I bought a tropicanna last year from Lowes and through even this summer it has grown without any visable problems. I bought a black one a couple weeks ago from a local nursery and it turned out that after spending a couple weeks noticing its growth to be odd, that it was diseased. I have thrown it in the trash, luckily it grew far from my canna and my neighbors. Locally I have noticed most cannas in nurseries are diseased now that I know the traits. I have to wait to see if my other canna was contaminated by pruning off old flowers, though I don't recall having to cut any off. I didnt realize this had all gotten so serious. How is the wholesale trade keeping thier stock alive to even sell them? I would almost think it wouldnt be long before they have nothing left. I had hosta that had virus before among roses and even black eyed susan. Gardening seems too difficult these days with a global plant market distributing out of one place. There are no guards in place to protect our plant supplies and communities. I have a feeling that cold regions probably have the least diseased material since here many people don't plant them yard to yard for which I am thankful. My neighbors have huge numbers of a heritage canna that has been in their family for years so I am trying to keep my yard clean for them too. Isolation by being zone 5 is my only comfort at the moment.

Once again, for clarification, I was asking for "ANY information to include value" on my piece. I wasn't just asking for an appraisal nor was I asking for comparisons or for the dose of smart *s* that was in that response. And now I got someone else who says they are "ticked" off at me because I responded to someone who came across as a smart *s* and didn't provide me any information that I had requested. I didn't see in any rules here that says that I should start all post with "I come in Peace". But for some reason I don't think that would have helped. Once again all I can say is WOW! This forum sure knows how to welcome people. This whole "antiques & collectibles" forum is something else. "Holyier than thou" forum seems more fitting. When I found this site I was impressed and was going spread the word, now can you guess the word I will have to spread about it? And for all the other stone throwers like lindac, go ahead and get it out of your system.

I like to follow the rule of thirds. It is aesthetically pleasing. However, in this situation, I'm trying to figure out if the 1/3 point is the rod itself or the distance from the top of the panel to the ceiling. The difference is not that great, but could, I suppose, throw things off. Let me see if I can explain what I'm talking about. The distance between the top of the window casing and the ceiling is 14". One third of that is 4.66". The distance from the floor to the top of the window casing is 80". If I use the 84" panels and allow for about 1/2" clearance at the bottom, the top of the panel would be about 4 1/2" from the ceiling. BUT, if I want the rod to be 4 1/2" from the ceiling, then I need to purchase the 95" panels and shorten them and the top of the panel ends up about 6 1/2" from the ceiling! Does this make any sense? WWYD??? Now, let me show you what I think I'm going to use for the rod. Does it blend in with the wall enough? And which of these two colors do you think I should use? The one draped over the sofa is SAND and the other that I didn't bother to unfold from the way it was packaged (sorry about that) is IVORY. If you'd like to see the IVORY opened up, I can do that. SO MANY DECISIONS! I don't know why my pictures are larger than usual. I swear I resized them the same as all the others. Sorry.

If your having trouble smelling certain roses try smelling them first thing in the morning before it gets too hot. I can only smell Evelyn in the morning. I'm not sure and maybe someone can explain it better, but I think as it warms up the oils that make the rose smell evaporate, once again I'm no expert but that's how I understood it when it was explained to me. I think it is disappointing to wait with anticipation to smell a rose that gets raves about their fragrance only to not be able to smell it. That's how I felt about Evelyn until someone suggested smelling her in the morning. Also her fragrance has grown more intense as she matures.