urk, well it is something of a mixed bag on this side of the pond. After we all faced hosepipe bans after months of drought, it started to rain in April and has not stopped since apart from 1 freaky weekend of real summer heat (for England, 26C is almost tropical), So, blackspot has definately arrived early along with many, many evil beasties, Even so, some roses are quite stupendously lush as is (almost)everything else, especially weeds. I don't get around to doing much staking and boy, am I paying the price now, after another wet and windy week - giant foxgloves leaning drunkenly into oceans of massive ox-eye daisies and giant sowthistles which appeared practically overnight. So, I am finding myself somehat glutted with abundance, a tad anxious as I am really not keeping up with tropical levels of growth (East Anglia is the dryest part of the UK and water has always been much more of a limiting factor than heat or light) and the awful spectre of early blight is looming - although my tiny tomatoes are so small, any self-respecting blight spore will surely move on to leafier pastures. On the other hand, the tree-like potatoes are presenting a much juicier target. On a more rosy note, the multifloras (Ghislaine, Goldfinch), hybrid musks and the wichuranas are full of promise - just starting a full-on bloom cycle but the chinas are emphatically not happy with our cool wet spring (Mutabilis is a ghastly skeleton of mildewy and sparse foliage and Sophie's P and Cramoisi are looking glum. Bourbons are not having a great time either whereas a couple of rather 'meh' modern floribundas and climbers (Arthur Bell, Penny Lane, Meg) are having the time of their lives - I may have to make more of an effort generally with watering - after doing the veggies and rudbeckia type perennials I misguidedly planted (My ahem 'prairie'), I am dying of boredom from standing about with a hosepipe (there are shared standpipes at the allotment so soaker hoses and timers or sprinklers are not allowed).The slugs and snails are epic. Have resorted to sluggo for the first time in my life. It is a terrible year for butterflies too - almost as rare as hen's teeth.

no virus issue .. dont leap off the cliff until you dig it up and find out what is going on underground .... its one of the following: lack of proper water and winter dry rot voles tree roots stealing all the water or it just hates you .... lol dig it up .. and report back your findings... ken

Welcome, Lavenderlady, I had a lavender plant for several years that never bloomed. A friend suggested that perhaps cutting it back would coax it into bloom. But no, it killed it. Then I bought another plant and it blooms every year. They must have been different varieties, but I don't know what either of them were. Sandy, me too, love to run my hands over the fragrant plants, and share with the granddaughters. Catnip, Sage, Oregano, Lavender, Rosemary in the herb garden and Spice bush and Sassafrass in the woods, Yarrow and Monarda in the field.

Cars you have block heaters in them when you live in severe cold weather. If you have a garage you park it in that. If not, then you plug it in all night and then the fun begins where you go in and open a very stiff cold door and start the car to get it heating and go out and start scraping the windows. Oh, but when you work, not all places have spots that you can plug your car in and so all day it would sit there and you go out and pray that it would start up for you. Or sometimes all night long or evening, depending on shift you are working. We had a heated garage in last place we lived in as we had two big dogs and my mom wouldn't let them stay in at night, they could come into kitchen during the day. They had 3 old mattresses to sleep on, they actually had a great place out there. yes, there are unfortunately people that leave their pets outside or they are permanent outside pets. Some kinds of dogs are meant for outside so they will grow really thick heavy coats and if brought inside will sweat and pant and pant and pant tons. We would see our neighbour have one dog inside and the other dog outside. It really pained us that they did that. Pets can survive to a certain extent. But no, they can't that cold out, cats especially. Pipes you cover them up, wrap the outside taps up. You do feel the cold in your house and heat is up and fireplaces are burning away. I remember standing on our floor heaters when growing up and the heat would come up my nightie and talk about nice and warm. Oh, so nice. Our dog used to go right on top with his belly and get warm, he was a toy manchester dog. When we put him out to do his business, he would run fast and run fast back inside screaming in pain as his ears would freeze. My mom tried to tie a scarf on him but he still suffered. It was terrible hearing him in such pain.