Climbers may not come into their own until the third or fourth year, and their repeat bloom is normally much lighter than their spring flush. Was the rose you remember in the same geographical area? There are some climbers better adapted to zone 5 winters than Blaze.

Wisteria bloom season is always something we look forward to. Wisterias are marginally hardy here so we always have our fingers crossed as bloom can range from great to poor. This year has been very poor indeed so far. The last week of May is their usual bloom time. Last year was a disappointing year for the Chinese one as we did a very hard prune in 2016 to reduce its height in order to make pruning it easier. The hard prune prompted an early explosion of foliage growth in 2017. The foliage obscured the flowers. I was hoping for better things this year but, so far, we've only seen three flower racemes - hidden in the foliage. I wasn't sure if the problem was just with the pruning we did in 2016 our wisteria 'trees' or whether it was due to the yo-yo temperatures we had for an extended period in January and February this year when temperatures fluctuated rapidly between well above freezing to well below freezing, with high wind-chills too. So this afternoon we drove by a nearby property that has a large, rampant wisteria on the fence. There are not too many wisterias visible around here so I use this one as a comparison to check the relative performance of ours. That one appears to be in the same state as ours so we assume the yo-yo temperatures in Jan.-Feb. must have killed most of the flower buds! Now I'm hoping for a decent summer re-bloom.... Nearby wisteria last May: Nearby wisteria this afternoon: Our Chinese wisteria May 25 2017 - after pruning off some of the foliage! Our Chinese wisteria this afternoon: Has anyone else had this kind of wisteria year this year?!

I feel your pain. Disengage from the process. Let your friend do what he wants. I can imagine you see all sorts of possibilities for creating a wonderful space despite the limitations of the kitchen. Your friend is looking for expediency and simplicity and most of all doing it his way. I watched this play out between my mother and my aunt once or twice, and then my mother disengaged and just nodded along with whatever my aunt said and everybody was happy- my aunt never managed to make a project look the way she had hoped, but she was not willing to spend the time, money and effort into getting the better result.

Call your local Best Buy Geek Squad and make appointment for a Geek to come to your home. You might consider purchasing the yearly Tech Support Plan. It is worth EVERY PENNY when that Geek shows up to install/set up/repair any gosh darn item you can think of. TV, streaming channels, sound system, computers, laptops, printers, ring door camera, wifi booster, appliances, anything you can think of. Some situations are not worth the heartache.