clean the leaves of your plants by spraying them with water. Also is very important to Sow in each pot 1-2 garlic cloves, the plant of garlic keeps away any dangerous insect from your plants. B. Add 1 teaspoon of dog shampoo with pyrethrin with 1/3 gallon of water in your sprayer bottle and spray the leaves of your plumerias on both sides, it kill all the mites. C.A home remedy fungicide : 1 part of fresh full milk (not for slim) with 9 parts of water in your sprayer bottle and spray the leaves. That is a fungicide formula and also shine the leaves of your plants. D. a home remedy for maggot - worms in your pot soil : throw on the top of the soil of each pot 1 table spoon hot mustard in powder and water your pot, OR if you have ready to use hot mustard add 1 table spoon in 1/3 gallon of water and water your pot. E.For Ants : Add in a 1/3 of gallon of water 1 table spoon vinegar and water your pot. Vinegar also has very useful trace elements for the plants and also reduce the soil PH. John from Athens-Greece

Straw wrote: "Khalid: Your roses look very good in high heat, nice colors and healthy foliage. My Just Joey looks really bad, blooms bleached out to beige, so I don't even post pics. I might move it to partial shade for better color. We are in hot & dry phase, up to 90 F, or 32 C." Straw: 90*F is not high heat for roses in my view. I mean in this temperature, my roses were performing very well. Could there be other (primary) reason for your Just Joey or any other rose not performing that well. I am not sure if 90*F alone is enough to cause deterioration in performance of a particular cultivar. I mean some mineral deficiency / excess or some issue with the soil that gets amplified due to rise in temp? Or could it be that my roses have slowly been acclimatized to perform better in heat? Just trying to understand what could be the reason for my Just Joey being quite yellow in 105*F and your's turning beige in 90*F. best regards PS: Sam, did you see the photos of Rose Biomes posted above? Jess: Alec's Red hasn't impressed me much. It is almost completely non fragrant since the temps rose above 100*F and is blooming sparsely. When I compare it's performance with many other roses, I would rate it quite low with regards to performance in summers though it performs much better when it is cooler. Sorry no experience of growing Christopher Columbus. I haven't actually seen it here.