Pam, not sure where you got your info about brugs but I grow brugmansias here in NC zone7a/7b and they survive quite nicely. They die to the ground but come back every year. There are others in my area who also grow them and get them to return faithfully. The first year I was unsure if they would survive so covered the cut back stumps with a 5 gallon bucket inverted and filled with leaves to serve as protection. Since then I learned that others in the area did nothing for protection and that theirs returned faithfully so that is what I have been doing. This has proven to me that at least the varieties that I have grown, Charles Grimaldi and Dr. Seuss, are hardy in my zone. If this is indeed what the OP has, she should just cut the frozen stalks back to near ground level and the plant will resume its growth in the spring unless it is some super tender variety. Here is a shot of my Dr. Seuss which has been in the ground for two winters now (this will be its third) after I had cut most of the stalks back in late November and the one or two remaining stalks bloomed. Had blooms on it this year into the first part of December. Check out the listings of various brugmansias that Tony Avent sells at Plant Delights Nursery and you will see that he sells varieties that are hardy to zone 7. Not sure why they won't survive for you Pam. Perhaps it is a combination of your cold and wet that does them in.

Georgia - happy to see someone else reading "The Moonflower Vine"... It was a title I found somewhere and dug up and enjoyed. I've been reading (and reminding myself) how to write by reading "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser. A book straight out of the late 1970's, Zinsser was/is? a prof at Yale and has a journalist's background. It's more of a primer than anything, but he has a good sense of humor and I've finally learned the plural of "genius" is "genii". And then speaking of well written, I am also reading and enjoying "Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain" by Judith Flanders which is *packed* with detail about this time. Obsessed with Victorians as I seem to be, this is a great read and I'm having fun. However, it suffers from a steady stream of typos which is a bit distracting. Speaking of distracting, I am also reading "Skippy Dies" by Paul Murray about a death in an Irish boarding school. Light hearted and the writing is fine, but whoever decided to "translate" all the English/Irish bits into "American" needs to smothered. "Mum" or "Mam" is now "Mom". "Shopping Center" is now "mall" and numerous other examples. Unless things have been decidedly American in my long absence from living in UK?... All good reads if you're not too pedantic about stuff other than the story. (The pains of being an editor.) :-)

Huey. MW is showing some strange growth shape. Hard to spot as it was sooooo slow growing, I planted a annual in mid summer as it just look so bare. So the overall shrub is small, compact and all I see are wispy/weeping long thin stems with flower blooms sitting ontop of it's framework. There is a shoot that is at least 10 inches away from the primary framework of the rose, it's got a thick cane that is taller than the rest of the main shrub. I think this new growth is quite sturdy. I know it's it's 1st year so it's not technically established...but again VB is 6 freaking feet in the same siting

I'm thrilled I got her. Still no roses from DA, but realized this morning they have been trying to call me, and my voice mail is not set up. I hope its not to say they've run out of Vanessa. I rarely answer if I don't recognize the caller because I've been getting calls from all over the world several times a day selling something. This looks like a yellow I could love enough to buy more. She won't get 6' tall here, but I'm happy she's not a little shortie. I thought for sure I had taken my Golden Celebration out last year, but there it is, as pathetic as ever. I guess I'll let it bloom, then decide his fate. So weird! In my mind's eye, I can see my husband digging her up. Marlorena has this rose. I would love to see pics of hers now. I think she got hers when it was first introduced in the UK. If memory serves, she loved it and thought it had better qualities than some of DA's other new introductions.