Love your Buff Beauty. It looks better in your climate than in my hot one. It's a great rose; love love love the scent.

No, I don't know anything about the white one. Never even heard of it before. But I did use to grow the regular one. It was a perfect bush. Wish all roses could be that healthy and nicely shaped. Yes, her blooms lasted a nano-second, but they looked nice and had large petals. I had to remove her long ago because she quickly outgrew the limited space I had for her ... way back then I didn't know you couldn't trust the sizes stated by the vendors when you live in the south. I still grow a smaller sized descendant of Carefree Beauty ... 'Thomas Affleck', hybridized by the Michael Shoup organization at The Antique Rose Emporium. Carefree Beauty was a good momma, imparting much of her toughness to her offspring. Randy

Jeff is right, but I wanted to expand a bit on his answer. When Echies get too leggy it is good to behead them and re-root the rosette. In your case something has gone wrong in the roots, or the stem, resulting in all of those air roots that have formed because water and nutrients no longer pass through the stem because of fungal infection (the black areas on the stem). It is necessary to cut the stem above the infection, or the cutting will fail. Normally I would just say to cut below on those air roots, and you're good to grow, but in this case you need to be certain to cut above the level of the rot. I cut about two-inches or less below a rosette because roots will form faster on short stems, and because that leaves more beheaded stem that can be set aside in it's pot to wait for new rosettes (branches) to form. However, in your case, what remains can simply be composted. It will not grow because it's already dead. Make your first cut just below the mass of air roots, and keep cutting towards the rosette until the cross-section is clear, free of any dark colored infected tissue. Keep cutting in small increments until there is no more infection visible in the stem. Then set the rosette down somewhere in the shade (upside down is fine) for 3-5 days to let the cut callous over. Then place the beheaded rosette on dry soil that is 75% or more inorganic materials like perlite, pumice, gravel, etc. Do not water until you are certain the plant has grown some new roots. This may take a few weeks, so be patient. Normally, the best time to behead Echeverias is in early Spring because the plant is entering a major growing phase and the beheaded stems will produce more branches compared to beheading in the the fall. But in your case, there is no time to lose. You must take action now, or lose the plant. Correct any soil drainage problems you may have with a new, free-draining, soil mix. Brad

someone here was wanting one of those 'unfitted' kitchens... an 'old world' look I think she was aiming for. I agree on the kitchens in mags vs those here. my sister often says I spend too much time on here (well being new I've been looking at all the old threads too!) and my thinking is I'm saving a ton of money by looking here and not buying mags - they don't give the input you get here either! I don't have a dh to bonce ideas off of, can't afford a KD and am very slow at making decisions - so starting months in advance to figure all this stuff out doesn't seem a waste of time to me! kitchens here are much more 'real' than those in the mags.