I can understand the gavavemom's concern about the price of faucets. For the cost of a quality faucet you can buy a pretty good dishwasher or two microwaves, sometimes even a refrigerator. Why are the things so expensive? They're actually not. You can buy a good quality basic faucet that will give many years of excellent service from any number of sources -- and I mean a brass faucet with a good valve for under $50.00. In fact, I just did a search on my usual faucet e-tail sites and found name brand centerset lavatory faucets for under $30.00. The problem with these faucets is that, for the most part, they are not at all stylish. They look like the faucet in your mother's or grandmothers (as the case may be) 1970's bathroom. When you pay $600.00 for a faucet, you are paying about $50.00 for the faucet and $550.00 for the style. Most likely it will not work any better or last any longer than the basic $50.00 faucet. It's very much like buying cabinet hardware. A basic cabinet door or drawer pull or knob cost less than $1.00 -- in fact I have seen them for as little as 29¢ How, then can someone spend $25.00 and more on a cabinet pull? Easy, they're paying the extra for the style. As long as you insist that your faucet have style, you are going to pay more for it. You are paying for short production runs and the cost of designing, prototyping, testing and certifying the faucet -- which can easily exceed $100,000. Spreading this start-up cost across a small number of faucets means that quite a lot is added to the cost of each faucet. Not to mention that the manufacturer's markup on designer faucets is much higher -- they have to make their money from fewer items sold. Plus, as the originator of this thread shows, we don't fix things any more. If it leaks or stops working perfectly, we throw it out and get another one. This makes the lifetime costs of owning faucets much higher. And, it is really dumb because most faucets can be easily fixed. In almost all cases the problem is nothing more than a silicon seal. My grandfather built a bathroom into his Victorian house in 1912 as a Christmas present to his new bride. In 2012 when the city tore it down to build a new library, every faucet in the room was still working perfectly. On the hot water side of the lavatory, the nickel finish was entirely gone and the brass beneath completely exposed -- but it still worked because it had been carefully maintained for 100 years, by my grandfather, my father, and me. If it needed a new washer, it got one. If the riser leaked, it got a new one. It was certainly not a stylish faucet (well, actually, today it is stylish once again), but it worked, and my Grandfather, Irish to his bones, would not replace anything that still worked. It was a Kohler, by the way. Anyway, so long as you require a faucet be stylish, you are going to pay for the style. The more style, the more you are going to pay. If you want the major league bragging rights of owning a Philipp Starck-Designed Axor (Hansgrohe) faucet, you will pay a major league price. Or, for 1/10th the price, you can own a Delta or Moen that will last nearly forever. You are the buyer, and the choice is yours. So, what's it going to be?

Gorgeous Rena! @latcherlucy15 I found this about it blooming: "Although this plant can flower within its natural habitat, producing fuzzy, bell-shaped flowers in spring and summer – it is rare to see flowers bloom indoors, so it is grown for primarily its foliage within homes or offices." Doesn't really explain why (and I've never had one to do it) but thought it might help. :)

Here is a quote from the article (you have to scroll down through to the article by GST) : " Practically all other rambling species, hardy in this country, belong to a group known as Synstylae, because the styles in the centre of the flower are united into a column, and are not dis- posed loosely bunched as in other roses. They may otherwise be called the race of Musk roses. All but one of them, R. setigera from North America, have flowers of white or cream, are ex- tremely sweetly scented, and are scattered, other than R. setigera, through the Old World, from Madeira, North Africa, Europe, Turkey, Syria to Afghanistan, and away to North India, the Himalayas, China, Formosa, Korea and Japan. Many of the Chinese species, RR. filipes, brunonii, helenae, longicuspis, rubus, and soulieana are superb for flinging over overgrown hedgerows and into small and large trees. "

I'm not sure why my earlier post vanished, but it happened after I attached a second picture. It could be I started typing too soon before the pic had loaded. This time I'm posting the pictures first and I'll comment below. This picture shows how organic fertilizers work. Thank you to mrmumbles for posting this several years ago. He dropped a handful of alfalfa pellets on his zoysia lawn in mid May and took the picture in mid June. Organic fertilizers take 3 weeks to show improvement, so that was part of the reason for posting. Anyway you can see the improved color, growth, and density. I see the same effect using alfalfa pellets or with corn meal. These are plain grains out of a 50-pound sack from the feed store. This year corn costs me $10 and alfalfa pellets are $14. Your prices in Escondido will be different due to shipping. Call all the feed stores in the area to get availability and prices. If you don't have many feed stores the only one I know of even close is near Temecula on the road to Palm Desert, and that was 15 years ago, so it's probably a subdivision by now. The application rate for these grain type fertilizers is 15-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. You seem to be familiar with organics, but if you have more questions I can help with that. Surprisingly, wild animals are not usually attracted to these grains. My dog, on the other hand, loves this stuff. But he can't eat much. This next picture shows the difference between daily watering (the norm in California and Florida) and deep and infrequent watering. Thanks to morpheuspa for posting this pic several years ago. His is the green lawn. Photo was taken in July, so summer. All the lawns in the neighborhood are KBG in eastern PA. Everyone uses chemical fertilizers and waters daily in the summer. Morph uses only organic fertilizer and waters deeply and infrequently. In our terms, deeply means 1 inch every time you water. Infrequently means once per week in the hottest heat of summer (temps higher than 90). With temps between 80 and 90, then water once every 2 weeks. With temps between 70 and 80, water once every 3 weeks. With temps lower than 70, water once every 4 weeks. Usually you cannot change from your more frequent watering to infrequent watering cold turkey. You have to wean yourself off of shallow and frequent watering by going to deep watering first. So deep means 1 inch. You can time how long that is with your sprinklers by setting out several cat food or tuna cans. When all the cans are full, that is your watering time from now on. With my oscillator sprinkler, hose, and water pressure it take 8 full hours to get 1 inch. Your system will probably be much less than this, but 45 minutes seems a little short. This approach works in Phoenix (where I first got the info) and in Vermont, so it should work for you. Start with these temps and times and adjust (slightly), but in Escondido you should never be watering twice a week. It's April in Texas, and I have not watered my front lawn yet this year. If you have really mushy or really sandy soil, adjust. If you have half a day of morning fog every day, adjust. If you have dense shade, adjust. Deep and infrequent watering is the single most important thing you can do to help your lawn. It will help with nutrition, disease prevention/avoidance, weed pressure, and will cure arthritis. Well, but it really does those other things. Hard soil is a sign that your soil biology needs a boost. A healthy soil becomes soft to walk on when it is moist and returns to firm when it is dried out. You should see that when it rains and sometimes when you water. Right after the rain or deep watering, the soil should become very soft to walk on - like walking on a sponge. The easy way to restore the health of the beneficial microbes is with shampoo. Professionals use a version of this which costs $70 per gallon, but you can do it with any clear shampoo. The application rate is 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet. For example if you have 2,000 square feet, then put 6 ounces of shampoo into a hose end sprayer and fill the bottle with water. If it has a dial, set the dial in the middle. Spray the entire lawn evenly until the bottle is empty. That will have put exactly 6 ounces on 2,000 square feet. Follow that up with 1/2 to 1 inch of water to get it down deeper into the soil. It takes 3 weeks before the microbes fully respond to this, but it will open your soil whether you feel it or not. You cannot overdo this. People have tried. You could spray 64 ounces per 1,000 square feet and it would not hurt the lawn. In the shade of your oak tree you might have thinner St Augustine. My live oak was 70 years old with a canopy 30 feet high. It cast shade on the entire yard. The grass was not nearly as dense as it was in the back with half day of full sun, but it was not bad. It always gave full coverage of the soil. Get the leaves out of the turf and find some herbicide with atrazine. Most of the major brands have a version. Now is the time to apply. Careful about overspray, because it is death to everything but St Aug. Then encourage the st Aug by fertilizing it frequently but not the weeds. Do this by hand for the stringers. Actually I do my entire yard by hand because alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow sized) don't go through my spreader evenly.