Flowergirl, I don't know what all the brown leaves stuff is all about. All I know is that it has occured every year on my type IIs and this year I have even had it on some of my type IIIs. I think that our extremely hot weather and lack of rainfall didn't help with the situation. On my type IIs, I just normally cut them back and they come back just fine and rebloom for me. In fact, the HF Young and the President combo I showed above has even more blooms on it now than it did when I took the picture. Joan, the weather was great when I was gone. We had about 3 inches of rain at home while I was gone and have had over an inch of additional rain since getting home. We are still over 9 inches short for the year however. Things are looking better though. Julia Correvon is reblooming some, as is Polish Spirit and Princess Diana. Esthomizzy, my Freckles has done as I described every year that I have had it. It was sort of an iffy clematis for me to try and grow and Dan at Brushwood Nursery suggested that I grow it in a pot on a southern exposure. That is what I have done and may explain why it loses all of its leaves during the extremely hot summers we have as well as the fact that it is supposed to go more or less dormant in the heat of the summer. The buds on the plant have opened up while I was on vacation and are delightful. I must say however that the plant hasn't really grown much in the two years I have had it. It may have done better if I had a suitable southern location where I could have put it in the ground.

Good for you Michelle...it was raining here before daylight and has essentially rained all day, so no pics for me today. I love DMS...those blooms look huge, are they? I wish I had an answer about the splotchy blooms, but I'm afraid I don't. I've had some with excessive splotches too. I think OI is very pretty even with the problems. :) Thanks for the show. Jan

Hello Everyone, Dave, We must have been posting at the same time because i missed your post. That Miami Rose will be a challenge, but im up for it!!! Im glad we didnt keep those dates anyway, since the weather didnt work out!!! Lets try for this fall when we are going to get things ready for the winter. I would love to try sometime in Sept. But things are so crazy now, im thinking Oct will be the best time. Ill email you later when it will b good for you!! Thanks Dave!!! So glad you and K has a good vac. and you are all back home and safe. At least now you have a few more cuttings to start. Sorry to hear about the HB and the Divine. I know that really hurts!! Just like how you aquired your Divine... Things happen!!! It could have been worse. So we are all thankful!!! Welcome back!!! Hey James, Is your gardener still with you? LOL!!! (I mean employeed?) Oh my...epecially on the Taj Mahal!!! I think that he/she needs some bumper pads around their body!!! I know you have a huge garden to work with, but it is still frustrating to see a break on any tree. Im sorry for your losses!!! Another cutting to be rooted. At least this will be a prized cutting. I love my Taj Mahal!! Thank you for the kind compliments on the palms. I do love those big guys. I always wanted my yard to look like i was somewhere in the tropics or CA or FLA. They were fun to plant years ago. Now they pretty much take cae of themselves. I just do a little maintance on them feed them and they love the attention!!! Peg, all of your PLumies look happy tucked inside from the hurricane!!! Glad to hear that you didnt have much damage either. At least you all had power!!! Any word from Teresa? Neysa, Thank you for thr kind words.. The Adeniums (Desert Roses) are very unique indeed!!! They do have their own personality. I find that they are easy to take care of. Full sun during the summer and i treat them somewhat like the Plumies during the winter. Limiting the water intske. But the Plumies receive less water then the DR's during the winter. I feed them in the summer just like the Plumeria and i water themm more often as well. (summertime) Especially since they are in the "AL's Gritty Mix" This mix is a very fast draining mix. The DR's love it too! Welcome to the forum!!! Take care everyone!!! Laura in VB

Annabelle's sister Gabbie was inside the coop waiting to lay her egg, and I put the eggs that had fallen out of the bales in one of the nesting boxes and tried to get Annabelle to sit in there near her sister... Didn't work... she wanted up there on the bale-nest. So I went in and got my husband to come out and help me get the two bales tied together so the eggs wouldn't fall out anymore. Then we dug out a nest in the top of the new bale, so they could both lay there eggs there. At first Annabelle wasn't too happy about the idea, and Gertie did not want her trying to get on the original nest. She got down and I tried to put her in the coop again but she came back out and was running around all panicky. My husband picked her up to put her back up on the new nest... but she still wasn't happy and was really beginning to get stressed out and was panting like crazy. I finally had to put an egg in the new nest and then she finally settled down... She laid her egg before Gertie did... and the two of them were really weird. They both were picking up pieces of straw and "fluffing" the nests and tossing the straw up on their own backs. Annabelle was still pretty stressed and just stayed up there on the eggs for awhile. Then Lulu decided to try to go up there to lay her egg... but neither of the girls would get down. Lulu was still up there when we left to go back in the house. So, guess I'll have to go out and see what else transpired out there... Oh and when we were tying the bales together, my husband pulled out about 6 or 7 more eggs that had apparently fallen down there the last few days!! At least now the eggs are more secure... until the crazy girls decide they're going to yank out more straw and open up the sides of the nests...