Thanks to all of you for your helpful suggestions. michaelg: your response seems closest to what has happened: the standard shows signs of girdling and consequent dessication, while the sucker continues to thrive. karl: I have contacted Bailey's (thank you for the contact info); the nursery that sold it to me will replace it, which I will do in spring. according to others, it will need a full season to prepare for our winter. My neighbor's PJ has been in place three years now. elks: I suspect I could let the sucker grow into a new standard (these are OR, not grafts, of course) or let it become a shrub. My initial attraction to the plant was as a standard and I'll try to find a good one when the time comes. BC and berndooldle (Cass?): we've had an unusual summer here in St. PaulÂvery droughty, but a July without a single 90 or + temp. I've been scrupulous about watering, which I do deeply with buckets from a rain barrel; a check of the soil revealed no dryness in the first foot of soil. I don't believe it's a cultural problem; the rose has been more than adequately mulched as well. This is a disappointment, but we gardeners are used to failures. I will begin again next spring. Meanwhile: (1) I have the sucker to play with; and (2) if any of you, or others, have further suggestions, please know they are welcome. Best regards, Gary

My jam recovered!!!! It had a miracle cure! I don't know what the heck happened. It's been sitting in my (broken) fridge for a couple days while I dealt with other stuff. I pulled it out today, to throw it in the trash. Just as one last chance, and because I was so sad to lose this jam, I asked a brave friend to take a tiny taste. I was afraid to. He said it was fine, and took a big spoonful -- which I would have stopped him from doing if I had seen him! That was ok too, though. So I tasted one grape worth. Hard to tell with my throat still sore from the other day, but seemed alright. Got another friend to taste it. We all agree it is delicious and non-fatal. So I don't know what the heck happened! The jam had cooked more, in its own heat, after I had my mishap with it and before it was cool enough to go in the fridge. Maybe that fixed it? Or, one of my friends suggested, maybe there was some sort of bug in the bite that messed me up? I would think I would have seen, felt, or tasted a bug, but I guess you never know. Anyway, I am VERY happy to have my grape jam after all. And rather surprised it did not ferment in the 50 degree fridge.

Funny, I had something similar happen to me this morning ... right before I read your post. The pepper was an Hawaiian Sweet Hot, so it wasn't anything super hot, but on the very first bite, I instantly had the hiccups. I've never had a pepper do that to me before. The last bite had a lot of placenta on it, and got me towards the back of the throat, and eventually I felt the burn in my chest and stomach. I wouldn't say I had trouble breathing, but the burn in the chest area had me a bit anxious for a moment. For a second, I wondered if I was going to through up, but I think it was more from the hiccups than anything. I've never eaten anything hotter than a habanero, so this experience has me even more afraid to try a super hot than I was before!

Well when I searched by my name I found all of my threads gone even though they were less than a month old but some threads that were MUCH older were still there. Maybe someone went in and made a decision of what they thought was interesting. It is kind of aggravating because I was in the middle of my kitchen remodel and needed to ask questions and starting over seemed fruitless. I love this forum but it does need work! I would like to be able to look up my threads, if I forget to check the box to send me a response to go back later and get a response, to be able to be able to watch a thread, to be able to find my clippings easily and a lot more stuff. In other words it needs a major overhaul. I can not even find a way to provide feedback! Well thanks yall for letting me vent. I will be posting finished photos soon, for those of you who have been keeping up with my "budget" renovation. Thanks for the support. I got lots of ideas on here and my house will show it. Here is a link that might be useful: My Country Dream