This one was taken in Wheeler, Oregon a few years ago. People were pulling over to take this picture. One kid took a picture of it reflected on the side of his freshly washed car. I should have done that too, but I had been on the road for a few days and my car needed washing. I thought it was a good idea though. Mike

mehearty, I can't say one way or the other about the JBs, as so far I have only noticed a handful in my yard the last 2 years. Hope it stays that way! GGG, I will have to check over there and see what they say. I would not want to be the one to "lead you astray"! Annette, they have some thorns, but not nearly as bad as some of my other roses. Yesteray and last night was really telling. We had rain all day, a nice soaking rain. But then about 5 PM the sky got so dark the solar garden lights came on and so did out dusk to dawn light. Then the rain and wind came. The rain was literally in sheets. There were tree leaves all over the lawn from the wind. It lasted about 10-15 minutes at the most and we got over a 1/4 inch of rain in that time. Tonight when I went out and looked at SS she was looking almost the same as last night when I took the picture. More buds had opened today and some spent bloom petals were on the ground but the bush had pretty much held it's shape. Many of my other bushes were really drooping tonight.

And, fwiw, this is a good pic to discuss editing on. The image above was edited some, and needs way more than I could get to approach the real sunset. While a photographer can take a mundane "scene" and jazz it up with editing, the editing to the one above is really about compensating for not capturing the real scene. Mostly as a matter of contrast, I suppose, I didn't get the real image of the great brilliant "silver lining of the thunderhead and the halloween orange of the lower strata. Also add in the dark purple of the passing storm. I can discuss this freely because I didn't have time to even try to take great photo. Getting all those things, in my experience, is hard enough even if you have the time to try. So, editing, when it imparts something that isn't there, can be a little , what,inaccurate? often editing helps but still doesn't make up for the difference in the image and the scene. Photographic skill, ha, and equipment. Personally, I have no reservations in trying to edit to make up for any lack of skill or luck in getting across what I was seeing/taking. I can understand if some purists see that differently. And, here is another one from last night where the bright part (thunderhead) contrast gets blown out, but the darker parts of the pic down lower have better detail. In the big picture, pardon the pun, its hard to get pure white and halloween orange in the same picture. The eye can see it, but getting the camera to capture that great of contrast, for me at least, is hard.

The burned leaf tips and margins arte usually attributable to a drought response, triggered by over-watering, a high level of salts in the soil, and sometimes but not often - under-watering. The 2/3:1/3 you mentioned doesn't hold as much water as it would if you'd left the perlite out, but the ht of the perched water is the same with or w/o the perlite. This means there is a soggy layer of soil (100% saturated) at the bottom of the pot after you water. If you're watering when only the top inch or so is saturated, you're watering while the bottom of the pot is still saturated. This kills roots and causes lots of physiological problems related to drought stress and impaired metabolism- so the first thing I'd concentrate on is root health. Put directly, you simply can't have a healthy plant unless it's on a healthy root system. Wilting is an indication of drought stress, and not a particularly desirable condition for the plant. Still, it can be employed as a useful gauge re how long the plant CAN go between waterings. The occasional slight wilt is a stress, but it's preferable to the extreme stress of a forever soggy rhizosphere. Note the day you water and the day you see wilt. Count the days & start watering a day or two before you expect the plant to wilt. A sharpened wood dowel or skewer stuck deep into the pot is an excellent way to test for how wet/dry your plants are, too. BTW - not sure where you live, but when temps allow, your plant would much rather be outdoors. Al