It's been over 6 months since our last deep freeze, so I thought it was about time to give an up-date. All of the Olive Trees showed signs of freeze damage. Many of the leaves and smaller branches turned brown and eventually died. I would estimate that about 1/3 of the outer foliage had some sort of damage. I waited until May before removing any of the burnt looking foliage whatsoever. It's now the middle of August and the trees look green and healthy. The Oleanders and Changsha Orange didn't make it. However, I am happy to report, after turning all brown and looking quite dead, the Climbing Figs made a 100% recovery. In fact, they look better than they have in years (probably due to all the new growth). Looking around the neighborhood, it appears that most gardens suffered similar damage as mine. One can still see some dead limbs and leaf burn which hasn't yet been removed. A few homes lost some marginal hardy plants/trees like Eucalyptus and Sago Palms. But overall, it's now hard to tell that we ever experienced such cold weather. I am now back in Ireland, completing the end of a two-year assignment. If our Olive Trees make it through this winter, I plan to attach photos so everyone can see.

Me again- The routine is going to be a bit different for each person- we generally try to avoid saying "one plan fits all". Age, gender, general health, food allergies and more factors play a hand in determining your program. Also important- we have registered dietitians that will help you settle in and answer questions but check with your family doctor first. We have a page you can look at that covers the (really long) video that you watched: 5 foods to never eat plus articles that you can look through without spending any money- and you can drop in on the forums too- see what our members are talking about before you take the plunge. If it looks like a fit for you, great! And remember there is a 60 day money back guarantee- most people will know in about 5-6 weeks if this is the best plan for them so you will have time to really try it out. If you have any questions- please ask- I'll answer them to the best of my ability. Remember- weight loss is not a quick fix thing- it's a "Lifestyle" thing... you need to change your life for the better to succeed. If you have the will, we can probably help you find the way. :) Regardless of your decision, I wish you the best of luck in your weight loss efforts.

Nicholas C, I think maybe can. You have a look at those water melon grown by the Japanese. They put a square shape when they were young and it comes out with square melon. I have not try this yet on desert rose. Maybe I will try it on a obesum adenium.

@mamapinkey: Abridged answer: arguably any detergent in any temperature will clean better in soft water vs hard water, all other things being equal. Long-winded version: Soft water cleans everything better at all temperatures, by virtue of being soft water. This is due to the lower mineral deposit content in soft water. So the softer the water, the closer it will be to approaching distilled water (which, by way of comparison, is the ultimate soft water, with 0 parts per million (ppm) mineral content, since distilled water is created from condensation formed by steam, so there's nothing in it but pure h2o). The mineral deposit contents of your water hijack your detergents. The detergents latch on to the minerals instead of making their way to their designated destination (the dirt in your clothes), since the minerals will always get to the detergent first as soon as the water touches it. So the higher your water mineral content, the less detergent ends up left over and available to do what it's supposed to do. High mineral content is referred to as hard water (usually 150/200ppm+, depending who you ask). Because soft water has much less interference from mineral content, everything gets cleaner faster, and better, all while using less soap/detergent, and less residue remains after rinsing. Sorry for the long-winded explanation, but figured it'd be good to just put that out there in case anyone is reading who has heard "soft" and "hard" water thrown around, but without much clarification (I absolutely did not know the difference until I started having skin issues due to laundry detergent residue allergies about a year and a half ago). So back to your question: Soft water doesn't really require a detergent as well-built as this one (in any temperature). In either hot or cold soft water, a detergent like this might end up being overkill, as the sheer volume of water softening agents it contains indicates to me that it's designed for use in much harder water. So back to soft water. In soft water, it doesn't even matter, for example, whether your detergent is missing phosphates, which is a huge gripe nowadays (effectively, phosphate is pretty much a glorified water softener...see where this is going?), and you can get your clothes cleaner, in any temperature, with nearly any detergent (all other things being equal). People pay thousands of dollars to have whole-house water softeners installed because it just cleans stuff better (dishes, too), and it's also easier on your washing machine (less mineral/detergent residue). As far as the ingredients go... I'm super excited to see TAED in a US detergent in conjunction with the sodium carbonate peroxide (aka sodium percarbonate), which is the oxygen bleach. The TAED is a cold water bleach activator that's usually just found in Euro detergents (and they've been doing the eco thing so much longer, so their stuff tends to work better, in my experience). I don't use cold water, but think the science behind it is cool, for its own sake. And even though I purchased bulk sodium percarb off of Amazon, I've never been able to get the dosage amount quite right on my own without weakening my clothes (store-bought oxygen bleaches contain too many extra foaming ingredients for me since I use hot soft water)...but I love how well it cleans... And I get excited when a detergent contains a decent amount of it (they've obviously buffered it somehow). Per my original post, the sa8 did not work for me, but I'd recommend it to people who prefer to wash their stuff in cold water, and who also have hard water. I ended up returning my box of it to my dad (braving his disappointed look, lol), since I use hot water and it's very soft @72ppm, so this stuff actually foamed up too much for me for those reasons, which made rinsing difficult (the dark side of soft water haha). And no, I'm not an Amway sales rep. Are you?