Still early days, Derek! I would give it 2 months more in the UK before losing hope.

I was thinking more along the lines of a Viking berserker....One of my coworkers is a cowboy who gardens, and he wouldn't do that!

There are plenty of so called "professional gardeners" who know very little. It is very easy to set up as a gardener. A van,mower and a few tools and you're ready to go but it takes alot of knowledge to do it properly.

How about this! I went to work for a landscape gardener, He was expensive. He did gardens on a very expensive housing estate. his minimum garden was £50k. I only stayed with him 3 wks. I knew there was something wrong when I had to use a hammer and chisel in one border to get a dandelion out. He put 50 Lavender plants in a bog garden, and when I did his own garden, He allowed his missus free reign, and I had to dig up the plants they'd inherited, lovely roses, potentillas, hellebores, and a variety of Irises, but leave the buttercups and shasta daisies, this was all amongst the dog mess. I had to take the plants to his dump area.
4 wks later he did another garden with, you guessed it dead and dying plants that I had removed. I ended up maintaining that garden too and had to replace all the plants. He'd charged £65k for that garden then moved.

thats not just a cowboy 2ndhand that is a thief and conman . perhaps you should put his name up so no one else gets stung bye him . talking about cowboys . i went to a garden centre and not being a plantsman realy at all but knowing what i liked i spotted an ornimentle grapevine which was just what i wanted and i loved it . i looked at the label and it said grows up to 90 feet . i thaught thats perfect . i went to the head gardener and asked how much the plant was pointing at it that grew 90 feet . she looked at me in an old fashioned sarcastick way muttering 90 feet and looked at the label which said 90 feet which made her go a little red lol . she ate a huge slice of humble pie that day . the worst of it was she was head garden sales manager . i think she still is . i wonder how many plants shes sold wrongly to someone lol .

Having been a professional gardener for nearly 30 years, you're absolutely right about cowboys. Anchorman's points are correct - anyone can say they're a gardener, and they get lots of work because they're cheaper (to start with) and you only find out they're duff when they cut down something at the wrong time. Best way to avoid them is to ask them to name all the plants in your garden with the proper Latin names when they come round to look...

I want to know what plant you mean by 'Star'?

good thinking bamboo x x

It was something else when I answered, Bamboo, but I don't remember what it was, now!