There are upright and prostrate forms of P afra, and only the upright lends itself willingly to the formation of a heavy trunk. If you don't have the upright form, remind me come May, and I'll make sure you get started cuttings if you'd like them. Determining whether a soil is good or bad depends on what you're contrasting them with. MG isn't so bad when compared to all the other commercially prepared soils as a group, and that are commonly available and used for houseplants; but, on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being perfect and 1 being almost unusable, I'd rate it at about a 3-4 - LOTS of room for improvement. When you think of potting soils and what to use as your base, think of larger particles, like pine bark or other inorganic particles much larger than peat particles. In your mind's eye, picture a soil made of particles the size of BBs, and see all the healthy air spaces between the BBs. No matter how much water you pour on the soil, those air spaces won't fill with water. Now imagine a soil based on peat, compost, topsoil, sand ..... The air spaces between particles are very small and tend to fill up with water when you water - like you said the peat your plants are in does. If you mix the peat and BBs 50/50, the peat just fills in around the BBs, robbing the BBs of their air space, so a soil that has mostly larger particles and very few fine particles so the air spaces stay open is going to be much healthier for roots than a soil with all the little air pores filled with water. The primary difference between these two types of soils is that because the more open soils hold less water, you need to water more frequently. You'll need to decide if the extra effort is worth greater promise for your plants to grow to the potential they were genetically programmed for. There are 2 sides to that coin. Some feel the soils that I and many others grow in hold too little water, and robs them of the convenience of longer intervals between waterings, but since we build these soils with the plant's well being in mind, I know without doubt that soils that offer extended intervals between waterings hold too much water to NOT be limiting in their effect on growth and vitality. One of the most important considerations is that well-aerated and fast-draining soils are far more forgiving and much easier to grow in. They forgive your watering mistakes readily, as long as you don't FORGET to water, and make fertilizing easy. Because they promote such healthy root systems, they have the potential to produce much healthier plants with robust metabolisms that make the plant better able to resist insects and diseases. I'll leave you a link below to some information that explains the soil/water relationship. An understanding of the concept it defines almost automatically puts you far ahead of other container gardeners as a group. It shouldn't be too difficult to see what other growers that have read and applied it think. There are other threads similar to that one about other aspects of container culture, like nutritional supplementation, when/if you're ready to move on ..... or you can just not respond & I'll take that as a 'not interested'. The comments I left on YM's thread today might also be of interest. What my houseplant's feet are in: Al Here is a link that might be useful: I'd like to see you put this in your tool box!

Thought I would hop on here to share my 2 cents on ASL. I have 3 along a fence in a fairly prominent area & are about 5 years old. Every summer/ fall I consider replacing, but spring comes along and I forgive him for all his shortcomings. Very small climbers as you can see in photo as compared to many others I have. I have to spray for disease, but being in Georgia that's to be expected of most DAs. I have found if I give him more feelings I get some blooms throughout the season outside of the flushes, but nothing like a nearby hedge of Abe Darby which blooms all season in flushes. As a side note on the Eden suggestion. Beautiful rose. Whenever it blooms for me I feel driven to go have a whiff, then I remember it doesn't have a fragrance. Sigh.... here is pic ASL today ( 3 bushes on fence, carefree celebration is in front) in mid-August. About 5-6 buds, couple flowers...Not terrible, but not a rockstar for me. Adrianne

Seaweed is supposed to have low levels of both auxins and cytokinin. They are also unstable and exposed to elements they break down quickly. I have not done what I suggested myself since I did not face a situation like yours. There are artificial cytokinins but they are tricky to use properly. The dilution has to be very precisely controlled. Nurseries and commercial growers use them in all sorts of fancy ways to increase fruit production. May is a bit late to ship bare-root but it is still OK. General rule for pruning deciduous/evergreen tree when they are growing is to prune just above at least one or two leaves or a branch with a few leaves. Otherwise it may end up in branch death. When they are dormant, you can be more aggressive with established deciduous plants as long as they are strong and healthy. I do that frequently. Scratch the bark off in a little spot in the top inch of the scion and see if you notice any green. If it is green the scion is still alive. If not then try a little lower. Use a knife to scrape the bark. I bet the bark is pretty thin and should scrape off. Since your scion is not showing any sign of growth, I would let one branch grow from the rootstock and keep that pruned to 5-6 leaves. Keep the height of the rootstock branch below the first bud on the scion. That will keep the juices flowing and feed the roots. If the scion is still alive it may push growth. I will be inclined to provide all day shade for that plant.

Sometimes the Zone doesn't appear with a comment but on my email notification for some people. In fact sometimes that's a different name! Also I've read it depends if you are going through whose or the gardenweb. I don't know I'm sorry for asking all the time I changed mine and I noticed it doesn't show up. Also one can only change one's name twice a year so since I always keep trying to do it I figure I'm time's up on twice a year! LOL! So, based on that I would say only take out the Deadwood on your climbers until maybe the third year. That is what I'm doing to mine. Coriana California how to prune hers in the first year but she has magic soil and the perfect ecology and environment for Roses apparently. I'm sure in her third year for yard looks mature instead of struggling like mine. :-) I'll edit this when I get home. Sorry.