A. Kerria is NOT a full sun plant - grows perfectly well (and even blooms heavily) in considerable shade. It is well known for that quality. I would be extremely cautious of planting it in Texas sun but a partially shaded balcony should be fine. B. Kerria does not bloom as early as forsythia so I'm not surprised it is still in its dormant state. You can expect flowering in mid April/early May and it seems to me leaves appear very shortly before any flowers do. Growing plants in a container is a bit different from growing them in the ground. You need a high quality potting soil (NOT Miracle Gro or compost or garden soil) and you need to pay close attention to watering and also fertilizing. Kerria is a woodland shrub so it prefers evenly moist soil - not too dry, not too wet. Check with your finger down as far into the soil as you can manage - it should be just moist to the touch. Since plants grown in containers don't have access to the natural nutrients sources located in a garden setting, you have to supply them with fertilizer. You can use a liquid fertilizer (Miracle Gro okay in this case) every month or so during the growing season or you can use a slow release like Osmocote once in spring. Kerria is a suckering shrub, as flora indicated. You may not see a lot of growth this season but be prepared for new shoots to appear from the soil next spring if you keep your plant happy and healthy. Eventually it will get much too full for that pot and you will have to think about repotting, dividing or giving away.......but not for a few years :-)

Roses need about an inch of water per week but that will also depend on how hot it is too. In very high heat you'll need to water more and more often. I don't worry about not watering the leaves. As a matter of fact I hose mine off frequently, especially if it's very hot. But a good hard spray with the hose will also take care of a lot of pests like aphids and spider mites. Keeping the leaves clean can also help prevent fungal diseases. The spores are there whether the leaves are wet or not. Weather conditions decide when they'll grow more than anything else. In the early spring you can do a hard prune. Anything that has died over winter can be removed as well as crossed canes. But as tkhooper said, you can prune them for shape any time. I usually prune them to the size and shape I want as I'm dead heading the spent blooms. Any good balanced fertilizer will do. You don't need special rose food. If you want to you can add some organics like a fish emulsion but it's not necessary.

Notvery, I'm not good with the chemistry part but I an tolerably acceptable on the physical part. I was under the impression that allowing this plant to reach its potential size was not an option and that while you gave it more room by enlarging its pot, it was showing signs of stress at its current size, thus the inevitable need to prune. We experience high temps and high humidity for a long time. 95 degrees and 90% humidity can go on for weeks and weeks with night time temps above 80 and even higher humidity. It can get worse than that. Pruning for air flow with out reducing your little solar panels too much is the game. So, I prune it and open a wound that could be a site for problems or don't prune it and have the interior of the "bush" surely have lethal and contagious problems. The point of all that is that while at first it may be difficult for you to prune your prince, he'll survive all but the most careless of hair cuts :-) Respiration, root to plant balence, vegitative to reproductive states, disease control, take your pick. If it were me, in my growing area and my plant was already approaching maximum allowable size and showing signs of root stress, pretty much any stem without blooms that was not strategically important for sunscald protection would go now. Some have said no more than three of these per day ... OK. Some like single stem, others more, I saw a guy with a beautiful but huge set up that intentionaly trains for 12! Its up to you and your space. Then I would switch to a little Missouri method. Then I'd wait and see how it goes. Probably would not prune anymore suckers because I would be topping the plant eventually and will want their fruit. But its not my plant. Best of luck and have fun.

thanks for the tips hotcookie and ajc having followed your advice, I've checked the stream and all connections and can find no obvious cause for the leak - so I'm pretty sure there's hole in the pond liner. My pond has a 3ft high brick retaining wall at the far side (our garden slopes down the hill) and there are no signs of water there, so I can only assume the leak is escaping underneath the pond. I need to find and fix this leak, as topping up from the tap is not a viable long term solution, but where do I start? Firtsly, I'll need to find a suitable safe place for the 30-40 fish (some of which are upto 20" long!!) - any ideas? I'll need a pretty big paddling pool!! Secondly, do I forget the leak in this liner and lay a new one over the top? oh the joys... thanks again.