I cut all my lantanas back in the fall (right after the hard frost) and they all come back. They are much easier to deal with while the foliage is soft, once they totally dry up they are hard and very prickly. I usually cut myself then. The pink/yellow variety that is hardy is Mozelle. One year I rooted 2 dozen of these in the garage.... I will always have this now! Other hardy ones I have are Dallas Red, New Gold and of course, Miss Huff. Last year I tried another variety that I do not remember the name, sorry, but it was short and brightly colored with hot pink flowers and steel blue berries- the nursery swore it was hardy for this area but it did not return. I've had the Mozelle, Miss Huff, New Gold and Dallas Red for almost ten years.

I researched this product for months trying to decide if it was the way to go. I have been able to ascertain (to my satisfaction anyway) that Konecto and the Allure (HD) product are by the same manufacturer. If you go to Home Depot and ask to rent the installation video (which BTW is really nothing more than the sales pitch for the product) you will see that the scenes in the video are identical for the most part to the scenes in the Konecto video you can see online. Same set, same floor, same actors.... We are nearing completion of a 500 sq. install of the HD grade and let me tell you it ain't as easy as they portray it to be. *IF* you are working with a sqaure or rectangular room of the right width and length it isn't too bad. However, our rooms sort of meandered from one to another with hallways, cabinets, differing length stem walls and differing room widths...Frankly, in this application it was a real PITA to get this stuff laid. I would strongly suggest anyone using this product in odd shaped rooms where continuity is important to plan on spending considerable time in planning. It can be done but you can end up in a pickle if you don't plan the entire project from the first strip to the last. We laid this product over plywood sub floor that two out of three conventional vinyl installers said they would lay vinyl over. However, the bids for laying sheet vinyl came in at between $3000 and $4500 for mid-grade vinyl. Even with a good floor you will want it smooth or the product *WILL* telegraph major imperfections. $995 for the Allure product was a much more affordable option for us. However, it was not a walk in the park and it a lot of time spent on you knees and scratching you head trying to figure out how to stagger joints using the 1/3, 2/3 cuts when working with 3 foot strip lengths in a 15.5 foot room. (can't be done as far as we can tell unless you manufacture your own splines)...Which while I am thinking of it is a suggestion I would make to anyone planning on using this product. Learn how to make a spline in the event you need to reverse lay or shorten a full strip to avoid ending up with a itty bitty fill piece. As to warranty- I would buy the product on the internet. Generally, warranties aren't worth the paper they are written on... And, I can tell you from personal experience that offering me all of my money back if the product fails wouldn't begin to cover the amount of work it has taken to get this floor down! Since I seem to be writing a book on the product I will add that I thought the Allure product looked cheap and ugly when we purchased it. Much to my surprise that phony looking grain pattern looks really, really beautiful when you get it on the floor. Distance improves this product! One last hint for the Allure product...Don't believe Home Depot when they say there isn't a variance in color. They repeatedly assured as that there was no need for matching lot numbers and they lied. Luckily, I didn't trust them so I pulled product from each lot and intermixed it. You can still see patchy color variances but it actually enhanced the look to appear even more like a real wood floor. And yes, it is a much quieter floor than laminates and even the existing vinyl that it is being laid over. Elise

OMG I'm so tired after all that. Just kidding and greetings, I signed up here, to add my two cents. ==== Hey good people, I started early this a.m. and like others can't believe I read the whole thing. Okay, true, I didn't read *all* all the words.... Really appreciate the indefatigable Chad ! and the digs-deeper Tina Noyes -- thank you thank you! My husband had already spent the time to try to research, but because of the $$ involved, then I was the spot-checker trying to sort out the many claims. I was good enough at science but still, anyone can say "it works like this", and I wouldn't know enough to pick it apart, or not that much.... We built our rural home five years ago. We'd previously had slightly hard water at our former home of many years, and once did have a water tank issue. But we had a water softener at the place we rented while building here, and hated it. Hated the slimy feel while showering; never felt like you got your hair clean. Really disliked the whole iron-out business and just the ongoing cost and chemicals. And we believe we are seeking long term solutions and infrastructure, as in, our squash in our northern climate are surviving till May in the cold room, and hopefully this summer the root cellar gets built, that sort of thing. So we were willing to put the money into a system if we could improve the hard water. This water is harder than what we had at our former home; we just got in under the warranty deadline for a repair on our washing machine -- the incoming line was clogged. We always put lots of vinegar in the dishwasher rinse cycle. Don't know the 'grains' in our water, but we have calcium moreso than iron, from the test early on. We judge it to not be super hard. I just wanted to share what I'd dug up whilst following other leads and links, some here, some elsewhere. The Scalewatcher Enigma fares well at http://www.bdonline.co.uk/100-best-products-(m-z)/3044142.article but you can't get there with the link -- you have to google 100 Best Products M-Z bdonline. So I save you the trouble, here's what they say: ==== Scalewatcher ENiGMA by ETC X-factor Kills limescale and saves energy. Joint winner of this year’s 100% Detail/RIBA Journal Innovation Award, Scalewatcher cuts energy bills by getting rid of limescale in water pipes. Just wind it around the pipes and hook it up to the electricity. King’s School Canterbury, in one of the hardest water areas in the UK, saved 58% on energy costs in one boarding house within two months ��" the boiler can heat up water faster, and valves are less likely to need replacing. Scalewatcher uses resonance to create a crystal formation that remains in suspension in the water, so scale ends up down the drain rather than clogging pipes. The water stays drinkable and the risk of Legionnaire’s disease is reduced as there is no scale for bacteria to feed on. It can be used in pipes up to a metre in diameter. A recent test by Cranfield University put it at 36% more effective at preventing scaling than its closest rival. A similar system for waste water treatment is under development. ======= My husband had been inclined toward one of the Scalewatcher (Aquagenesis) models but since "Enigma" isn't one (with or without the tricky capitals) we'll have to check further re that. The actual reference in the article (Cranfield) isn't quite that simple but the last paragraph in that research report is favorable. Also there's this: http://www.bdonline.co.uk/not-big-but-very-clever/3042553.article (same thing as to access, you must google it instead) -- same product, winner of an award. Also: http://www.ecobuild.co.uk/var/uploads/exhibitor/4133/ux6jvnqo8w.pdf (same award, diff. article) -- and apparently if you go searching Jack Pringle *is* president of Royal Institute of British Architects. Hard water is said to affect 60% of British households so it's a big deal there. I think I read here somewhere that various jurisdictions are "banning" water softeners, and I think many of you are aware of the many problems of water in many places not least being overall desertification. My husband's family is in Los Angeles, and we have travelled quite a bit in the SW where we think there will be further aquifer problems and that sort of thing -- so the search for non-saline solutions (pun accidental!) is very real, and not only to do with avoiding the hassle and cost as to appliance repair and replacement. We believe we live in Paradise, but in the words of Gilda Radner, "It's always something." Thanks folks, Linda

AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS!!! Our nightmare is described here. We placed a nearly $4,000 order with Cabinets To Go on 6/13/12. The standardized Cabinets To Go receipt and paperwork we received stated that we should expect 1-2 weeks for shipping. Carrie, the representative in the Raleigh, NC office that we worked with and ordered from, told us we should expect 10 days for shipping. The 1-2 week timeframe on the CTG correspondence would have placed our delivery somewhere between 6/20/12 and 6/27/12, and the 10-day estimate from Carrie would place our delivery date on 6/22/12. However, we have received no cabinets by 6/29/12. As soon as CTG received our payment (which was made in-full and immediately upon ordering on 6/13/12), all communication with us stopped. We were extremely satisfied with CTG's customer care during the designing and ordering process, and Carrie exchanged 35 emails and 5 phone calls with me over the 5 days that we spent considering our options and making our decisions. However, as soon as CTG got our money, customer care went out the window. On 6/29/12 we were still waiting for delivery of our nearly $4,000 order, which was paid for in-full and upfront. Furthermore, we received no communication from CTG in regard to tracking our $4,000 shipment, updates on delivery, or even scheduling a delivery until I started asking questions on 6/21/12 about where our cabinets were. We understand that CTG may not be able to pinpoint an exact delivery date immediately upon ordering. However, we never even got the opportunity to request an estimated delivery date during any conversation with CTG, because these delivery estimates were bestowed upon us and this topic of conversation was completely initiated by CTG! If you are going to give an estimate, it needs to be an accurate estimate. If something goes wrong during the processing and shipping of an order, the customer needs to be told, so as to adjust their expectation for delivery. We were never told that the delivery estimates provided by CTG needed to be adjusted due to processing or shipping problems, so we expected the estimates to hold true. When we had received no cabinets by 6/21/12, I contacted Carrie in Raleigh to inquire about the status of our order because we had not received any correspondence from CTG during the 8 days that had passed since paying for our cabinets. Carrie responded via email on 6/22/12 and told us the cabinets were in transit, but one item was on backorder. So, our cabinets been shipped and no one had told us, and part of our shipment was on backorder but we were not informed about this. So we waited for 5 more days, but when we still had received no cabinets on 6/27/12, I began calling and emailing the CTG headquarters and their customer care representatives. At this point, it was 9 days after our items had shipped and 14 days after we had ordered, and we still had no cabinets. Chris, the corporate customer care representative I spoke with, informed me he was very concerned about the lack of customer care we were receiving and would forward my concerns on to the Raleigh office, something I had already done on my own. Later that same day (6/27/12) Carrie forwarded me an email that she had received on 6/18/12 containing details about tracking our order. (It took 9 days to get our shipping information forwarded to us from CTG, and we had to request this information from them!) We were directed to contact CGL (the carrier that CTG uses for delivery) directly about our order. CGL must have been informed that I was on a mission to track down the cabinets, because a few minutes after I got the email from Carrie, Katarina from CGL called and left a voicemail requesting that I contact her to schedule delivery of our cabinets. I called, but was told the scheduling team would not be back until 9:00am the next morning. So I called them back at 9:00 on 6/28/12 and asked to schedule our delivery. Katarina told me she could not yet schedule delivery, as our cabinets had not reached the distribution terminal yet and she could not tell me what day we could expect to get our cabinets. I called CGL three more times over the course of 6/28/12 and spoke to three different CGL representatives, all of whom gave me different answers about when we could expect delivery and whether or not they could even schedule delivery yet. My fourth call to CGL on 6/28/12 ended with the representative telling me that the cabinets would arrive in the distribution terminal in Fayetteville, NC during the night on 6/28/12, and she said she thought we could get delivery on 6/29/12. Exasperated by the back-and-forth of the last two days, I emailed the CTG headquarters a second time and updated them on the mess that we were dealing with. I also called the number Chris had left for me and left a voicemail for him with the same update. I called CGL at 9:00am on 6/29/12 to check on the arrival of our cabinets at the distribution terminal in Fayetteville, NC. However, I was told that someone at CGL had made an error since my last phone conversation with them the evening before, that our cabinets were put on the wrong truck, and they were currently at the distribution terminal in Atlanta, GA. I insisted that we get our cabinets before the weekend, but CGL said they had no trucks available to bring us our cabinets. I requested that CGL rent a U-haul and drive our cabinets to us, since this was their error and we were way past the delivery timeframes indicated by CTG. They indicated they would not consider this option. I immediately called the Raleigh CTG office and asked someone there to deal with CGL. I was told by the man that I spoke with (Bob) that he would look into it, but I never got a call back. I called him again later that morning, and he said he had no information for me. I asked him to keep me informed, but I never got another call from anyone in the Raleigh CTG store. I called the CTG corporate offices again and spoke with Chris. He indicated that he was sorry for the inconvenience, but offered nothing in terms of restitution for the incredible hassle that our order had become, and did not even offer to contact CGL on my behalf. Katarina at CGL called me several times over the course of the day on 6/29/12 and appeared very apologetic and concerned that the delivery of our cabinets had spiraled into a big mess. She indicated that she had called another shipping company in Charlotte, NC and that they could deliver our cabinets between the hours of 1pm and 3pm on 7/2/12. I indicated that this delivery time was not preferable, as we wanted our cabinets before then, but that it could work if need be. The director/manager at the Boston CGL location was also on the line and asked me to call CGL's contact in Charlotte, NC to confirm this delivery, and then call CGL back to let them know what was said. I did as he requested, but this could have been handled by someone at CGL rather than by me, their customer. We were then looking at a delivery time of 19 days at the very very best, but IF AND ONLY IF our cabinets actually got delivered on 7/2/12. As you can imagine, we were extremely displeased with the absolute mess that our order turned into. As CTG's customer, I shouldn't have even been expected to deal with their distributor, CGL. I am the customer, I just paid them $4,000, yet they put the burden of tracking down my cabinets on me. I am appalled that the Raleigh CTG office washed their hands of this mess, since they are the originators of the order and the people who are ultimately responsible for ensuring that we continue to get quality service DURING OUR ENTIRE Cabinets To Go experience. I am appalled that CTG headquarters has offered nothing in terms of compensation for time lost or for hassle, and am even more appalled that Chris said, "I'm not sure how we can compensate you for this," during my phone conversation with him on 6/29/12. I can think of several ways: 1.) Paying for and arranging for special delivery of our cabinets so we get them on 6/30/12. The drive from Atlanta, GA to Wilmington, NC is only 7 hours long. 2.) Offering our money back for what we paid in shipping and delivery costs. 3.) Offering a discounted price on our order, since we have been waiting for $4,000 worth of cabinets that have yet to show up. This order and shipment of cabinets was only half of what we had designed for us by Carrie and only half of what we planned to buy from CTG in Raleigh. We told Carrie up-front that we would have to split our purchase in two to make it fit our budget, and she indicated she would save her designs for us when we were ready to order the remaining cabinets. We had planned to order the other half of our kitchen cabinets from CTG around mid-July (more than $3,000 in additional cabinets on top of the $4,000 we just spent), but at this point, you can safely assume we will NOT be ordering from CTG ever again. While CTG offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee policy on all purchases, they in no way guarantee their service OR the customer's experience. On June 30, 2012 Mark McIntire from the Cabinets To Go corporate headquarters called me (someone had forwarded him one of my emails - I'm not even sure what his position is in the company) and asked me why I was "causing such a debacle." I told him we were frustrated with the poor communication between all parties involved in our order and just wanted some acknowledgement that things had gone wrong. We wanted an apology for being left in the dark, and wanted an answer about when we would get our cabinets. He said that I was "being ridiculous" and that he didn't "want to deal with this" so he cancelled my entire order. Then he hung up on me. And that was the end of that!