I grow it here in central Illinois....Blackspot Armpit of Illinois. Here's my observations. 'TA' is ownroot; about 5 years old. I spray but not religiously. Other H/Ts next to it have long defoliated and look ratty...'Thomas Affleck and 'Earthsong' are spotless and haven't been sprayed for about a month. Been too hot and no rain since June. 'TA' is a bloom machine...huge big blooms cover the shrub up to 4 cycles a year. This year the shrub was so overloaded it literally collapsed the shrub and it imploded and fell down flat...necessitating a long-overdue haircut. Normally 'TA' grows in a graceful vase-like form...mature size is 7' TALL X 5' WIDE. Not a tiny shrub...needs lots of real estate. Sets hips between flushes and bumble bees love this shrub, as do the dratted Japanese beetles. Very cane hardy here in Zone 5...nary a drop of cane damage other than tip damage. Be prepared to give a mature shrub a good haircut at least twice a summer and you WILL spend time deadheading the spent blooms...lots of time. But it is a jaw-dropping shrub worth the time and effort. And it is NOT thornless, sadly. -terry

That looks like a great weather station! It will be interesting to see how much variability there is just across a few city blocks. A higher elevation will probably suggest that you'll see warmer nighttime temperatures on average for sure. As far as rainfall goes, I've read studies that put up to 15 research quality rain gauges right next to each other and they still had wildly different measurements. The deviations you see from your neighbors should probably be random with zero bias. If there is always a bias in one direction (higher or lower), then it might be related to what type of rain gauge you have. Automatic rain gauges, even calibrated ones, tend to underestimate rainfall accumulations particularly for heavy rain. Even with our Davis station, my husband has to increase the rainfall anywhere from 10-25% to match what we get in our manual gauges. I'm not sure what corrections the Oklahoma Mesonet folks make to their stations' rainfall totals. Anyway, the underestimation is a typical problem related to how most automated gauges are designed and is easy enough to account for when you're comparing your data to other stations. If they always seem to have higher amounts, then they either have a different type of gauge or have a COCORAHS or other manual gauge that they're adjusting to. With as many weather weenies that we have in Norman, that wouldn't surprise me at all. :p Heather

Typical extremes might be the best way to put it, Steve . . . On their "about" page, the USDA says: "Hardiness zones are based on the average annual extreme minimum temperature during a 30-year period in the past, not the lowest temperature that has ever occurred in the past or might occur in the future. Gardeners should keep that in mind when selecting plants. . ." (my emphasis). Yes, it seems like I should have to go back more than 2 years to find a winter when the zone map would have proven to be totally bonkers! I guess age & experience might or might not count for something. It seems like this, like so many things the gov'ment does, is mostly to benefit industry. This industry being the plant trade . . . push your luck too much and you get to buy new plants! Good for the economy & raises the GDP. (Good thing, I don't mind seeing dirt in the winter and enjoy growing mostly annuals. ;o) Steve trapped in February - the 2 a.m. of the year.

Jankin, I know this isn't what you specifically wanted, but I think it's one of the best - if not THE best, from VETERIS VESTIGIAE FLAMMAE - the set of poems he wrote after Emma's death in (I think) 1912. When my ex-husband died 18 moths ago, I couldn't stop reciting it to myself. After a Journey Hereto I come to view a voiceless ghost; Whither, O whither will its whim now draw me? Up the cliff, down, till I'm lonely, lost, And the unseen waters' ejaculations awe me. Where you will next be there's no knowing, Facing round about me everywhere, With your nut-coloured hair, And gray eyes, and rose-flush coming and going. Yes: I have re-entered your olden haunts at last; Through the years, through the dead scenes I have tracked you; What have you now found to say of our past  Scanned across the dark space wherein I have lacked you? Summer gave us sweets, but autumn wrought division? Things were not lastly as firstly well With us twain, you tell? But all's closed now, despite Time's derision. I see what you are doing: you are leading me on To the spots we knew when we haunted here together, The waterfall, above which the mist-bow shone At the then fair hour in the then fair weather, And the cave just under, with a voice still so hollow That it seems to call out to me from forty years ago, When you were all aglow, And not the thin ghost that I now frailly follow! Ignorant of what there is flitting here to see, The waked birds preen and the seals flop lazily, Soon you will have, Dear, to vanish from me, For the stars close their shutters and the dawn whitens hazily. Trust me, I mind not, though Life lours, The bringing me here; nay, bring me here again! I am just the same as when Our days were a joy, and our paths through flowers. Hardy