Cynthia- I only had GG for one summer. He too was eaten by voles this past winter. I bought a replacement and we'll see how it goes. It does get hot here too. We see over 100 occasionally and have days on end int he high 90's plus humidity near 100%. I've often wondered how it can be that humid and still not rain. I usually don't judge a flower performance the first year unless it's bought either bare root or own root. It seems that the nursery potted plants flower far better their first year than anything I can achieve. I wonder if they use a super duper fertilizer to help force buds. Sharon

I just watched the show and looked specifically for the tile because of this thread. It's not glass. Could be Ann Sack's because they use the brand in another space, but it's not the Connected Square above. It's a square within a square look design.

The difference in temps is negligible for hardy plants in my opinion. For lower growing woody plants if they are buried their roots are safe and they are much less likely to see damage from air temps, winter sun and dry desiccating winter winds. I've certainly had conifers have lustrous green needles half way up the plant then transition to brown on the top half with the latter being exposed above the snow line. In addition many plants will regenerate growth from the roots. Smives eluded to this earlier in the post (at least its my interpretation of why he posted it). If you have such extreme temps early or late in the winter your cutting off the plants ability to uptake moisture through the roots so early in the season or so late when its desperately looking to replenish. Hence why snow cover is our best friend. Winter winds and sun are usually more damaging than solitary extreme temps if you have a long duration of frozen soil. If we don't see any more extremes and the soil starts to thaw in March I don't expect anything but minor twig and bud damage. Although I haven't had gardening experience with these solitary extremes like this year (-23, -24 and -26).

I suppose we could all arrive with our suitcases and pretend we thought my relatives still owned it. (We may need to put some extra effort into laying on the charm.) lol