There are upright and prostrate forms of P afra, and only the upright lends itself willingly to the formation of a heavy trunk. If you don't have the upright form, remind me come May, and I'll make sure you get started cuttings if you'd like them. Determining whether a soil is good or bad depends on what you're contrasting them with. MG isn't so bad when compared to all the other commercially prepared soils as a group, and that are commonly available and used for houseplants; but, on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being perfect and 1 being almost unusable, I'd rate it at about a 3-4 - LOTS of room for improvement. When you think of potting soils and what to use as your base, think of larger particles, like pine bark or other inorganic particles much larger than peat particles. In your mind's eye, picture a soil made of particles the size of BBs, and see all the healthy air spaces between the BBs. No matter how much water you pour on the soil, those air spaces won't fill with water. Now imagine a soil based on peat, compost, topsoil, sand ..... The air spaces between particles are very small and tend to fill up with water when you water - like you said the peat your plants are in does. If you mix the peat and BBs 50/50, the peat just fills in around the BBs, robbing the BBs of their air space, so a soil that has mostly larger particles and very few fine particles so the air spaces stay open is going to be much healthier for roots than a soil with all the little air pores filled with water. The primary difference between these two types of soils is that because the more open soils hold less water, you need to water more frequently. You'll need to decide if the extra effort is worth greater promise for your plants to grow to the potential they were genetically programmed for. There are 2 sides to that coin. Some feel the soils that I and many others grow in hold too little water, and robs them of the convenience of longer intervals between waterings, but since we build these soils with the plant's well being in mind, I know without doubt that soils that offer extended intervals between waterings hold too much water to NOT be limiting in their effect on growth and vitality. One of the most important considerations is that well-aerated and fast-draining soils are far more forgiving and much easier to grow in. They forgive your watering mistakes readily, as long as you don't FORGET to water, and make fertilizing easy. Because they promote such healthy root systems, they have the potential to produce much healthier plants with robust metabolisms that make the plant better able to resist insects and diseases. I'll leave you a link below to some information that explains the soil/water relationship. An understanding of the concept it defines almost automatically puts you far ahead of other container gardeners as a group. It shouldn't be too difficult to see what other growers that have read and applied it think. There are other threads similar to that one about other aspects of container culture, like nutritional supplementation, when/if you're ready to move on ..... or you can just not respond & I'll take that as a 'not interested'. The comments I left on YM's thread today might also be of interest. What my houseplant's feet are in: Al Here is a link that might be useful: I'd like to see you put this in your tool box!

Thought I would hop on here to share my 2 cents on ASL. I have 3 along a fence in a fairly prominent area & are about 5 years old. Every summer/ fall I consider replacing, but spring comes along and I forgive him for all his shortcomings. Very small climbers as you can see in photo as compared to many others I have. I have to spray for disease, but being in Georgia that's to be expected of most DAs. I have found if I give him more feelings I get some blooms throughout the season outside of the flushes, but nothing like a nearby hedge of Abe Darby which blooms all season in flushes. As a side note on the Eden suggestion. Beautiful rose. Whenever it blooms for me I feel driven to go have a whiff, then I remember it doesn't have a fragrance. Sigh.... here is pic ASL today ( 3 bushes on fence, carefree celebration is in front) in mid-August. About 5-6 buds, couple flowers...Not terrible, but not a rockstar for me. Adrianne

Might have to do with your curing method, variety or storage conditions. I kept my 'Spanish Roja' in a cool, dry and dark spot in the basement after harvest and 3-4 weeks of drying. I planted mine 3 weeks ago and have about 75-80% sprouting. Could also be planting depth? hortster

It depends on your location and specific growing conditions, but Emperor 1 can reach dimensions similar to Bloodgood - in my climate, 30'x30'. And it grows a bit more rapidly than BG does as well.