That's so disappointing! Weeping China Doll on a standard is incredibly beautiful so I think you made a great choice. I would have done the same. Why be unhappy with what they were going to send. At least they told you honestly so you could still try and find them somewhere else.

Thanks, everyone. I did the zigzag, so now some of the roses are on 7 foot spacing, but none closer than that. The arc is wider and stubbier, not quite the graceful curve I had envisioned, but in time it will grow and I won't even remember what I had in planned originally. I'm planning to re-work the Terrace Garden later in April to make space for Le Vesuve, with fewer natives and more roses. With the new bed of native shrubs outside the fence I no longer feel the need to grow them in the garden itself. I'll keep the ones I like best, and remove the ones that quickly took on a scruffy look. Anyway, I'm done planting for now. Maybe I'll have a sewing week. I have several projects in mind, one to finish and others to start. This was to be a sewing year, but somehow the garden keeps calling my name. It's very distracting! Rosefolly

Since my DH's first wife died in October 2003, through our marriage in 2006 and even today, DH has piddled with getting rid of his stash of tools up north. Now he is getting down to business, and has made inroads--because I told him I was through waiting on him to get his house ready to sell, and I would NOT go up there any more. So I am surprised and mostly pleased by his activity in that direction. He is an engineer with a tool for every purpose. He also confiscated my PERSONAL tools here in Mobile, and I found them among his out in his garden shed. THAT was a nono, and I started bringing them back. Some of those I kept in a Snoopy yellow plastic lunch box for 30 years, and I depend on them being available quickly when I need a screwdriver or a Vicegrip or a small drill bit. I miss the Snoopy tool box. I think his first wife must have left all tool-associated chores to him, and he does not quite know how to deal with my very independent take-hold do-it-myself history. Heck, when I tore out the bathroom, he should have known I did not wait for anyone to do what I could do for myself! Southern woman I am, but not the helpless variety. More like Steel Magnolia! (one of my favorite movies) So pleased that MamaGoose is on board these days, and Jay, and now that the fall is almost upon us again, maybe there will be a surge of activity on the forum. I really look forward to catching up with what's been going on while I was out gardening for about 4 months. Sometimes we all need to take a break to come back refreshed.

I'm seeing what looks like a girdling wire just above the soil line (someone thinking about layering the top off the plant?). If it IS a wire, it's not yet tight enough to restrict xylem flow of water and nutrients to the top of the plant, but it would be tight enough to be shutting off some of the flow of photosynthate and other bio-compounds in the phloem stream to the root system. Still, I don't think it's tight enough yet to be blamed for the poor health and shedding of branches. When plants are struggling and there is no evidence of insects or obvious cultural limitations like too cold, too hot, too much or too little of something the plant absorbs, root health becomes a prime suspect. I notice you're growing in a bonsai (training?) pot, and it's not very full. If your soil supports perched water, the shallower the pot, the higher the % of saturated soil after a good watering. I don't know anything about your plant's history, except that you pruned it a while back. If the plant's vitality level was low at the time you pruned it, it may have simply run out of the energy it needs to push a new flush of growth. A plant's energy reserves are finite, so if the plant is out of gas, and since plants are organisms that shed parts to keep a balance between the top of the plant and the bottom (especially in the case of extreme disparity), you might be seeing the plant discarding what it can't support. Also, many fungal infections that start with the roots become systemic and incrementally destroy the plants plumbing (vasculature), also a possibility. I'd lift the plant and check the roots - see what's going on there, and if there's a remnant of a tourniquet or former anchor wire girdling the stem, I'd be sure to get that off. After you find out about the roots and report - maybe something will come to light that indicates a plan worth following. I'd also think about using a fungicide on the roots if they are in bad shape, and think seriously about repotting into a very airy and fast-draining soil that allows plenty of air exchange in the root zone. A good share of the time, isolating a cause involves eliminating everything on the list of possibilities until you come down to the factor you can't eliminate. Al