I've never heard of tree sweating, but I accidentally experienced it first had this last week! I bought 4 Golden Raintrees from a highly reputable seller on Ebay who has tons of all positive feedback. I received the 4 tree "whips", and they all had terrific root systems, but it was odd for me to be planting these sticks. So this was in early March, and up to last week, there was NO activity from these trees at all. I ever so gently checked them for green underneath and they all had bright lime green going on. I kept saying to my husband do you see anything happening to these trees or is it just me, but he didn't see anything either. Well, flash forward to this last week. We had 4 days in a row of temps in the high 40's to low 50's and overnight lows as low as 19 and as high as 30. Every day we were going to be having frosts and/or freezes. (One day there was a very HEAVY frost). I said there is no way we are going out every day to uncover them for a few hours and then go out and cover them back up; that's just ridiculous! See, we had spent the last month going out and covering our trees with 2 heavy blankets each, and then going out and uncovering them. Anyway, so we left them covered up for 4, maybe 5 days, as I sit here I can't remember, but I know it was at least 4. Anyway, we uncovered the trees the day before yesterday and guess what? All the Golden Raintrees had buds that were beginning to swell! I said to my husband what in the world caused them to wake up? They were each covered up in 2 heavy fleece blankets for several days, they never saw the sun. I guess now I know what happened.

David, Unfortunately without seeing your rhizomes we can only make “guess-timations”. Being stored simply “bare root” in a bag does not prevent dehydration. Severity is primarily dependent on temperature, duration and size of individual rhizome. Assuming there remains viable meristematic tissue you need to re-hydrate these rhizomes as soon as possible. You may try to soak the rhizomes in a shallow pan on water for a couple of days than plant in warm moist planting soil. Keep these rhizomes moist and warm. Hopefully you will see initial swelling at grow points. If or when growth begins you may then replant in containers or choice of location. If nothing develops within a couple of weeks consider a lesson learn and move on. Good luck and let us know how things turn out. Kent

A very interesting point. I have a friend who grows all her adeniums on a covered porch ... They get bright light all day but NEVER direct sunlight. Mine are in full direct all day sun. My blooms fade in color after 3 or so days; hers don't. I wonder if my reds like this would be blacker under cover ... ,,, and whether this Blue Spirit could actually gather more of a blue tinge in less sunlight ... Perhaps an experiment I will conduct with their cuttings. Maria Elena

Mara, the thunbergia is the one showing more ”short term” growth. I’ll post pictures tomorrow, but I’m well aware that the biggest monster in long term will be the Mustang grape. Chances are that the thunbergia will die to the root during winter and will start over in spring. The Mustang grape will keep its height and will sprout from the main trunk. The seedlings were born this year and one of them is already 4’. I’m pretty sure it will reach the top of the pergola in 3-4 years. Omar