I thoroughly dislike eucalyptus globulus (blue gum) and acacia mearnsii (black wattle), but that's because they were invasive where I grew up and the pollen from the black wattles was horrible. I've seen people try to grow eucalyptus in Raleigh and it's a dismal sight. Even I feel it borders on abusive to take a tree that should be evergreen and magestically tall and have this poor, half dead, stumpy thing dripping bark in your garden. I'm not crazy about the native pines in the southeast US, because they all have prickly pine cones. I can't walk in my back garden in bare feet because of all the cones from the loblollies and long leafs (long leaves? LOL).

When we moved here (Chatham county) 11 years ago we had a few deer nibble on a few choice plants - no big deal. But the closer Cary comes (1 1/2 miles now vs. 10 miles when we moved here), the worse our deer problem gets. I can't grow much of anything outside my fenced area anymore and they have even jumped my fence to get to some things. I always thought tomato plants were poisonous, but apparently not to deer. They completely destroyed those this year and even ate my castor bean plants. This was the first year they touched my hydrangeas and they ate some of those to the ground. We have tried everything short of fencing the entire 4+ acres and nothing has worked this year. I don't like deer much, but I like rampant development even less. We have also seen an explosion in the bunny population here. I don't know where that comes from. They are everywhere and this is the first year we have ever had a real problem with them. Dana

bsmith--where in SC are you? Woodlanders Nursery is a wonderful resource located in Aiken--over toward the western side of the state. They are mail order so you would need to place your order online and then drive over to pick them up. They don't ship during the summer. They have 2 varieties of oakleaf hydrangea and many other wonderful plants. I highly recommend them. Woodlanders link There are two outlets of Cofer's Nursery in the Columbia area and several other independent nurseries in Charleston. I would expect all of these to have good selections of oakleafs. Good luck!

Alfie That hardened chunk is calloused and will sprout roots eventually. Some rooting hormone like Kristine suggested might help. In rooting roses, using Homex #8 powder usually produce roots in 2 weeks. In my decade of rooting roses, what you showed is quite common with HARD WOOD cuttings taken in the fall. The center of the bush has harder wood than the side-branches. For that reason cuttings taken from THE OUTSIDE BRANCHING of the bush have more chance of growing roots. The center axis of the bush is harder wood with more nitrogen storage for shoots and leaves. The side-branches have more potassium and phosphorus for blooming; thus the side-branches tissue have more chance of rooting. Potassium and phosphorus are essential to form roots. A 2nd reason for top growth but no roots: soil is too wet. Potassium for rooting is NOT available when soil is bone dry or soaking wet. A 3rd reason for top growth but no roots: NOT ENOUGH air in the rooting medium for root growth. My best success of rooting is 2/3 potting soil mixed with 1/3 perlite to introduce air to the soil. A 4th reason is hybrid tea like Chandos Beauty takes longer to form roots. In rooting a dozen varieties this year to sell & donate to charities, Austin water-hogs form roots 1st within 2 months, next is shrub (3 months), and last is hybrid tea (4 months or longer). Hybrid teas takes twice longer to root than Austins and floribunda. It's best to take cuttings from hybrid teas as SOFT WOOD (after 1st flush), rather than HARD WOOD (3rd flush). There's one hybrid tea that I failed to root for many years, it kept forming leaves and even buds but zero roots, that happened often with harder wood cuttings. This year I took cutting as softwood (right after 1st flush) and it rooted easily.