Tess is such a good rose. It was on the bush 6 days and just kept getting poofier and poofier but held together. Its been a dry heat and in the 90's this past week plus uber smoky from the wildfires and literally 'raining' ash some days. Gotta love Tess! Some others doing well in the wicked heat TIMF Litchfield Angel Jude the Obscure...I swear I couldnt get enough pics of him the other day!! He is sooo ~Dreamy~ I'm obsessed with the way the buds look half open. I could get lost in those buds for hours!

After re-reading...yes, your fabricator is at fault too if they did not give any $ to the stone yard to hold it or have it delivered sooner and hold it for you at their shop. You might want to find another fabricator as well, unless they really make amends and go out of their way. Another word of caution we learned the hard way....if there is any leftover stone you may want to use in a powder room, etc....keep it in your garage! Our fabricator sold our remnant from the kitchen we were planning to use in the powder room. They came out, measured, everything...about 2 hours before I was going to OK the template..they called that they couldnt find it..even though they had previously said they had it. Fortunately we found a remnant at another fabricator's, which was sheer luck because I don't think it is a common stone.

Purchased pot of Peperomia prostrata about 3 mos ago, and about 2 mos ago added stems of variegated zigzag (Euphorbia tithymaloides) and lucky bamboo (Dracaena braunii.) Dracaena marginata & red Ti plant (Cordyline fruticosa) trees with a big air plant wedged between their trunks, sticking straight toward the pic. It has grown a lot of new leaves over the few months I've had it. These trees need repotted so badly. You can see some compromised "indicator" tips in the upper L corner of above pic, a sure sign the roots need attention. This crazy pot has creeping Charlie/Swedish ivy blooming (bottom R corner) and ornamental purslane (Portulaca umbraticola.) Being potted on 8/12 didn't bother these plants at all. Ledebouria bulb is putting up a new bloom stalk.

For me, the key difference between Rebecca's experiences and mine with CPM are the words "snow cover". She had total snow cover and total winter survival, where I usually have no consistent snow cover and no cane survival (though it's root hardy for me). That's why my CPM never blooms. The temperatures below the snow never get below 32 degrees F so that's why the air temperature can be well below zero and the rose survives fine. We're too dry to get consistent snow cover in the winter so my CPM never has surviving cane. I agree that she's not a rose for a small space, though she grows well on a obelisk. If you get consistent snow cover and/or bring it inside for the winter with the obelisk you might get blooms. Sorry to hear about JD, Carol. My John Davis only hangs in by a toenail every winter in my zone 4 pocket but isn't quite dead after several years. I've never gotten him big enough to bloom though. Cynthia